A Response to a DFE Blog, The Education Hub, 16 February 2022:

We are told that The Education Hub is a site for parents, pupils, education professionals and the media that captures all you need to know about the education system.

What an extraordinary claim regarding the omnipotence of this particular site which encompasses everything you need to know about the education system! How can any site do justice to the breadth, the contradictions and the complexities of our educational world? Surely, in place of such blatant missionary zeal, there should be a touch of realism, honesty and humility? In reality The Education Hub is a mouthpiece for the government, focussing on what it perceives to be its priorities and policies. Of course, it is entitled to do just that, but that is very different from the communication of all you need to know about the education system.

This week the blog above is focussing on literacy and numeracy – what it means in practice. We are told that the building blocks will help them with the more focussed work they’ll do at secondary school. The implication here is that at the primary phase the work is more diffuse and more random in content, but I would see this claim as very questionable: the primary pupil engaged in problem solving is no less focussed than a secondary pupil engaged in textual analysis. As for the building blocks in Mathematics and English, one is struck by the restricted notions of what is essential. Pupils leaving primary school are rightly expected to be proficient in the basic numerical operations, but there is no reference to other important aspects of mathematics such as geometric awareness, measurement skills or the capacity to handle time. Similarly, in English, we are told that all pupils should be able to read fluently and write accurately and coherently. That cannot be disputed, but English competence is so much more than this with oracy being fundamental to communication at all stages. While not disputing the significance of accuracy and coherence in writing, surely there are other crucial dimensions in the writing process bound up with such qualities as sensitivity and imagination?

So, if you are looking for a source which tells you everything you need to know, look beyond this blinkered version of the education system!

https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2022/02/16/our-focus-on-literacy-and-numeracy-what-it-means-in-practice/

By Youngman