Read, write, pick up acorns
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Jill, a friend who works at a local infant school calls. She's out with Tessa (right) so decided she'd call in. How are things at school these days? 'Well, they're not the same as they were when I started there. Today every minute of the day is accounted for. There's a literacy hour and a numeracy hour every morning and teachers are encouraged to meet performance targets but there's never time for the more spontaneous things we used to do. Everything has to be structured. Things are planned a year in advance.
'At one time if a child brought something they'd found into school, an old nest for example, you'd talk to the children about it, relate it to spring and what's happening in the countryside but today, because things are so structured, there's no time for that.
Richard Bell, richard@willowisland.co.uk |