Effnic schools
Jun. 3rd, 2006 05:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ailbheIf we moved somewhere wiff be''er schools, I migh' not have to home-educate Linnea. Because it's very effnically mixed, and vat just doesn'' work, does i'?
(I wanted to cry, but I refrained from saying "At least she'll grow up able to speak.")
(I wanted to cry, but I refrained from saying "At least she'll grow up able to speak.")
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(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 04:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 05:48 pm (UTC)Which makes it worse. She'll grow up hearing this stuff from someone she loves.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 06:13 pm (UTC)Just... wow.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 07:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 08:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 08:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 08:21 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-04 10:41 am (UTC)true, but only from one or two; and she can be encouraged to think about what she learns from you as well as from them, and to make her own mind up which is right, by asking her what she thinks.
and other ways, of course - but this is one of the easiest & best - so long as you do actually listen to her replies, and at least sometimes continue the conversation. which i'm sure you would & will.
learning that people you love & like & are close to you aren't all perfect can be a shock - my learning that mrs lelean, my form teacher at summerside one particular year - and in most ways an extremely good teacher - could be wrong about a matter of fact, and insist upon it, was to me, when i was about 9 - but i did get over it. (helped by her being prepared to say she was wrong, when i took in printed proof of it.)
learning that someone you like or love is racist is a different level of shock, maybe ("maybe", because apparently i was very heavily hit by my discovery - when you're little, every big disappointment is always the worst possible; it isn't 'til later that some are minor, even at the time they hit you), but there's still "you might be able to help them change their minds about it", of course; and after that, "they were brought up to believe it, and they're too set in their ways to change their minds: but they're still polite and they don't actually treat your "effnic" friends worse, do they?"
- not perfect, i know, but none of these is asking 'nea to make compromises with her conscience.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 04:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 05:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 04:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 05:21 pm (UTC)Kate is not being taught to read or write, but to recognise the shapes of wards, such as her name. In reception, ie in 6 months time, she'll be taught the shape of 50 basic words, but won't be expected to be able to write the letters or spell the actual words.
I was shocked when she had some homework to do of counting spots on ladybirds & writing the numbers 1 to 6 next to the corect ladybird. The counting was very easy for her, of course, but she had no idea whatsoever as to where to start to write the number out. I had to write them a few times myself to show here where to start the number off. I need to find some worksheets for her to write over the top of numbers & letters with me as I assumed that that was how they were being taught. Not so!
I also recall my friend who has girls a few years older than mine being shocked that the primary school was only teaching lower case letters & teaching names & place names all in lower case. She had all ready taught her eldest girl to write her name & the child was then told that she was doing it wrong by putting a capital letter at the front. Totally bizarre!
I read a v interesting book about parent run schools a coupel if years ago. That is the sort of school that really interests me, must dig it out of the unpacked boxes of books ...
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 07:54 pm (UTC)... because what Christopher is learning and is described as "phonics" is nothing like what you go on to describe.
Because it's a national thing, they are tested (sorry, assessed) on whether they can read the High Frequency Words list in reception and again in Year 1, but what they're actually *taught* is the letter shapes and sounds and the combination sounds. If I remember rightly, they started with s a t p i n and worked through 42 different sounds over the 2 years of nursery and reception. During nursery he was continually bringing home A4 sheets with a single printed letter, over which he had followed the shape in lots of different colours.
Oh, and they learn capitals, too.
The scheme is called Jolly Phonics - it has little songs and appropriate actions to accompany each sound and a set of characters. I have seen workbooks and so on in ELC shops, so this may be a good place to look for worksheets.
I have read (no cites, sorry) that the Educational Establishment is deeply divided on this. The Gubbinment don't like this approach and think everyone should go for the whole-word recognition thing (exemplifed by the High Frequency Words). Unfortunately for them, the people who have taken on Jolly Phonics just Will Not Let Go... because.... well, um, it works.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 08:29 pm (UTC)I know they do phonics as the teachers mention it. I have no real idea as to what it is. I got a book out of the library to read up on it & it's lost in the house somewhere & has been for months.
My friend's son is in reception & we walk home with them most days & she shows me the bag with his homework in. It's pieces of paper with a handful of letters on & 1 short word with them all in for them to be able to recognise & say what it is.
They aren't taught to actually write the letters or the word.
I assumed that Kate would have a basic idea of how to write her numbers, by copying & was gobsmacked that she had no idea.
She's bright too & learnt to talk, her colours, shapes etc etc at a very early age as I taught it all to her just by talking & pointing tthings out, singing, asking questions etc. I'm doing the same with Holly (18 months) & she knows body parts, animals, animal sounds, names of most things around the house, can go & get things from another room etc when I ask her & has been able to for several months.
I need to research phonics & find out more & actually teach Kate myself how to write her numbers if the school isn't going to. One of her friends, who is nowhere near as bright as Kate, can write her own name & I assumed she'd learnt it at nursery, but her older sister taught her.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-04 07:13 am (UTC)Regarding the teaching of writing letters formally - many nurseries specifically avoid this, working on the concepts rather than the motor skill of translating neatly to paper. In most of Europe that writing bit is done a lot later than here even. I remember people getting very worried about how much formal reading/writing their child was doing in nursery/reception - all I can say is that by age ten there was very little difference between them. It was simply the case that they were ready for it at different stages even though formal lettering wasn't started straight away.
What did make a difference was the story telling and language development and concept of number and general curiosity about the world which was the focuse of the nursery/reception time.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-05 11:38 pm (UTC)Phonics and reading
Date: 2006-06-04 11:10 am (UTC)A really good place to start finding out about phonics, especially the Jolly Phonics scheme, is the Times Educational Supplement (TES) website discussion board:
http://www.tes.co.uk/staffroom
(Be warned - lots of off-duty teachers (and others) letting off steam and showing their human side!)
If you search for "charliemouse" you will discover many posts explaining the Jolly Phonics scheme and how it works in practice, written by a very keen and enthusiastic Early Years teacher.
One to start with:
http://www.tes.co.uk/section/staffroom/thread.aspx?story_id=1711013&path=/Early%20years/
If I ever have children this is how I will teach them.
Best wishes,
H.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-05 07:30 pm (UTC)We weren't going to get anything like that, feeling that it smacked of Smug and / or Pushy Parenting; but our friends' daughter was given duplicates of a big one for Christmas and they passed one on to us. Christopher (age just 3) took to it immediately - I had to tell him what the instructions said, but after the first few pages largely left him to it. We have a couple still from that period, and Oliver has just begun to get interested (with Christopher reading the instructions...)
The attraction wore off after a while though. Possibly once it started to feel a bit too much like School.
(He and his friend told me most indignantly, round about October, that year 1 was much harder work than reception!)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-04 09:37 am (UTC)This is how I want to bring up my child (and any future ones) too. I went to the village school and the local secondary, and looking back I think they were fairly good, if not brilliant, schools. My parents gave me a home full of interesting books and got me in the habit of using libraries, and generally treated my questions and enthusiasms with serious interest. My mother taught me to read before I went to school, but I don't actually know if this was her wanting to teach me or me wanting to know how to read books myself.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 05:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 07:04 pm (UTC)Grrr!
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-03 11:07 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-04 01:45 am (UTC)Currently Braeburn boasts children from 61 different countries
http://www.braeburn.com/docs/aboutbraeburn.htm
(and it was expensive in local terms and there were about twenty children in each class, and there were swimming lessons and music and singing and PE and games, as well as things like history and geography)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-04 08:38 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-04 08:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-04 12:51 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-04 09:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-06-05 11:29 pm (UTC)