That time of the year when you get to see a glimpse of what your child is doing at school for the 30 hours a week that he is there. Having found that my two eldest children learn very differently removed doubts that as parents we were doing something fundamentally wrong to hinder the progress of our eldest child, as his younger brother has taken to the word of writing and phonics very differently. The school are very supportive and help both my sons in very different ways to develop in learning however I can not see past the huge emphasis on Literacy and Numeracy.
I totally appreciate that these form the basis of lifelong learning and are essential life skills, but when you have a child who for them these are the areas of HUGE STRUGGLE they continually get fed the message of improving but still not good enough this cannot be the healthiest message for their self confidence and worth !!
I asked my eldest who had accompanied his dad to the ‘consultation’ what the teacher had to say about your progress in sport, music, history, geography, art….I could go on!!! But no, these areas are not even given a mention. When your child really excels in these areas of life then the bigger life skills of confidence and self esteem can shine through if they are given positive reinforcement of the good bits!! Then, hey maybe they will be less reluctant to write and read as they won’t be embarrassed if there are spelling mistakes, they don’t understand something etc.
I feel against the tide in encouraging my son that his compassion for others, imagination, endless energy and motivation and commitment to sport are invaluable qualities.
This also frustrates me in the light of the amount of research and emphasis on the development of the ‘whole child’ and ‘child centred’ learning in Early Years Education and the celebration of differences and uniqueness that is evident in our children’s learning journey’s to then swiftly undo the positives and fluidity of this to adopt a far narrow minded curriculum and emphasis.
justwanttobeayummymummy 