Interestingly, its main avocation is the abolishment of simplified rules and prejudices that govern primar school life everywhere in the UK, eg testing vs non-testing, schools starting age four vs age six, curriculum imposition vs total freedom. The review argues that a balance has to be found for each individual child. If a child wants to learn how to read at 4 it should be encouraged but not forced to. It supports a school starting age of 6 but also encourages the observation of the maturity of the individual child. Learning should be assessed but not in exams but ongoing teacher observation of progress. According to the recommendations of the report, league table should be scrapped, SATs abolished and the status of primary schools and its teachers raised as they provide the ground work for the society we live in. You can find the findings here .
All in all, it looks amazing. I only went to school with 7 (!) and really think that my parents made the right decision at the time and I truly enjoyed being able to play with my friends at the Kindergarten a year longer! Getting rid of exams is always a good idea, especially for students the age of 10, and as a teacher of course I support the idea that schools and education should be more valued- almost every teacher is going to tell you that he/she is overworked and underpaid, even the good ones. Now the question is, as with the Nuffield review, which of these ideas are actually going to be implemented and how Primary Schools, parents, teachers and especially students are going to react to it. The intentions might be great but many people are strongly opposed to change and find the idea of not being able to assess children's knowledge on paper very frightening!
As an example, on Thursday, we had a school briefing on the introduction of diplomas, which offer Year 10 students the chance to learn about a special subject are in an applied way, and offered teachers the chance to completely rewrite their assessment standards. Theoretically, they would have been able to assess students enthusiasm, commitment, skills and progress and not the knowledge that they had gathered over the time of a few weeks. However, none of the teachers were able to see this new policy as a possibility, for them it is just more paperwork which nobody was happy about. Of course I understand that after teacher for years and years, having to deal with new policies every year or so and not being able to have true freedom because of government regulations can tire you out but that does not mean that you should lose the will or broad sight to want to change things- in my book at least! These teachers and administrators are so stuck in their way of seeing eduction that they are not even willing to consider more holistic alternatives- which ironically the national curriculum is implementing more and more of!
On Wednesday and Thursday I also taught my first proper lessons, very exciting. Almost as expected, the second one went better than the first and I even got a round of applause from my students- after teaching the time in German of all things :-) I would say that both of the lessons were way too teacher focused and that I am also praising too much, but at least I know what to concentrate on in the next lessons. Now that I am actually in the classroom almost every day, I am looking forward to trying out all of my exciting ideas. However, I have also learned that you have take one step after the other and that just the fact of taking the register in the middle of the lesson rather than at the end can already confuse my students immensely!!
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