Cut School Leaving Age To 14, Says Sir Chris Woodhead

[La_Dolce_Vita]

If people don't want it at 14 then fine. But they should be able to learn as they wish and what they wish and not feel that learning is primarily needed for work.

 

And schools shouldn't stay open to 5pm. If the mother doesn't finish until 5pm then why not look at the working hours? Maybe 9am till 5pm doesn't work for people.

[RC-Drift.com]

So where's the dole for this possible sudden influx of uneducated/unskilled 14-16 year olds going to come from, beause I'm certainly not going to entertain giving one a job

[La_Dolce_Vita]

If you don't mind me asking, apart from knowledge and understanding of Maths and English (all-rounders in usefulness), what skills would they need to do the job that schools could teach?

[SJR]

Right, let the system start again.Imagine that everyone had taken full responsibility for their own lives and if they had chosen to have children then they would have to pay for them to be educated.Then...

Single mothers/unemployed/recent immigrants whose children have a poor grasp of English get priority for pre-school places at the age of four.At five they go to Primary School and if you are lucky you can drop them off at 8.30 am.School starts at 9 am.Teachers arrive, along with a plethora of classroom assistants and they have a school assembly.After an hour or so the teachers take a break.The children are entertained in the playground by yet more supervisors who will take a break while the teachers, after a gruelling three years of University and a couple of years "Teacher Training" get back on the job.Classroom assistants work hard.Lunchtime, and the Teachers and Classroom assistants deserve a break and the playground supervisors take over.A couple of hours teaching in the afternoon with a break included and the whole day is finished at 3.30.Meanwhile in the real World parents have to work until at least 5 pm.Oh and as I have an onerous teaching career can I retire at 60,work 39 weeks a year,with weekends and Bank Holidays off,make sure inset days are taken in School Time and if there is a cm of snow I will need the day off.

Imagine,just imagine if the whole School system at Primary Level had to start again from scratch.Would they really be able to get away with it? Education savings - I think that I may just have identified a few areas !!

[RC-Drift.com]

All very well having an understanding but no use to an employer asking for GCSE's that are taken at 16!

[La_Dolce_Vita]

Employers can undertake tests to determine knowledge and understanding of Maths and English if required. It did mean to ask what you would look for though and why.

[ScotsAlan]

Reading the BBC article to the end, quotes Chris Woodhead:

 

quote:

 

"The more that the science facilities or the playing fields are used by non fee-paying children, the less they are available for the parents of children who do pay the fees," he said.

 

"If the head of science teaches half a day a week at a comprehensive school, it may be good for the comprehensive school, but I don't think it is good for the children who are in the private school."

 

end quote

 

Seems to me, he thinks kids who are not doing well should be chucked out early to improve the system for the better off kids.

 

Combine this train of thought with the exorbitant higher education fees to be charged, and we can deduce (I do anyway) that the concept of social mobility will be but a dim memory in a few years time.

 

This is all so wrong.

 

Lots of kids don't start to flourish at schools until the last couple of years. But under this lunatics plan they will be out on their ear, with nothing better to look forward to than picking cabbages..... or dealing drugs.

[Terse]

The obvious down side of employing 14-year-olds is that companies would often prefer to employ them - at a much reduced cost - instead of adults.

The preferred method would be a return to 'Further Education Colleges' designed to reach practical skills those who less academically gifted from the age of 14 onwards - possibly allowing a day release scheme to receive a small reward and gain 'hands-on' experience of whatever job/career they wish to pursue.

[Cambon]

The preferred method would be a return to 'Further Education Colleges' designed to reach practical skills those who less academically gifted from the age of 14 onwards - possibly allowing a day release scheme to receive a small reward and gain 'hands-on' experience of whatever job/career they wish to pursue.

But why? They should have the traditional skills taught in schools like they used to (woodwork, metalwork, home economics, various arts rather than just painting), and most of all, teach the kids about real life. Teach them how bank accounts work. Teach them that they are not all going to win xfactor. They are not all going to be CEO of Barclays Bank. Basically, teach them that they have to learn that they will be losers more often than they are winners in the jobs stakes.

[Freya Q]

A very interesting proposal which calls to mind the reason for the various Factories Acts.

 

Employers fought tooth and nail to prevent anyone from educating the working classes and it wasnt until the 1833 Act that basic education requirements began to be enforced, albeit rather patchily by a total of 4 factory inspectors!

 

We have indeed travelled a long way since those times but nevertheless we would do well not to forget from where we came and, importantly, why we did so.

 

A link to the National Archives: http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/lesson13.htm

[manxy]

It seems strange in this day and age that children can leave school with no qualifications, having spent the majority of their lives in school.

I know little about the workings of how each pupil is graded (presumably through tests), placed into set classes, moved up or down grades etc, but when it comes to their final exams and I see some fail to achieve one satisfactory grade, then I just see it as an opportunity lost and how their time appears to have been wasted or uncertificated in school.

 

Is there stats available that shows how many were dyslexic or dyscalculia? Will family breakups, single parents, bullying, traumatic events have an affect on their behaviour or results and what do schools do to try and compensate for these?

 

Now I'm throwing a couple of ideas into the ring and would like to hear peoples opinions and viewpoints on them and know from experience, that I could have wrote less controversial ideas, but what I'm looking for is views saying, this might work if, or this won't work because, as this assists me to look at things from other peoples angles.

 

1/ If a child is known to have certain problems and unlikely to make the grade of satisfactory exam results, then should different avenues be explored? For instance, instead of trying to get the child to pass as many exams as possible, should it therefore be restricted to two, say English & Maths and instead of leaving exams till their last year, could they not try earlier until they pass?

 

2/ If the above is a none starter, how about this one; If the child is more of a practical person and again won't make the many grades that people consider satisfactory, then would it not be better to concentrate on a specific skilled area, whether it be cooking, childcare, nursing, joinery, painting, plumbing etc? (Back this up with basic Maths and English)

 

Thoughts?