General Chat

Hi again Daff

The first half of the academic year in Reception class was quite easy going with regular play sessions, but from about January onwards it became far more structured with the emphasis on proper lessons and learning reading writing maths etc.

Dianne xx

Daff, sorry to hear your grand daughter is not coping well. It just goes to show that there needs to be some flexibility and that one size does NOT fit all. Having said that I don't know what the answer is. I don't even know if there is an answer.

I think overall there is too much pressure with all the tests nowadays as some will worry about it, but I think it is so difficult to generalise because children are so different and parents also pile pressure on with too many after school activities.

I started school at just age 5, but could write my name, count to twenty, knew the alphabet etc.before I started school as could most children then. I did the 11 plus when I was 7, but because no-one even told me what it was, I rushed through it as I resented being made to stay in and do it when my friends were outside playing. I then wasted a few years doing the same work as the 11 year olds till I took and passed my 11 plus at the normal time, all because no-one told me that it was an exam and important. No pressure meant not important and resulted in me being held back!!

As for the grammar school I attended in the 50s and 60s, there was plenty of pressure there and the school 'honour' was very much alive. We were constantly told we were priviliged to have a place and that there were plenty of others who would be glad to have our opportunity. I still have some old homework charts that show the class numbers to be 35 then as well. As for results reflecting on the school, the school was paid an extra amount for each child that stayed on after 0 levels so they were keen for good results even then.

I think full time school before 5 is too young and that reading at home should be encouraged at that age, but not as homework. Children need time to learn to play and invent games themselves as and not be fed things to do all the time.

If I were at school nowadays the biggest stress and pressure would be trying to learn with all the shouting and disruption and bullying that goes on. I would have been quite scared by it all. Thank goodness I've done it all!!!! lol

Hiya Cat.... some youngsters are definitely ready earlier than others... my 4 year old granddaughter is not coping very well.... she started in September, but she is quite a shy girl. It isn't the work aspect... it is the *busyness* she is very clingy and is upset for the first half hour or so... I took her daddy out of nursery at the same age... he then went to school the following year just before his fifth birthday, and he was absolutely fine... that extra couple of months maturity made a huge difference to him. He was ready to learn... he learnt how to read with me before he went... but for him it was the bustle, as well.

My younger granddaughter is a bit more outgoing, so she will probably cope better.

Love

Daff xxx

HI Daff :-)

When I started school there were two intakes, one September the second January. When my son and daughter started school (son has just left, daughter now in her final year, age 15) all children started in September.

I can understand your concerns that some are too young to start in September but my friend's daughter, whose birthday is mid September, was ready to start the year before she actually did.

I think one of the reasons they all start in September is that, from my memories as a parent helper in my daughter's school, they were taught to read and write right from the beginning of the year.

Diane, was the reception class a *playclass*? Where the emphasis was on having a good time and not even realising you were learning?

Love

Daff xxx

Mine started in January 2004 at age 3 and a half in the nursery. Then as follows

Sept 2004 age 4 Reception class
Sept 2005 Year 1
Sept 2006 year 2
Sept 2007 Year 3
Sept 2008 Year 4
Sept 2009 Year 5

Dianne xx

Yes we had the eleven plus, known then as 'The Scholarship' But even then there was not really any pressure. Only 3 of us passed the year I took it but no big thing was made of it.

oops, sorry Ann.... that was what I was trying to say, lol.... am I being as clear as mud, again?

No... we didn't really feel any pressure until the 11 plus (I still sat a scholarship exam for the school Charlotte Church went to... not for the same time, of course ;¬)) but now these poor mites are feeling it from the earliest age... and their teachers are stressed out by it.... and so are the parents... kids are not effective learners when they are stressed, and in that sort of climate, so many of them pick up on the adults' stress.....

I do think that if enough parents rebelled, then things would have to change... but it isn't going to happen overnight!

Love

Daff xxx

~~~~~ to Mildred

In our school we used to have 2 intakes, one in September, the other in january. Mine both started in the January, the term before they were five.

This year, we only have the one intake in September which is two classes.

The class with the youngest children were only doing half days until half term, and have just started full days. Some of them have just turned four.
(I'm their Midday Assistant & loving it)

It is not the tests Daff, we all had those (even me back in the dark ages Lol!!!!) It is the pressure. I remember our spelling tests were fun, so were the mental arithmetic tests. But because the 'honour (ie budget) of the school was not reliant on the results, there was not the pressure to perform. I don't ever remember being made to feel a failure for not doing well at tests and later exams because it didn't reflect on the school.

Fiona, that is what I understand the new proposals to be.... that it isn't compulsory, a matter of parental choice, until the term after their fifth birthday... although when son and I started discussing this, neither of us knew the facts, lol, so we are learning.

However, what then concerns me is that the places in the best... or even the nearest... schools, will have been taken by children who started at 4, so that those parents who wish to keep their children in a less formal learning environment for those very early years, will be forced to go further and further afield.... meaning a drive or bus to school rather than a walk.

Catie... we always had tests in everything... I am 55, it didn't really do me or my friends any harm at the time, as it was all conducted inside the school... it was just a case of monitoring what we knew., there were spelling tests, comprehension tests, mental arithmetic tests, etc... and always little tests at the end of each term... and year.... but they weren't this big thing they have now, by which each school had better, or worse, budgets depending on their performance in the national scheme of things. And where a child is considered to be failing, or passing at such an early age. They are being labelled!!

We did have the 11 plus (well, Cardiff stopped it the year I was due to sit it) which decided whether you went to grammar school or Comp... that was stopped , and now they have introduced the same sort of thing much more regularly for much younger children.

Ann you are just so right! They just don't have the time to be children any more.

Muffy, bless, mwah... but you still encourage your girls to be girls, and have fun... and do all the stuff children should be doing... just having all those pets helps, lolol!!

Love

Daff xxx

I agree with you Ann. I also think that the amount of pressure children are under to 'perform' in tests , could be quite damaging. It could also put a lot of children off school in the long term.

Catie x

Catiel, I agree with your Mum re play being a child's work. I think it is sad that once in the system the poor children have test after test and no time to be children and play. And then we, the adults, complain about them growing up too fast, wearing inappropriate clothes, being mini teenagers before they are ten etc. If we don't allow them to be children we must expect them to want to be 'grown up'.

I think Granddaughter progressed from playschool to preschool (at the school she eventually went to, and then school proper, but I am unsure of the ages. M Keynes has a lower. middle and secondary school system so she has just changed school at aged 7 but fortunately she loves it.

Hello Daff and everyone.

My mum is a primary school teacher and a short while back she had an interview at a private school ( children 3 - 11 ). She was given a tour of the school and said she was really shocked to find three year olds say at desks receiving a lesson in handwriting. The poor children could hardly hold the pencils and had little thingies on them to help them grip. Apparently the teacher told mum that the parents expected results. Mum didn't get the job - probably because of some of the comments she made lol - but she said she wouldn't have worked there for all the tea in China lol. Her feeling was that PLAY is a child's work and that's what they should have been doing.

Catie x

IMHO my eldest started way too early. Her birthday is in the last days of August and she started full time school a few days after she turned 4.

Looking back ...wishing I knew then what I know now...I wish I'd held her back for a year x

As far as I know, the local authority are obliged to offer your child a school place in the term in which they have their 5th birthday. However, you are not obliged to send them to school (or to provide an alternative), until the term AFTER they celebrate their 5th birthday.

Frankly, I'm not convinced they should begin formal learning until they are at least 6.

I know, Ann.... I have strong views on giving homework to primary age children... very strong views indeed... I actually consider it abusive, and I wouldn't allow mine to complete it.... refused point blank. However... we read silly stories, made them up ourselves, played board games, painted played things like hoopla... so they were always learning, but having great fun while doing it!

I also worked in the primary school.... volunteers in those days, they didn't actually have teaching assistants, as such..... and the school I worked in agreed with me, fortunately..... so anything that the children were sent home to do, would be fun things... like collecting leaves for a collage, or something like that.... and there was no problem if they hadn't managed to do it.

Love

Daff xxxx

It is too young and they are so tired when they get home. I don't remember mine being tired when they got home from school. Even our 7 year old Granddaughter is shattered when she gets home, and then has homework, whatever happened to childhood, they are all mini adults these days with all the subsequent worries.