Careers advice/work experience at KS2

[OldBlueLady]

FFS! Have they gone mad? Kids at this age don't need this, what they need is a decent education and grounding in basics. I wish this flippin' government would stop interfering in education - we can already barely fit the national curriculum in as it is!

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20091026/tuk-careers-advice-for-seven-year-olds-6323e80.html

 

[MK Shrimper]

Usual government meddling. With X-Factor, Big Brother etc etc, ask a kid at 7 what they want to be and they'll probably reply "famous".

 

[osymandus]

FFS! Have they gone mad? Kids at this age don't need this, what they need is a decent education and grounding in basics. I wish this flippin' government would stop interfering in education - we can already barely fit the national curriculum in as it is!

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/21/20091026/tuk-careers-advice-for-seven-year-olds-6323e80.html

This is the "oh that last scheme we had where everyone became bankers and IT/insert jobs here that current businesses require people didnt work so if we catch them earlier we can mold them into teh workforce we need" Brigade , free choice you muppets people are good at certain things , if we end up with a nation of artist so what didnt hurt 19th France or Austria did it Agggghhh

I give up with humanity i really do....

 

[Uncle Leo]

Usual government meddling. With X-Factor, Big Brother etc etc, ask a kid at 7 what they want to be and they'll probably reply "famous".

Laughed at this when I heard it this morning. Aged 7, one of my friends said he wanted to become a 'fire engine'. Not a fireman. A fire engine.

 

[MK Shrimper]

Laughed at this when I heard it this morning. Aged 7, one of my friends said he wanted to become a 'fire engine'. Not a fireman. A fire engine.

Brilliant! Shows what brilliant imaginations kids have until life comes along and stomps it down.

 

[Uncle Leo]

Brilliant! Shows what brilliant imaginations kids have until life comes along and stomps it down.

Quite. Seven year olds are stupid; let them stay that way. Today's seven year olds will probably have to work until they are 80 anyway so let them wait a little - no, a lot - longer before deciding how they want to spend 60 years of their life.

Funnily enough, this story has emerged shortly after another report suggested we go down the Nordic route and not have children starting 'official' learning until the age of seven.

 

[Southminster_Shrimper]

surprised we bother teaching them anything at all. Regardless of what they have been taught or havent, they are an expert in everybloody thing at 13 anyway. Think of the money the government could save ;)

 

[Pubey]

Personally I don't see this as the worst idea in the world. From my reading it appears to be little more than some tailored assemblies, facebook stuff, and some opportunities to experience uni and the wider world. If their aim is to motivate children to think about what they want to do then that's not a bad thing is it? Fergie is right(!) that often kids who want to be doctors/lawyers have those ambitions from a young age, and need to so that they pick the right subjects. When I got to secondary school I thought "wahey, I'm a big boy now... I can doss away Years 7,8 and 9 because they don't mean anything". I completely shot myself in the foot as I then underperformed, was setted low for GCSE's and got As and Bs instead of A*'s.

When I was at primary school we did things like go to the zoo, went on those adventure weeks, went to the Sea Life centre and other trips. Perhaps with slightly more forward thinking it might help children become a little bit more inspired about what they want to do. Perhaps 7 is a bit young, but we want to be encouraging them to develop their dreams and aspirations, and the education sector needs to take responsibility for this. They might moan that they have to 'teach the test' and have to stick to the National Curriculum, however I'm sure we all had 1 or 2 teachers who were able to do this, but also that we remember inspiring and motivating us to try to achieve our dreams... and for me that was much more important that my GCSE C grade in French.

But then what do I know, I'm not a teaching assistant!

 

[DTS]

I did work experience at thirteen/fourteen - three weeks in Barclays Bank. Personally thought it was a good time to do it as gives you a bit of focus on what you want to do.

The new scheme is way to young. Why cant we let kids be kids ffs.

 

[MK Shrimper]

I did work experience at thirteen/fourteen - three weeks in Barclays Bank. Personally thought it was a good time to do it as gives you a bit of focus on what you want to do.

The new scheme is way to young. Why cant we let kids be kids ffs.

I got shafted and ended up in a local Tesco's due to the fact I could walk there rather than the school funding my bus fare to the ones I actually chose. Three of us started, one didn't come back after the first day and I wished I'd joined him. Utterly pointless.

 

[Napster]

I worked for an IFA in Farringdon, one of my old man's friends. Great fun, and I got some cash as "wages". The bloke I worked for had Bob Holness as a client, and I got a signed photo for my Nan.

I don't see what the fuss is. My eight-year-old can make up her mind, and I think if anything can inspire her to achieve more in the short term, great.

 

[osymandus]

I worked for an IFA in Farringdon, one of my old man's friends. Great fun, and I got some cash as "wages". The bloke I worked for had Bob Holness as a client, and I got a signed photo for my Nan.

I don't see what the fuss is. My eight-year-old can make up her mind, and I think if anything can inspire her to achieve more in the short term, great.

Thats what teachers are there for , and if they didnt waste money on these silly initiatives they could have more time to help and point the kids in the right direction.
They should have kids attend school from 6 , as in Norway , give them time to be kids

 

[please delete my account]

I did some work experience at an OAP rest home when I was 15.
The first couple of days were ok - I managed to acquire a necklace, a watch, false teeth, some cash and various drugs.
I was asked to leave on the third day. There was an incident which ended in violence.

Kind Regards

 

[OldBlueLady]

When I was at primary school we did things like go to the zoo, went on those adventure weeks, went to the Sea Life centre and other trips. Perhaps with slightly more forward thinking it might help children become a little bit more inspired about what they want to do. Perhaps 7 is a bit young, but we want to be encouraging them to develop their dreams and aspirations, and the education sector needs to take responsibility for this. They might moan that they have to 'teach the test' and have to stick to the National Curriculum, however I'm sure we all had 1 or 2 teachers who were able to do this, but also that we remember inspiring and motivating us to try to achieve our dreams... and for me that was much more important that my GCSE C grade in French.

But then what do I know, I'm not a teaching assistant!

Bloody sarcastic git!

At KS2 what is important is ground work, being as we're becoming more and more embroiled in social and behavioural issues, it sometimes takes ages for some fairly basic lessons to sink in.

The school I work at still does topic based learning, so the humanities subjects are covered within that as are some of the other non core subjects. Topic work often comes into English as well, and yes, we do try and do extra curricular learning - next half term we have a mobile planetarium coming in to complete our "We have lift off!" topic - kids love this kind of thing and it proves stimulating on many levels.

We try and provide the children with opportunities to discover, and therefore to stimulate their ambition. This can and is already being achieved in schools through learning activities - it doesn't need the government to come in with directives/initiatives or other rubbish that's just designed to create more bloody paperwork for us all to fill in!

Incidentally, can you imagine the extra work in risk assessments/CRB checks etc that this would cause?

 

[BLUEBLOOD]

But then what do I know, I'm not a teaching assistant!

I thought that a pretty reasoned response Sir Pubes, but the dig at the end ^^ was a bit uncalled for i feel

 

[Pubey]

I thought that a pretty reasoned response Sir Pubes, but the dig at the end ^^ was a bit uncalled for i feel

I apologise to OBL, I think my dig was that we all see different perspectives of this issue... OBL is obviously at the coalface, and I'm looking at it from a more uni perspective. However I think it's a bit full on to say "kids don't need this", I disagree completely, and I don't see what harm it would do to children at primary school for them to start thinking about what they want to be/do when they're older.

I personally think it's good that the government is looking at the bigger picture and I think it's important that children understand that they can achieve a lot through hard work, but also need to discover what they want to do for themselves. I'm only young(ish), but I think it might be a fair argument to say that less and less uni students have a clear idea of where they want to end up, and now uni is more a means for discovery and developing skills, rather than a means into a specific career.

 

[Interpol Shrimper]

My 4 y/o doesn't start school until next summer but has already said to us she wants to be a doctor when she grows up. Her nursery have done a maor project on what jobs people do & had people like the fire department, police, health visitors come in & talk to the kids.

To say that children of 7/8 don't have any idea of what they perhaps want to aspire to isn't such a bad idea. Plus it might hopefully lessen the "I wanna win X-Factor" attitude that is breeding the "everything for nothing" generations...

 

[OldBlueLady]

My 4 y/o doesn't start school until next summer but has already said to us she wants to be a doctor when she grows up. Her nursery have done a maor project on what jobs people do & had people like the fire department, police, health visitors come in & talk to the kids.

To say that children of 7/8 don't have any idea of what they perhaps want to aspire to isn't such a bad idea. Plus it might hopefully lessen the "I wanna win X-Factor" attitude that is breeding the "everything for nothing" generations...

Rich, in the main kids in the foundation stage will "choose" something pretty traditional, and also heavily influenced by whatever visitors their setting arranges. One of my friends was a vets' nurse and amazingly after she came in, lots of them wanted to be one of those! Again, visitors should tie in with themes or topics so most will choose something which they've been exposed to during the course of their learning.

I have no problem with this at all, what I take great issue with is the government stepping in again telling us what children SHOULD be doing and "dumbing down" something which is already a well established part of KS3. I'd seriously question whether more than about 50% of our children could cope with going out on a "work experience" of any kind at such a young age.

 

[Pubey]

Rich, in the main kids in the foundation stage will "choose" something pretty traditional, and also heavily influenced by whatever visitors their setting arranges. One of my friends was a vets' nurse and amazingly after she came in, lots of them wanted to be one of those! Again, visitors should tie in with themes or topics so most will choose something which they've been exposed to during the course of their learning.

I have no problem with this at all, what I take great issue with is the government stepping in again telling us what children SHOULD be doing and "dumbing down" something which is already a well established part of KS3. I'd seriously question whether more than about 50% of our children could cope with going out on a "work experience" of any kind at such a young age.

So you spend your day telling children what they should do (both at school and on SZ!;)) but you don't like the idea of the government doing that? Sorry but in the end my point of perspective remains, sometimes they might know a little bit more than you or I.

 

[OldBlueLady]

So you spend your day telling children what they should do on SZ! ......

You said it!!!