What happened to letting kids be kids?

Another day, another new idea about how to improve education. Paul Kirby, an ex government adviser, thinks school days should be 8:30am until 6pm and for 45 weeks a year. In his opinion, this will be a real vote winner in the next election. As a teacher and a parent I hate this idea from both angles. As a teacher I know how hard that final lesson of the day is. The kids are knackered and are starting to switch off. I don’t blame them, a full day of learning is tiring. I can’t even begin to imagine how they’d…

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Teach Your Kids Some Manners Please!

If I was ever asked what I would put into Room 101 I know what would be top of my list. People with bad manners! Drives me crazy. The people who never say please or thank you, don’t acknowledge that you’ve held a door open for them and then, in return, would let it slam in your face (usually when you are weighed down with bags, and barely a spare arm). Don’t even get me started on lack of manners when someone gets behind a wheel! I can feel the anger rising already. Generally, I’m a fairly placid person, but…

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Should we teach our kids how to fail?

  After an incident with one of my students yesterday it made me think about a training day we had at school a few years ago.  We were asked: If your child had failed their music exam, what would you say to them.  There were several options, a few “nice” options, of how the exam was unfair and there must have been a mistake etc.  The option I chose was “On the day you weren’t good enough!”  Okay, it was in my pre mummy days, but I think I’d still say the same.  I wouldn’t put it quite as bluntly…

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