Education Views

Spelling Help

2008-02-13T10:29:00.001Z

I have been introduced to a new method of helping children spell complicated words. You draw a line around the word so the tall and short letters are highlighted to them so that they can remember the pattern of the word and consequently help to remember the spelling.

Half Term

2008-02-09T12:08:00.000Z

It is half term for us, and I have decided that my daughter needs a rest. On Friday she told me she hated reading to me because I always correct her mistakes, it seems that some time off from school is just what she needs.
My younger daughter is flagging too, after her first half term of Nursery she is really tired, so tired in fact that she slept on Thursday afternoon and couldn't go in. I think there is a lot of pressure for kids to perform well at school and I certainly add to that at home, so I am trying to back off a bit, but its very hard for me not to push them all the time.

School Closures

2008-02-02T11:02:00.000Z

Well it seems like the school closures in Shropshire aren't going to go ahead, but the mergers will. I wonder if they never intended to close any schools but want to merge them all and are using the threat of closure to make merging seem like a better alternative.

Educational Web Sites

2008-01-31T13:55:00.001Z

Can anyone recommend any educational website that I can let my children use unsupervised?

My 3 year old like Cbeebies and my 6 year old spends her time on Bratz site and Rainbow Magic, but I am sure there are some better sites out there for them.

Music

2008-01-30T11:54:00.001Z

I like my daughters to experience a variety of music. One day they are doing balled to Tchaikovsky and the next day they are dancing to What a Wonderful World and Under the Sea which are songs they hear in films they like.

I think it is important to let them hear lots of different types of music before they get influenced by their peers.

Phonics

2008-01-29T20:59:00.000Z

I have been trying to teach phonic sounds to my 3 year old today. She only knows two of the letters and I have been doing it with her for months. I think it is such a hard concept to teach to a young child, when she has no idea what the sounds are for, but I want her to be ahead when she starts school. If anyone has any fun ways to teach them I would love the hear about it.

I noticed today that her drawing has advanced. In addition to the circle with hair, eyes, arms and legs she now add eyeballs and shoes. Still no body though!! She is growing up so fast now she is at nursery. And she is much more confident too. Free nursery is definitely a good idea, it is teaching her a bit about how school works and allowing her the freedom to gain skills and confidence in a non-competitive environment.

Bedtime Story

2008-01-27T20:08:00.000Z

I have just had a lovely time putting my girls to bed. I always enjoy the one to one time I have with them when I sit them on my lap for their bedtime story. Tonight I read a Charlie and Lola book to my 3 year old which she loved, and The Enchanted Wood to my 6 year old. It is lovely to share a great story with them, and I will be sad when they say they are old enough to read on their own.

School Closures/mergers

2008-01-26T20:39:00.000Z

In my local area there are plans to merge a lot of the smaller schools and shut some of them altogether. Apparently this is a good idea as it will mean the children will have a much more equal amount of money allocated to them and enable the schools to have more resources. However the local people aren't at all happy about it. I think a village school does help the community but whether it gives a better education to the children is a totally different issue.

Homework

2008-01-23T18:38:00.000Z

My daughter seems to view her school homework as something she should get through as fast as possible in order to be able to do more interesting things instead. I'm pretty sure I used to feel the same way about mine until I got much older and was studying towards exams.
If that is the general attitude of kids, I wonder if there is much value in homework at all. I can see why kids have some types of homework, such as spellings and reading, but doing questions or maths seems like a waste of time.

Schools Lottery

2008-01-22T17:21:00.001Z

Following on from what I wrote yesterday you might be interested in reading this:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/education/article3215296.ece

Which is an article about the general feelings about a schools lottery for places.

Catchment areas

2008-01-21T21:28:00.000Z

The current catchment area priority for schools is considred to be unfair for many people who can't afford to move, or just don't know enough about the local schools to be able to make the right choices for their child.

However, is there a better alternative? A lottery for schools seems fairer, but shouldn't parents be allowed a choice?

With my own children I feel that I should be allowed the choice of any school I want, but if that happens, then who will go to the failing schools. Or maybe the choice will force those schools to do something about their results. Although all the kids can't go to the same schools as they are at the moment, although employing more teachers and makign more buildings available would be the solution I would prefer, although of course with more children in the popular schools the results will change. I'm not sure there is a solution at the moment.

Special Needs

2008-01-16T19:59:00.000Z

It is interesting that schools have to have special needs coordinators for children who need extra help or ones that are gifted. Surely each child should be taught according to their own individual skills and not only looked at individually to the rest of the class if they are struggling or if they are doing extra well. It is frustrating to think that if you have the normal child that conforms to everything the government want them to be, then they will be left alone and not given any extra help.

Government bias towards new Diplomas

2008-01-15T20:29:00.000Z

The government is trying to push pupils into the new diplomas by making schools not bias towards A Levels when helping children to make their education choices. It seems that they are getting desperate for them to be accepted widely as the general view on them so far hasn't been very positive.

School Leaving Age

2008-01-14T18:07:00.001Z

It seems the government is going through with the idea of making school leaving age later. I'm not sure whether this is to make the unemployment figures look better as they won't have to count anyone under 18, or whether education is cheaper than paying income support to those who leave school and can't get a job. I know it sounds cynical but making sure children have good skills when they go into the workplace can't be the reason, in my experience government decisions are always motivated by money.

Reading and Maths

2008-01-13T20:18:00.000Z

Well I have spent the weekend trying to teach my daughter some of the easy ways to work out maths sums so that she will get quicker and find maths easier. I know that basically learning how to do mental arithmetic is just a case of lots of practice but hopefully I am making it more fun for her.

I have also been working on her not leaving out words when she reads and she has improved a lot even in the last week. Instead of missing out about 10 words on a long page of text she is now only doing it about twice so I am really pleased with her progress.

Of course if we all had an equal chance of getting our children into a decent secondary school I wouldn't have to be doing all this extra work with her. As it is the only decent school in this town is selective so she needs to pass an exam to get in and I know full well that if I left it to the school she wouldn't have a chance of making it.

Extra Maths Help

2008-01-11T11:49:00.000Z

I have been looking into extra maths help for my daughter as I struggle to teach her as I am more of English person. I have spoken to a lovely lady from Kumon (www.kumon.co.uk) who have help centers all around the country to help children with Maths and English. It sounds like a great system although unfortunately a bit expensive for me.

NEWS: School starting age

2008-01-10T12:50:00.001Z

It seems that the government have at least realised that not all children are ready for school at the age of 4 and are going to allow them to defer. Other figures show that younger children that start at Christmas rather than September never catch up, so hopefully the solution will be to let children who are very young when they are due to start in reception start in the same reception class the following year.

NEWS: TV Threat to Children's Reading

2008-01-09T10:01:00.000Z

Unsurprising latest figures show that watching lots of TV and playing computer games are part of the reason why children aren't reading so much. The full story is on the BBC Web Site here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7177045.stm

I'm not sure that launching the National Year of Reading is going to make much difference. My daughter is only in her 2nd year of school and already there isn't time for the teacher to read to the class every day, and the teachers listens to each child read less than once a week. I think schools need to be encouraged to enlist more volunteer helpers to listen to children read, and to take out groups of children and read them stories to encourage them to read more. My daughter is enchanted by books like 'Peter Pan' and 'Little House on the Prairie' but most children in her class spend most of their time talking about 'High School Musical' and 'Eastenders'. They are only 6 so what hope is there for when they get older?

Incentives for learning

2008-01-09T09:59:00.000Z

I tried to get my daughter to slow down last night with her reading. I even bribed her with smarties!! It did get her to slow down, but it seems it is a hard habit for her to break, so I will have to keep working at it slowly. I think I worry too much though, she is already way ahead in her reading, but I feel being a good reader helps with so much else in life, as you can find out whatever you want to know if you can read.

Reading Help Wanted

2008-01-08T14:05:00.000Z

My daughters teacher has refused to put her on harder books despite the ones she is having being way below her ability. The reason is because she reads fast and often misses out odd words (not hard words but the 'unimportant' ones like 'a' 'as' 'the' etc).

Her teacher has said that until she can read all the words she isn't ready to go up, and she can't give her 'proper' books to read like the ones she reads at home (peter pan, matilda etc) because she has to read school books.

The teacher thinks that if she points to each words as she reads it will stop her missing out words, however I think that its a step back to do that as she can read perfectly well without doing that. I have tried it and her finger just can't keep up with her mouth!! Any suggestions would be welcomed.

If it helps she is age 6 in year one and reads about 2 years ahead of her age.

League Tables

2007-12-02T20:34:00.000Z

So league tables are in the news again, this time on an International level which will put even more pressure on to change things in schools. Is this doing any good I ask myself. Children and teachers are already under enough pressure to work hard etc, but the results are improving. Why do you think that is? Perhaps less pressure about targets, and more fun in the classroom might result in better learners?

NEWS: Reading Levels Falling

2007-11-30T08:01:00.000Z

A new report among many countries has shown that in the last 5 years the level of reading in this country has fallen.

There are 2 things that struck me about the report. Firstly the fact that the USA is one place above us, is scary to say the least, as I have always argued that the education in this country is far superior to us.

The other, and much more major point is that in this country children have already spend one year longer than most of the other countries in the survey and they are still lagging behind. Surely the new move to start reading skills even earlier in nursery schools isn't going to change this. I think that the methods used need to be taken into account.

There was a lot of talk about the amount of time that children are spending on computer games. I think that schools should try to work with these statistics and make reading more interesting to those children. In the past books were the only entertainment for a lot of children and that is why they spent so long reading, but I know that once I got a computer when I was young I spent my summer holidays playing games and not reading. We can't take computers away from homes so we have to work on making books more interesting for children, or work with computer game companies to make reading more necessary for the games to be played.

Grammar Schools

2007-11-22T07:45:00.001Z

The latest report of grammar schools is saying that a large proportion of the pupils come from private schools and they do little to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

I wonder if they should only be open to children from state schools. This would help even up the balance. What do others think?

Healthy Eating in Schools

2007-11-20T08:16:00.000Z

There is lots of talk about children having to eat more healthy meals in schools, but do you think the issue should be talked about with parents as well? After all their food comes from the home and the parents are the ones who influence this. I agree that schools should show a good example, but dictating what kids have in their lunchboxes doesn't really help if they go home to a diet of chips, crisps and chocolate. What do you think?

Ofsted Reports and League Tables

2007-11-15T13:39:00.000Z

I keep being told that simply using Ofsted reports and league tables as a guide to the best schools isn't a good idea and that going to visit the school is the best way to find out what they are like.

I must admit I used to agree with this until my daughter started school and now I want her to do well and be at the school that will produce the best possible results for her. I don't agree much with the way schools are run, but on the other hand a school with children who are happy and enjoy working is bound to get the best results. You can't bully a child into working hard, they have to want to do it.

NEWS: Teachers call for smaller schools

2007-11-14T07:55:00.001Z

Young teachers are asking for smaller schools a new report has discovered. They like the idea of reducing the size of secondary schools to make an environment where all children are known personally and the number of children is greatly reduced even if this means several smaller schools on the site of one large school.

Click here to read the full story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7092525.stm

Personally I think that both ideas have plus and minus points. In a smaller school bad teachers are more likely to be a problem as if you only have a couple of teachers for each subject one bad teacher means 50% of the teaching is problematic. However if the children have a feeling of community they are more likely to behave well and enjoy their time at school.

Grammar Schools

2007-11-13T20:42:00.001Z

I went to a Grammar School and I think it should be every childs right to get the best possible education that they can.

I think that the ban on new schools becoming selective whether they be for ability or religion is wrong. I want my children to have the right to go to a grammar school if they are bright and a 'special school' if they have learning difficulties.

What do you think?

Home Schooling

2007-11-13T18:42:00.000Z

I have considered home schooling so many times because I am not happy with the standard of education in my daughters school, however there are two major reasons that put me off. One is separating her from her friends. I feel that I can teach her a lot at home anyway after school, weekends and in the holidays, provide the social interaction that schools allows her.

The other major factor is the money. At the moment I'm not working as my youngest is still at home, but once both of the girls are at school my intention is to get a decent job to move us out of the poor area we are living in and to get us more money so we aren't struggling all the time. However is having more money really more important than a good education?

Your views would be welcomed.

Raising School Leaving Age

2007-11-13T12:00:00.000Z

To me raising the school leaving age is just going to lead to more truancy and children causing more trouble in school. If the government want people to stay in school longer why not make the school more attractive to them so that they want to stay there, rather than forcing them to do so.

New Diplomas

2007-11-13T11:59:00.000Z

I was wondering what people felt about the new diplomas. I personally feel that unless the current sysstem of GCSE's and A Levels are scrapped then Diplomas will never be taken seriously by employers or universities. However my knowledge of them is limited and I would be interested in what other people think.

This Blog

2007-11-13T07:49:00.000Z

I have created this blog because I have very strong feelings about education. I frequently place comments on the BBC Education site and don't get them published so want somewhere where I can express my opinion without being censored and also to see how other people feel about education and what we might be able to do to change things.