The Cambridge Primary Review 'identified problems are serious and the required changes are substantial...'
Thank you thank you thank you thank you, Cambridge University.
The fact that this comes from Cambridge University gives it more clout than, you know, mere staff who work in schools, but I'm still grateful.
Here's my favourite bit:
The report finds: children’s statutory entitlement to a broad and balanced primary curriculum compromised by the national tests and strategies; particular pressures at the start (reception) and end (year 6) of primary schooling; acute anxiety about the fate of the arts and humanities and, increasingly, science in primary schools; erosion of both entitlement overall and standardsin ‘the basics’ by a policy-led belief that breadth and standards are incompatible, when the evidenceconsistently shows the opposite – that one requires the other and the best schools achieve both; a curriculum which is two-tier not just in its distribution of time but also, as a result of the relative neglect of the non-core curriculum in teacher training and inspection, in terms of quality; excessive micro-management by government and the national agencies; the dislocation of mathematics and, especially, English by the national strategies for numeracy and literacy; a muddled, reductive and damaging discourse about subjects...
*weeps in gratitude*
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5 comments:
I probably shouldn't say anything, since I gave up teaching children a couple years ago. My most serious reason was that they had made a neo-Nazi minister of education when I graduated with my certification and all. The other reasons were low salaries and my propensity for headaches caused by school noise.
I'm always sorry to hear that it's shitty for teachers elsewhere. What about the whole "children are the future" spiel? Is it just Whitney Houston and political speeches?
Cambridge University also stunned world with twin "bear shitting in wood" and "Pope prone to Catholicism" claims.
Misiula, you are my heroine. I'd like to give it up too. Neo-Nazi Minister of Education? Which country was that in? (I'm not especially fond of Jim Knight, but wouldn't call him a Neo-Nazi.)
It is definitely shitty for teachers, but it's worse for the kids in this country - they pay lipservice to the idea of the children's happiness, but some of the policies have got to make you wonder...
Del, ha! This report came out an interesting time though, as the Government's Rose report has just come out, concluding that all is well, we just need to tweak the curriculum a little bit. Again. The Cambridge report is independent, so it totally contradicts the government inquiry and it's good that it tells it like it is.
It's weird... like Del said, this is all obvious stuff, but it's only every few years when someone comes out and says it that I suddenly remember we're allowed complain about this kind of thing. You know? Because it's not something nice and straightforward where you can point at a crack and say "Yeah, that needs fixing," it's a huge enormous thing about the way people think and how we can actually influence that in a way that will make children excited and happy and interested in the world, you know, all that stuff.
It's easy to forget some people believe in real education, is I think the point I'm scrabbling at.
Nobody will take any notice - the Rose Review was put in place to spike the guns of the Cambridge Review and to give the gov an excuse not to do anything about it.
Grrr.
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