What would you add to National Curriculum ?

It is amazing how many people don't actually know what is being taught but think they know what ought to be taught. Can you imagine going to your doctor and saying these are my symptoms and when he tells you you have measles informing him that in your opinion it's scarlet fever? This thread is the educational equivalent.
varian literacy is taught in every school. Looking at different sorts of text (story, information etc) starts in Yr1 and by Yr 6 age 10-11 children are looking at real newspaper articles, identifying fact and opinion and discussing bias.

“I would like the children to be taught good manners and to be respectful.”
Every morning I or the other senior managers would stand at the school doors to welcome the children into school. We would wish the parents “ good morning” and then each child, by name. They were taught to respond in the same way. If they did not say “good morning, “ use the teacher’s name, use eye contact, or if they ran down the corridor without responding, they had to come back and were, gently but firmly, reminded how to behave. The parents? Most were polite, but some were on their phones, ignored us, or, sometimes, leaned in with a complaint. It was surprising how pleasant and polite some children were in school, and how badly behaved when we saw them after school or out with their parents.

Nothing, I think the curriculum is already overloaded and needs to be reduced.

Goodness, the things teachers are supposed to be undertaking now. They ought to stay at school for 18 hours a day, perhaps we should allow them 6 hours to go home and sleep.

Whatever happened to parental responsibility, learning from the parents?
Of course manners are taught in school but not always backed up by the parents.

Of course, they could teach all these things but there may not be any time for the essentials.
The DGC's schools do seem to do a good job of teaching the curriculum as well as managing to do many of the things mentioned such as gardening, swimming, presentation skills etc.
However, I think there is a lot of parental backup and a good PTA too.

As an ex teacher and now a tutor, I second what Lizbethann55 has said completely. Communication by word of mouth is a must versus discussions. Role play - sitting in a coffee shop having a drink or something with one or two people, without your phones. More improvised drama. More question time for the students to teachers. I could go on. Karen

I think that the national curriculum must have changed in the last twenty years to allow for the huge change in the way we all communicate - on line and with mobile phones.

Our grandchildren are living in quite a different world from the world of our children's schooldays, let alone ours, and I hope that schools have been given the resources to keep pace.

Teach children 'how to think' and 'not what to think'.

Lizbethann55, yes, absolutely agree with everything you said. Like others, I'd add how to manage your finances and how to converse. I'd also add how to be polite and how to behave and dress for an interview.

Creative writing.

Less school holidays, the children never seem to be in school these days. How to budget/handle money, UK history as in learning about how our country works, no matter which country you live in. How politics work and how it affects your everyday life, also cookery and other life skills.

Having read through this thread, half the subjects suggested are already being taught. I have 2 GC, on en primary and one in secondary school.

They have variously done cooking nutrition, sewing. courtesy and concern for other people.

Like others, I think soft skills are the respnsibility of parents; table manners, basic housekeeping, what next schools will be expected to handle potty training.

Although secondary school days seem shorter these days because of the limited breaks, most schools have numerous extra-curricular activities running both before and after school as well as in lunch breaks. DGD belongs to the school choir, drama group, is learning German and doing several other things I cannot remember and seems to be in school either by 7.30am or staying until 5.00pm every day of the week.

* evie* and * anxiousgran* how to be polite:, yes, this is taught and exemplified as I noted above, how to handle money also, and creative writing: all taught in school. Here’s a link to the National Curriculum for England: www.gov.uk/government/collections/national-curriculum
Scotland, Wales and N Ireland all have their own versions.

Fiachna50. School hols are exactly the same as they were 50 years ago when I was at school. 6 weeks in summer. 2 weeks at Easter and Christmas and half terms in Feb, May and Oct.

I was just thinking that when I was teaching the holidays seemed really short. Now I'm not they seem really long.

My grandson’s school (11-18) runs courses for pupils on resilience. An excellent idea.

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Regarding food technology, my late son Zachary adored that subject and was a very keen cook, at the age of 12 singlehandedly producing Christmas dinner (very tasty too) for six people using two kitchens! From him I learned that you use eggs to make a cake not because they make it taste good, but because they cause a chemical reaction among the ingredients that results in a cake! Heaven is lucky to have him xx

Jillybird I did qualify my views by saying that more resources should be made available for parenting classes. That would be an attempt to break the cycle of poor parenting.

However, perhaps it could be better tackled in school at an earlier age, but then, not all pupils need such classes. How would you discriminate and how to teach everything else on the curriculum in the time available?

Parenting classes seem very patronising to me. Some schools do actually run evening groups for parents on various issues, such as behaviour in the teenage years and mental issues, etc.

I really hate the idea that poor children should somehow be singled out for special classes. My son received free school meals at one stage in secondary school. However, he did 12 academic GCSEs (no practical or arty subjects at all) and achieved A/A*s in all of them.

We do poor pupils a bigger favour be enabling them to go to the best unis and to achieve the academic subjects which are needed for professions, rather than forcing them to do so-called vocational subjects at an early age and consigning them to the pathway we consider best.

I would prefer all pupils to have a common curriculum of academic subjects until 16 and then let them choose more practical subjects. They have to stay in education until 18, so they should then have the opportunity for quality vocational training and access to more vocational higher education courses.

School holidays are actually three days longer for pupils and two days shorter for teachers at state schools.

By law, schools have to provide education for 190 days a year with five non pupil days. They used to be open for 193 days a year (one of which was usually a Christmas shopping day).

Between 16-17 children can be involved in the National Citizen Service. They learn many of the things posted on here, budgeting, independence, cooperation. It involves a short residential course where they live independently and learn basic living skills. My DGS did it.

There are some parenting classes and Surestart run or ran them too. I don't see why they are patronising if they are offered in the right way.

I don't understand the rest of your post growstuff

Who said only poor children should be steered towards vocational subjects and children of wealthy parents singled out for high flying academic careers?

No-one.

However, concentrating on life skill subjects suggested in many posts leaves far less time for the core academic subjects, that is why helping parents to help their children is a good idea.

It is more of a struggle for a pupil to achieve if the parents are not interested in any aspect of their lives.

By the way, if you are seeing a lot of children around towards the beginning or ends of terms, they're most likely from private schools who tend to have longer holidays than state schools.

When my children were going through schools I was active in the PTAs and was a governor. It was quite striking how most parents of little children did seem interested in what was going on at school, but the interest waned as the children got older so that by the time they got to secondary school there were many parents who seemed to have no interest at all in their child's school.

Admittedly this was a long time ago but has that changed?

Callistemon That is exactly what is being implied - and it already happens. Poorer children are assumed to be lower achievers and are directed towards so-called vocational courses.

I'm afraid I disagree with you about parenting courses. I find the whole idea extremely patronising.