What do you think should be taught in schools, and why?
Catherine W.
United Kingdom
Curriculum - what should be taught in schools?
Jonathan R.
United Kingdom
My views on the curriculum
Kieran P.
United Kingdom
What do you think we should learn in school?
Student Aspiration Team
United Kingdom
What should be taught in schools and why?
Steven R.
United Kingdom
Curriculum
Denise and Amanda
Australia
Other people can teach interesting subjects
Sonia
Australia
What do you think should be learnt at school?
Anika
Australia
The curriculum
Nazareth College
Australia
What do you think should be taught in schools, and why?
Catherine W.
16 years
Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School & Language College
England, United Kingdom
I think that out of the current subjects taught in most schools that maths, English and science are very important and should be continued to be taught. They are important because they are needed for everyday life, whether for use at work or in home life. Maths is important because we need to be able to budget when we are older and spend our money, for example, carefully. It wouldn’t be very good if we didn’t understand how to organise our money spending. English is very important as everyone needs a basic understanding of the English language for simple things, whether it’s writing a letter or having a conversation. Science is important also, as although all components of it may not be used in everyday life, some of them are.
Many people enjoy the current subjects which are taught at school but there are some that are not an option. These could be more interesting and appealing to students. I would like law to be taught in school, it would be interesting to see how difficult it is and whether or not I would like to pursue these studies when leaving school. Law is an interesting subject and one which many people would like to have as a career. If it was taught at school, it would enable students to get an idea of what is involved, rather than leaving school and not knowing whether or not they enjoy the subject. Another career which many people like to study after school is engineering, working in a garage with cars. This could be an option for students to take at GCSE, then again they would know what type of hard work was involved, and also it would give students who don’t have a chance of obtaining great GCSE results the ability to achieve something and allow them to continue to study something which they know they hold ability for. Also, for those who aren’t sure which subjects to study, this would be good because they would have a trade to fall back on.
A subject which only maybe a few people would be interested in, but would be worthwhile teaching is politics; this would be teaching more students about issues going on around the world. Some people are very unaware of political issues and I think it would be good for those people to gain some knowledge about it.
The subject I think would be most beneficial to a lot of students is childcare or nursing courses. This is because many girls want to pursue nursing as a career. If it was taught at school, then pupils could already be a little more educated in that area and have more of an idea what the job entailed. I think this would also be good because then students who didn’t find science easy could concentrate more on the biology side and get ahead in that area.
Vocational subjects would be useful also, such as hairdressing, electrics and aviation. These are careers that are quite difficult to get involved in but if you have some sort of knowledge of it when you leave school, you have more of a chance of getting a better job. Many people would also enjoy these subjects and would be more likely to concentrate on them if it was something that they were interested in.
I think if these subjects were in the curriculum, then school would be much more interesting and more students would enjoy coming to school. I think it would make a better impression on all children if schools offered more subject choices which can lead to a career.
Curriculum - what should be taught in schools?
Jonathan R.
16 years
Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School and Language College
England, United Kingdom
I think the basic things that should be taught in schools are things like maths, science and English. These subjects are really useful subjects for the future and can help us. Maths is very useful because we may need to know how to work out calculations for the future and how to work out different things, such as accountants. I think English is a basic thing but definitely needs to be taught because we all need to know our own language and how to spell things. English can also help us that we can write stories and certain essays. Finally, science is useful because it basically tells us about everything around us and what things are made of. Some of the science lessons may only be helpful for people wanting a profession in science but it is basically a good lesson for us all to know.
Other subjects which should be taught in all schools are at least one language, just so that going out into the large world we will be able to travel to at least one country and be able to speak fluently. Languages are good and should be taught. It is great if a foreigner is able to come to your country and speak your accent fluently, maybe not with the right accent but fluently! And one more subject that I think is great, which is taught in schools, is music because it has shown in studies that music is a very good thing to play for education and if people are playing an instrument then it fits in well with languages. Scientists have said that if a person plays a musical instrument then they should be better at a language also. There has been a decrease in the amount of people playing instruments that are really good, and I personally love playing the piano.
The subjects that aren’t taught which I think would be good to teach are more vocational courses. I think some people may come to school and want to do a job, such as hairdressing, and nobody can change their mind for neither love nor money. If the person has already made their mind up they won’t concentrate on certain classes, so it is probably better to start training them for their job at the start of school. I also believe law would be a great subject to teach because if you want to be a lawyer (as many people do), then the person can, but it would also teach young people who are rebellious what the law does, just so they know what may happen to you.
Another thing that I think should probably taught about is careers because, although some schools manage to actually fit in parts of their day when they manage to teach the students about careers, some pupils still don’t know what they want to do. A careers lesson would be perfect because they could discuss the jobs and things, such as how to write a C.V. and then could also teach people about unemployment. There could also be courses about computers, and inside the actual computers, because although in IT we get taught about how to use the computer, it would be wicked to know what’s actually in the computer and how it works because I love the subject of IT but that could be a slight improvement. A final thing that they could teach is about the culture of different countries. We may know the languages of different countries but it would be good to know about countries that we don’t actually know about.
I think most subjects in schools are useful and can be made fun by the teacher already, but there may be some slight improvements that can be made to lessons to add some better lessons. As for chocolate tasting lessons, then I guess they can wait for a while.
My views on the curriculum
Kieran P.
Year 8
The Billericay School
England, United Kingdom
My name is Kieran and I am a thirteen-year-old pupil at The Billericay School. In this piece I am going to share my views on our school curriculum. I think that in my school there is a good balance between subjects but if I were to change anything, it would be that pupils would have extra PE lessons, due to a few overweight people who are endangering their health. Also, it is important for people to release energy. Other possibilities are that pupils can have lessons showing the true effects of smoking. I think this is extremely necessary for all pupils, whether they smoke or not, to learn about the effects and learning about ways of giving up is vital.
Teenagers these days spend too much money on junk, me included. It would be a good idea to have lessons on how to control your spending and learn about money and business for later life.
I have been thinking, if pupils had the choice to go to any lesson they wished and did not have to learn subjects they disliked, would it be beneficial? I think the answer is ‘No’. If a pupil had only learned PE through their schooling years and at the age of 21 decided they wanted to be an accountant, they would have no maths skills and would have to go back to learning, which would delay their time working.
Overall, I think that the curriculum is good but can be added to, to help children with other problems. They are a guideline to education, which keeps learning organised and in order. The only problem with them that if lessons were to be added, then others would have to be taken away or perhaps the school day would have to be extended.
What do you think we should learn in school?
Student Aspiration Team
12-16 years
Penryn College
England, United Kingdom
These are the things we think we should learn in school.
• From year 10 we should be able to pick all lessons.
• Learn more key skills.
• Learn things like politics and law.
• Learn how to manage money.
• Skills for when we leave home.
• Better, more relevant, sex education.
• More work experience.
• More water sports.
• More careers advice.
• Learn how to deal with real life situations.
• Learn to deal with stress.
• Learn what happens when a child is born (teen pregnancy).
• More active learning (classroom activities).
What should be taught in schools and why?
Steven R.
16 years
Cardinal Wiseman Catholic School and Language College
England, United Kingdom
In this essay I will be discussing the benefits of what is already being taught in schools locally and nationally and the benefits of new subjects which could be brought into the national curriculum.
At my school currently there are many subjects, which are compulsory to take all the way through to the end of year 11. The first of these is maths: I agree that maths is an important skill to live a successful life. This is because it will help you manage your finances and will give you the skills of logic and problem-solving. The second compulsory subject is English: I also agree that this is an important subject as it gives you the skills to read and write, which will help you fill out application forms and with basic communication. The final compulsory subject is one science: this is important as it teaches you how things came, to how they are now and also how things work and function. At my school, as it is a Catholic school, you have to choose religious education. I agree that this is an important subject as it teaches you good morals and the difference between right and wrong but I think you could choose other GCSEs which would help you further in life. Therefore, I believe that it should not be compulsory.
My school also offers three language choices, which are French, English and Spanish. I believe languages are very useful as they give you the chance to communicate with a wider audience. The school also offers three humanities subjects, which are history, geography and economics. These subjects are important as they teach you a lot of useful knowledge but these subjects aren’t useful in a wide range of careers. Options which are available to choose at my school are: physical education, ICT, double science, agriculture, home economics, graphics, design technology and childcare. These subjects are useful for certain careers, for example, ICT is useful if you want a career in computing.
I believe that there are many more subjects that could be taught at my school. As my school is a language college, I think that more languages should be taught here, like Italian, Latin, Chinese or Japanese. Also, I think vocational subjects like plastering, plumbing and bricklaying should be taught at an earlier age. If that’s what someone wants to do, then that’s what they should be taught to do at school. I think that law should also be offered at GCSE level, as it looks like an interesting subject and a lot of pupils were interested in choosing it as an option but it wasn’t offered by my school. Also, in my opinion engineering should be offered, as it is a skill that is needed in a lot of careers. A final subject that could be offered is politics because, like law, it looks very interesting and it will teach you how your own country is run.
Curriculum
Denise and Amanda
10-13 years
Overnewton Anglican Community College
Melbourne, Australia
To view their powerpoint Click Here
Other people can teach interesting subjects
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Sonia
12 years
Leanyer Primary School
Darwin , Australia |
I think that the subjects they teach in school are good but can be improved. They should invite important people, such as policemen, firemen and ambulance officers to school to give talks to children once a week. The police officers can teach you all about the laws and can explain to you why you should not break laws and the consequences of breaking a law. They also teach you what is to be done when in an emergency situation. The firemen can show you how to get safely out of a burning building or dangerous situation.
Ambulance officers can teach a bit about first aid and emergency safety procedures. If we can have guidance from this variety of officers, then there will be fewer student problems, law breaking and emergency situations.
What do you think should be learnt at school?
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Anika
12 years
Leanyer Primary School
Darwin, Australia |
The subjects we learn now have been successful for our parents. Why won’t they be the same for us? There’ll be new technology and new jobs. The subjects now learnt at schools are becoming a little bit out-of-date.
Not many schools are learning about how to use computers (ICT). One of my teachers did not know very much about computers and had to ask the help of students when he had a small problem.
We need to update our subjects to things that will be useful in our modern times. Maybe we could introduce more subjects such as banking and learning how to manage money, classes on how to manage relationships, a lesson where older students give advice to younger students and help them with their worries at home.
We could learn about animal interactions, like having a school dog or cat. How do the animals on news programs make people feel? They make them feel safe and happy.
Sometimes we could give a helping hand to those who are very ill, develop students’ social awareness by each class volunteering to raise money for charities. We could have health lessons to teach children how to look after their body and eat healthy, to minimise the amount of adults getting obese. Defense classes could teach children how to defend themselves from people trying to hurt or threaten them (look at how many children have been hurt or snatched up by some stranger from their way home from school, we could change that!).
Think about all those options - those are the things we really need! Look at how much we could change just by doing the simple modern subjects that suit our advanced world!
The curriculum
Nazareth College
Melbourne, Australia
View the students' website by clicking here.
