Continuing Education Tips

What are the current issues in primary education?

This is for my GTP application to do teacher training.

Public Comments

1. ASBOs Bunch of little sh1ts....
2. There is a lot of emphasis on No Child Left Behind. We have to focus on each child and differentiate instruction. We need to work with different learning styles. The majority of our focus is in Reading First. There is less emphasis on math, science, or social studies, especially in the Primary grades. Also, where I live, there has been an increase in the need for Bilingual education. We have many non-English speaking children and we need to find ways to teach to them, too. There are many other issues, but these are the ones that stood out in my head. Hope it helps!!
3. The biggest issues in UK primary education at the moment, are the introduction of some new initiatives: -The SEAL project (social emotional aspects of learning) which is currently being trialled and used by many schools. (e-mail me if you want more explanation of this) -The introduction of the new Primary Framework for Mathematics and Literacy - this is a BIG issue as it will replace the current literacy and numeracy frameworks, and is structured quite differently. -Initiarives such as Excellence and Enjoyment, and Every Child Matters, theses are quite important issues at the moment, - Healthy Schools - this one is quite big at the moment too, school dinners are being revolutionised and many schools are taking further steps to gain Healthy School status. These are just a few of the main ones, each school will have it's own priorities, based on it's School Development Plan, so if you know which school you will be training in, it would be a very good idea to have at look at this document and find out the main issues for that specific school. Hope this helps!
4. I would agree with Pam about No Child Left Behind. At my school, one of the major current issues is teaching to the state mandated standards (and basically having no freedom to deviate much from them). Are we pushing kids too far too fast? I teach in an urban school district and the preparedness of students as they enter kindergarten (also full day/v. half day kindergarten) is another issue my school is dealing with. Another issue is the push of reading--and that reading comes above everything else.
5. There is not just one current issue in Primary Education; there are are many. However, the most crucial is - how to make the little minds like the teacher, the school. These features have long term effect from the point of view of truenting and crime in society. It is extremely vital therefore to take each child on its own nature and design a programme of instruction to make the child feel important{to create self-esteem}, and mentally alert and creative. It is needless to say that the programme must include activate the childs body and mind. Hope it helps. Thanks