I help some neighbour's kids out with English and I have noticed that they seem to have exams almost every other week in every subject. It also seems that they spend a lot of hours studying, every night, all weekend. They also all seem to have lots of private lessons as well as their school ones, and this is both state and private school pupils (along with going to bed so late!)
I do not recall doing that at all, and I went to grammar school. I hardly remember any extreme studying except before the termly/yearly exams. I didn't know anyone who had private lessons except for music, maybe.
Am I just remembering the sunny days or was it more grueling than I remember?
Is it the same as this in the UK?
I am interested in your comments, so ......discuss....
Interminable Exams
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Re: Interminable Exams
It's like that in Extremadura, as well. Exams almost constantly. After 10 years of living here, doing a lot of conversation classes in English with students, including adults going for the dreaded 'oppocisiones (if that is how it is spelled), and having a grand daughter studying here for a year in a secondary school, I think that the Spanish and UK systems are very different. In Spain there seems to be 'learning by rote' with not much questioning of the received knowledge gained from text books. In the UK there seems to be more 'working it out and learning HOW to think and not WHAT to think'. That's only my observation, of course.
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Re: Interminable Exams
Would go along with that.
Mind you, numerous UK Secretaries of State for Education became obsessed the idea of testing, testing, testing, from Kenneth Baker onwards. Many government members (notably of a particular party) have of course no direct experience of State schools, preferring to send their own children to private ones. So, when quizzed about State school performance, they haven't much of a clue. Their response has been to create a system of copious testing, which then gave birth to league tables.
So, good teaching staff have ended up "teaching to the test", and up to their ears in so much routine testing and assessment that there hasn't been much time left in recent years for creative teaching, let alone curriculum development - a task which only teachers are uniquely placed to do, not M.Gove and the likes.
It's one of the reasons why I left teaching (and running a nationally known department) after 17 years, despite being a passionate believer in first-rate State education, and in a school rated then (and now) as outstanding.
Mind you, numerous UK Secretaries of State for Education became obsessed the idea of testing, testing, testing, from Kenneth Baker onwards. Many government members (notably of a particular party) have of course no direct experience of State schools, preferring to send their own children to private ones. So, when quizzed about State school performance, they haven't much of a clue. Their response has been to create a system of copious testing, which then gave birth to league tables.
So, good teaching staff have ended up "teaching to the test", and up to their ears in so much routine testing and assessment that there hasn't been much time left in recent years for creative teaching, let alone curriculum development - a task which only teachers are uniquely placed to do, not M.Gove and the likes.
It's one of the reasons why I left teaching (and running a nationally known department) after 17 years, despite being a passionate believer in first-rate State education, and in a school rated then (and now) as outstanding.
Chris
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