Can KS1 and KS2 Kids just solely focus on English & Maths?
Posted by Own-Income487@reddit | AskUK | View on Reddit | 26 comments
From my research, at KS1 and KS2 kids take tests in only English & Maths.
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Given the above, could the kids focus solely on English & Maths?
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Theoretically, could a child ignore/do poorly in other subjects (e.g. Geography, RE, PE, History, Science etc) due to lack of effort and this wouldn't adversely affect them? E.g. Placed in lower sets, denied entry to academically gifted schools etc?
ptrichardson@reddit
As a parent of a child going through Y6 SATS right now, its quite sad just how much focus has been put on "The 3 R's" for this entire year.
Feels like they've lost an entire year of learning, and in all seriousness, 66-75% of the entire Year 6 has been devoted to these exams in just English and Maths.
I'm academically-minded, so I'm not against English and Maths, and not against tests. What I am very much against is spending an entire year with just one primary focus and that being only in 2 areas. The world is so much bigger than that - where is the science, the languages, music, art, there's a whole world out there to learn about and primary school is the very best time to be introduced to them.
Its really sad that so much pressure is put on this.
I seem to remember ranting hearing about "they should just do the 3 R's" 20-odd years ago from boomers with no link to the reality of the day, nevermind the reality of *today*.
Why do these dinosaurs always get their way?
urlackofaithdisturbs@reddit
Are you really trying to min/max your 5 year old?
djnw@reddit
OP’s dump stats are INT and WIS.
FilmFanatic1066@reddit
As someone with a d20 tattoo I lol’d hard at this
Melon_exe@reddit
Unless your child wants to go into medicine or be a doctor GCSEs simply do not matter that much.
I’ve never been asked for them and to be honest I don’t even know where my certificates are.
If you want your kid to get the most out of their younger years you’d best serve them by exposing them to new and interesting things which could spark an interest that will lead to a fulfilling career. If they have good work ethic you will never need to force them to study after that.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t encourage them to try their best, but GCSEs and tests for some kids are just a waste of time. It’s all a silly dance of remembering as much as you can, not a real assessment of intelligence or aptitude.
I barely passed all my exams and failed computer science, but now I work in a respected IT/ Systems engineer field and absolutely love my job. I’d never have got here if my parents didn’t let me engage in my interests and sack off a bit of revision every now and then.
Just my take though having been underestimated and treated like a moron by the school system for the entire duration of my education.
zone6isgreener@reddit
I'd suggest that is naïve. We are in an era of rising credentialism and GCSEs are in often an entry qualification for lots of pathways, and the openings for those without are reducing. Sure, some people have a good life without them, but qualifications tilt the odds more into your favour.
Melon_exe@reddit
I have never been asked for my GCSEs since college. And even they didn’t want to see the certificates. You can disagree with my opinion but I know many successful people who completely failed their exams. Yes that’s not ideal if you want to go to uni but then again uni isn’t for everyone.
I got hired based on the projects i’d done in my spare time not my degree unfortunately. University isn’t what it used to be, it’s way too easy and not relevant enough in my opinion. Some courses are still extremely difficult and valuable but overall I think uni is too easy these days.
Also i’m Gen Z, so I wouldn’t say my experience is outdated yet.
zone6isgreener@reddit
You are a sample of one.
Melon_exe@reddit
2 actually if you read my comments.
Wondering_Electron@reddit
It is a very bad idea to start specialising your kid at primary school. Teach them harder maths for example but this is in addition to what they are doing.
"Academically gifted" schools as you put it are overrated now.
People only send their kids to these schools because they are either academically too weak themselves to support their kids or don't have time or can't be bothered to invest the time.
Also, with contextualised admissions into universities, coming from a high perform school can be seen as a significant disadvantage.
azkeel-smart@reddit
Laszlo Polgar would disagree with you.
greylord123@reddit
Surely these tests at that age aren't to judge your kids performance but rather see what level they are at. Do they need additional support? Is the school doing its job?
It's absolutely mental to say "this 5 year old has performed better at doing his 3 times table and reading the gruffalo than the other kids so he's gonna be the most successful"
The priority should be for the children to be having fun and enjoying themselves.
spaceshipcommander@reddit
What you would do is seriously stunt their development and probably have the opposite effect to the desired one. I suspect that what would happen is they would get top marks at those stages and then massively drop off at secondary school because they had developed no critical thinking skills, never had to use language other than in its purest form, never used maths other than in its purest form etc.
This is assuming every child has the same capacity for learning in every subject. Some don't. Some will never get perfect marks in mathematics with unlimited teaching. In that case you would have stunted their growth at 10 years old for absolutely no reason.
There's a reason we specialise at university level and not as kids.
NGMB2@reddit
found Rishi’s burner account
stoopyface@reddit
Not too many people seem to be answering your question so here goes: English and Maths are the main focus in primary schools and primary-aged tests, yes. However, this is not the case at GCSE level or A-level, which are at the end of secondary school.
GCSEs and A-levels are done on a wide variety of subjects and the grades for these have a much larger impact on your university and job prospects, whereas the tests done at the end of primary school are never looked at by employers or universities in this country.
So if you completely ignore other subjects, you run the risk of them doing badly at GCSE and A-level, which will have a bigger impact on their lives. If your children are primary-aged and you're looking for where to help them, then yes, maths and English is what you should focus on. But be aware that these are not the only subjects of importance.
thecuriousiguana@reddit
They would be seriously behind as soon as they then have to take a wider range of subjects at KS3. They're not retaught, they would be missing key skills.
How would you then expect them do well at GCSE?
bowak@reddit
I think you have a glorious future ahead of you as the Chief of Ofsted.
LongHairDontCare1994@reddit
I'm gonna assume that OP has no real intention of implementing this kind of thinking onto any of their children, because doing that would be cruel and unfair. That being said, I'll still answer this hypothetically.
A child being restricted to just English and Maths on the basis that these are the only subjects being assessed at that stage would harm their long term academic progress in such a profound way. During the transition to KS3, their performance in the examined parts of KS2 will be used to determine their sets as they enter. Now, and child with high English and Maths scores would be assumed to be doing well in other subjects, so they'll be placed in higher sets initially, but if they've not placed any effort into these subjects during KS2, they'll naturally be behind the others and may end up struggling. Of course, this is a guarantee, but it's not a risk anyone should consider taking on behalf of a child.
A child being restricted in this way also implants a negative mindset into them that education is purely about results, which it absolutely isn't. There's so many children who get pushed hard by parents for results in key areas, only to then reject the wants of their parents as soon as they are able to. I've worked with children for a long time, and it's always the same story.
Lastly, there's great benefit in a child placing effort into all subjects. KS1 and KS2 curriculum is designed to enhance every part of a child's learning. Science gives them an understanding of the importance of testing and validation, RE introduces criticality and debate and creative subjects support them becoming their own person. Teaching a child that these aren't important deprives them of the essential skills for learning that they will need in later life.
So in short, taking a cruel and statistical approach to a child's education is not only immediately harmful, but it'll harm them for the rest of their lives.
Martipar@reddit
They could but they'd be one dimensional, uninteresting and lacking general basic knowledge, they may even be so lacking in critical thinking they make posts on the internet about not learning about anything but English and Maths,
Lammtarra95@reddit
No. Even if you could get the school to go along with this (say, by home-schooling) getting the smart child to act dumb in most lessons would be impossible as they'd get bored.
But something a bit like it can happen the other way, in that a less good pupil might concentrate on maths and English. You even hear of adults who left school with nothing returning to education for maths and English GCSEs (probably because some jobs demand them).
Milam1996@reddit
Why are you wanting to min/max’ing kids? The non core subjects provide a wealth of wider education that benefits them in the core subjects. The wider subjects provide applied knowledge of the core subjects. I run a book club for kids where I help them with reading and please… parents… read to your kids. I have MULTIPLE ten your olds in the group who are still spelling out simple 5 letter words. Now it’s summer we are moving out to do reading in parks and the next books is funnily enough about rocks/the earth and we are going out in nature to find the rocks from the books. Maths and English are very important but so are the wider subjects.
Wild-Individual6876@reddit
Why would you do that? Education is far more than maths and English.
AncientImprovement56@reddit
SATS aren't really about assessing the child; they're about assessing the school.
If the school weren't told they had to cover other subjects (both by the national curriculum and by interested parents), they might well be tempted to spend extra time on maths and English and ignore other subjects.
Most schools will do their own assessments for setting (which may well only be for one or two subjects anyway in year 7), and academically selective schools will also do their own tests - probably focused on maths and English, so a child wouldn't be adversely affected in that way if they ignored other subjects.
However, they would rapidly have problems at secondary school if they hadn't learned any of the primary school content for science etc!
pswinders@reddit
Denying children a wider curriculum should be considered child abuse in my opinion. KS1 &2 SATs are meaningless and there solely to judge the school. Many secondary schools use tests other than SATs to set children, and will move based on performance anyway
Lenniel@reddit
No the school would fail Ofsted for not providing a rounded education.
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