Posted by kozmicstu on Friday, 23 February 2007 21:06:38

The article you linked to unequivocally states that the success of the Finnish system is as a result of the level of investment they put in education.

"Are you claiming that the Finnish have a greater need of education than us Brits, or was it merely a churlish statement for lack of a better reply" No, I'm claiming that British people have different values and different lifestyles - for instance, the work ethic in this country demands that parents are able to work from when their children are still quite young. I'm not saying this is a good thing - just that this is the state of the country. To keep children at home or in paid care until they are 7 would be quite damaging to a lot of parents, and this is part of the reason that the government has started providing free nursery to 3 and 4 year old children. The problem is that we are DIFFERENT, not worse or better.

I do, incidentally, agree with you that young children should be in school less and should be focused more on play and social skills than homework and traditional schooling. I also don't think that primary school kids should be given homework. This is a very different issue though.

Putting 7 year old kids in a school with 16 year old kids seems intuitively like a bad idea - my sister, for instance, is in middle school in a three-tier system ('cause that's what they have in Suffolk...) and this relieves a lot of the issues inherent to a two-tier system, with older teenage kids causing trouble with the younger ones. Because the oldest kids in her school are year 8 (I think that's 13), they don't have to deal with teenagers until they are at a slightly less vulnerable stage in their lives... Essentially what it looks like is that the main differences in Scandinavia is that they merge primary and secondary schools, and they don't have sixth forms as part of secondary schools, they have them as fully separate institutions. I don't see how having only one school throughout education reduces socioeconomic differences - seems to me that would lead to exactly the same situation we're in now - where good schools automatically end up in richer areas, and the schools in poorer areas just get worse. It would also be even MORE difficult to get your kids into a good school if you move to a new area.

Maybe some of these problems could be overcome, but I think we're getting caught up between two separate arguments - whether to have streaming in classrooms, and whether to have a comprehensive school system.

Oh, and canvas, if davetheslave is right then education for all till 18 would be the last thing on the cards :-)

Posted by canvas on Wednesday, 28 February 2007 16:23:31

So, Tizzy - I read in the papers today that some schools will now give places by 'lottery'.
What do you think about this?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6403017.stm

Posted by Tizzy on Wednesday, 28 February 2007 17:27:14

There will be some very unhappy parents, canvas. On the plus side it might stop them shopping for a new house or faith. Won't be long before schools put places up on Ebay - I expect the cardinals are working on that right now.