Hooray for schools in NZ

[vondermot]

I have just been reading an old thread about the way school is conducted in NZ compared to the UK and found it really refreshing that the kids are put first. I feel that in this country SATS have taken over. This is especially so at my kids primary school. They are always No. 1 or 2 in the table and over the last 2/3 years there is more and more emphasis on this and as far as I am concerned less on the children. Mikey who is 4 (August baby so here he is one of the youngest in his class, one lad he plays with was 5 a week after starting reception class, think this makes a big difference also) gets double the homework Shauna gets, she's 9. Its got to the stage where we are both finding it a chore instead of enjoying it as he use to.

At parents evening when his teacher commented that Mikey needed more work on his pencil skills I said I agreed but I had read articles and watched programmes that proved boys motor skills developed later than girls around the age of 6 "oh yes she said" but we still get mountains of the stuff. My nephew is in the same class and was coming out with comments like "I must be stupid if I get all this homework", needless to say my sister went into school and the teacher said that whilst they set the homework it isn't compulsory - so what is the point - so I have started letting Mikey choose, to some extent which piece of homework to do and this seems to have helped, put a note to this effect in his homework book but have not received any feedback todate. We all want our children to do well but I feel that this much pressure too soon is going to cause more problems in the future.

Anyway had my sound off.

Tracey

[MotherBear]

I have to say I'm impressed with the number of parents who are saying how much happier their children are in their new NZ schools and how well and how quickly they've settled. I can't bring to mind anyone who's said their child/ren hate school there or are unhappy. I guess, by the law of averages, there must be some, but I haven't heard of them. The schools must be doing something right. Long may it continue.

[Dawn]

Mikey needs more work on his pencil skills? And he's 4? I know where I'd be pushing my pencil! This really, really, really winds me up. Schools are crap! Poppy is 5 and has been reading since she was 3. She is reading Harry Potter at home with us. She happily reads Beatrix Potter and the like on her own without help. At school they have a system, a format, a procedure so she is still reading books with one line per page. She only changes these books once a week and isn't encouraged to change them more often! She brings them home, reads them at a glance so that we can tick the box to say she has and then we put them back in her rreading folder and don't bother looking at them again. Sometimes, the teachers are too busy to bother changing her books at all so she has them a fortnight! When she first started school she was so keen and excited. It's taken them 6 months to turn her off completely because now she doesn't want to go anymore. She says it's boring and pointless, they don't tell her things she doesn't know and they won't let her sing - these are her words.
And as for homework, she brings home stacks of it - we put it in the bin. A few weeks ago she brought home a laminated certificate for .........'Remembering to bring her reading book back'....I put it in the bin because she showed it me and said, 'I don't know why I got it coz I only took a book back I was supposed to.'
Charlie has just sat his SATS for the last time and there was so much pressure on him. He kept coming home with past papers and reams of work that again I put in the bin. Past papers - what is going on? He's 11, he's not revising for his masters!
I don't bother going to parents evenings or anything else because whenever I have I've wished I hadn't. My kids are bright but the system is failing them like it's failing thousands of others. It's about time someone with some clout started showing they have balls and getting stuff changed instead of sitting in a sinking ship!

My sound off finished too. For now!!!!

[vondermot]

Couldn't agree more, Shauna is very bright doesnt have to work too hard, which is just as well because she doesn't, and fortunately in year 4 she has had a teacher who is only 26 and therefore more in tune with the very young generation, she will put a CD on when they are doing art, knows what music/fashion to talk to them about, making this year her favourite since being their. She's dreading year 5 because "the teacher is always shouting". I don't bother going in about Mikey anymore just feel like I'm banging my head on a brick wall, so I'm just going at his pace. He may not have good pencils skills but he's a very lateral thinker and is good at solving puzzles, enjoys building and has real comic timing, sure he will be on the stage some day.

Tracey