Hi,


Just wondering if anyone knows anything about this programme http://www.simply-education.co.uk/

had info sent home from school the other day with my 6 year old daughter and have to return form tomorrow indicating if I'm interested in further info....


Initially I thought I'd say I was - after all I could always change my mind later but having looked at the website I'm now not so sure...

My points/concerns being as follows:

1) I want my children to be allowed time to be children and not fill up every waking moment with study.
2) However, if my children were to struggle at all as they get older I would like to be able to help them.
3) They give no indication of the cost involved and I don't want to start something without bearing the costs in mind.
4) It's meant to be something that needs very little input from parents and has a DVD to teach the points. What's happened to the human touch?? I might not know exactly how everything is taught as my children progress through school but I would like to find out and then help in a way that supports this.
5) As a teacher I can probably help with most things at this early stage but maybe not so easily in some subjects much further down the line.


To be honest, I'm not overly inclined to go down this route at present but don't wish to just dissmiss something out of hand where my children's education is concerned and then regret it later.

Any experiences anyone?

No experience with this but I agree with you on not having children swotting all the time.
I don't agree with homework at primary school, well not beyond spelling to be prepared anyway. The time between school and bed is relatively short if you believe in early bed times and playing IS an important part of children's 'work' anyway.
I really don't like to see after school lessons and am not convinced that they are often either good or necessary. If a child is doing ok at school then where is the need and if they are struggling how is piling on more work going to ease things?

Hi

Something very similar to this (if not the same) was sent home from school with my children. It was written in such a way that made you think that all children might benefit from it. However, from a friends experience who followed it up, it is more geared towards children who are struggling - her son has since been given a possible diagnosis of dyslexia (that's a whole different topic). She didn't go ahead with it as it appeared very expensive. I also think it's slightly crazy that those who struggle at school are prescribed extra work on top of the school day, her son certainly would not have coped!

I would ignore it, unless you think it would be of specific benefit to your child. I enquired from the point of view of a parent with a gifted child and was told it wasn't appropriate (?!? - actually, he would have coped quite well and enjoyed some extra challenge, we still fight for it!)

I'd wondered if it might be useful that way as she could do with a bit more challenge in her reading - she's doing so well that some o the books have focus questions in the back to ask which appear to be above National Curriculum requirements for Y2. Obviously not!

I don't think there is any need to pay out for extra materials for Maths and English for a 6 year old (or indeed a much older child). With a bit of imagination and time spent in meaningful interaction with your child, there is plenty you can do as part of everyday life and play to help support these subjects. I think companies like this are cashing in on parents' paranoia and competitiveness. Ignore!

My personal favourite is cooking - plenty of scope for reading (recipes, packets) and maths (weighing, timing, oven temperatures etc). Who needs Kumon and all the rest?

Hallo

I am a natural cynic when it comes to things like this.

The school my daugher, seven, goes to gives out homework and we work on it as a family as we consider at this stage it is all about fun and learning how to learn. Added to this is it allows us to understand what she is doing at school and can pick up on any issues at this early stage.

I have to say that from what I've seen of the education of my daughter it is much better thought out and far more fun than it ever was when I did it. Do you recall having to count from 1 to 100 as a whole class and chanting your times table? I do, and never understood the relationship between numbers - I've seen my daughter make links between different tables and work them out for herself, often with hoots of laugher and excitement when she realises what she has done.

Thanks all for the comments. I'm in agreement with you all. Now how many times does that happen on the fora???

Form went back with a tick firmly placed in the "No Thankyou" box.

As a teacher I have had mixed views on homework and can certainly say that now I'm a parent I would do things considerably differently than I did when I wasn't. Not that what I did was particularly bad but being a parent has informed my teaching for the bettter I think. As a parent I try to support school but if the homework was too much we simply wouldn't do it and school would be politely informed why.

This attitude applies to homework at primary level only though. Later on it's more of an integral part of their education.

at the school sending home info on a commercial tutoring programme. It\s tantamount to admitting they can't do their job properly.

At the risk of opening a can of worms here, is this a state or independent school?

It's our local primary and it IS a good school. Apparently many schools in the county have already sent out this info. It came with a covering letter stating that while the school wasn't advocating or actively endorsing the service after careful consideration they had decided that it may be of interest to some parents and of benefit to some pupils therefore they were simply distributing the info at the request of the student support centre and allowing parents to make their own decision about whether or not to follow up. We were asked to return the slip regardless of whether we wanted further info or not to indicate we had seen it (and I hazzard a guess to show the student support group how many parents had declined.) Please note I have no criticism of the school at all.