@poppygibsonuk Which was your favourite subject when you were in primary school?
Did you enjoy creative writing, making up your own stories? Were you a keen mathematician? Or did the curiosity of Science leave you burning with questions you enjoyed trying to answer? There are many subjects within our primary curriculum, just as Howard Gardner shared with us his theory around ‘multiple intelligences,’ a model that encourages us to consider eight key intelligences instead of just thinking we can be ‘smart’ in those core academic subjects. Naturally, we each find interest and enjoyment in different areas and manifest strengths and weaknesses in different subjects.
While it can hardly be disputed that there are key skills that must be taught in the classroom to help ensure our learners are prepared for future life in society, I argue that when these core subjects dominate curriculum time, the focus on mental health, well-being, and the development of the understanding of relationships is lost. The curriculum should have human Science at the heart of it. Still, the accountability and pressure from assessment results often mean teachers are overworked in planning, delivering, and marking the work from these academic subjects, with little time left to explore the big philosophical questions about life that the children in our classroom may have.
As adults, we appreciate that if things are worrying us, it can be harder to focus on the tasks we need to do. How, therefore, can children be fully emerged in learning when they are anxious, upset, or feeling insecure?
As our world was turned upside-down in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic from March 2020, my one hope as an educator is that we would see a curriculum reform. In national and global lockdowns, schools were closed, and children were forced to learn from home. The focus shifted from scores on mathematics tests to playing in the garden, drawing chalk rainbows on the pavement, and finding some respite from the normal ‘busy’ classroom timetable.
But as school days return to (mostly) normal, assessment prep, homework tasks, and a focus on the academic over the social have returned. Where is the reform that we were hoping to see? Where was the realisation from those in power that our children’s well-being needed to be centralised and nurtured, now more than ever, in this post-pandemic landscape?
Let me take you back to something that happened over a decade ago. In England in 2009, The Rose Review, led by Sir Jim Rose, aimed to find out:
I propose that to best prepare our learners for their futures, we need to refocus on what it means to ‘be human.’ The main topics we teach should be about having healthy relationships with others and ourselves. It is more than doing a yoga session with your class once a term; well-being is about providing practical coping strategies when stressors are affecting us. Helping children understand stress and anxiety from an early age encourages us to have healthy discussions about how we feel; too often, poor behaviour is seen as ‘naughty’ when there is an underlying need. Learners are denied access to the curriculum because they cannot focus; behind these behaviours may be trauma, worries, or unmet needs. We need to help those in our classroom care better understand themselves and learn ways to help find self-regulation and consider self-care when needed. In our statutory educational curriculum, mental health and well-being should be one of the core subjects, if not ‘THE’ core subject.
Author bio: Dr. Poppy Gibson currently leads the innovate Blended Accelerated BA Hons in Primary Education Studies at ARU (Anglia Ruskin University), Essex, England (UK). Poppy is a senior lecturer in education and recently graduated with merit on the Masters in Mental Health Science (MSc). Poppy is also a qualified Inside-Out Prison Educator. Poppy previously worked for four years as a Senior Lecturer in Primary Education, and Course Lead of the 2-year accelerated Primary Education degree at the University of Greenwich, moving into Higher Education after over a decade working in London primary schools. Poppy’s primary research interests revolve around mental health and well-being, but Poppy also has a passion for edtech in helping students achieve.
Did you enjoy creative writing, making up your own stories? Were you a keen mathematician? Or did the curiosity of Science leave you burning with questions you enjoyed trying to answer? There are many subjects within our primary curriculum, just as Howard Gardner shared with us his theory around ‘multiple intelligences,’ a model that encourages us to consider eight key intelligences instead of just thinking we can be ‘smart’ in those core academic subjects. Naturally, we each find interest and enjoyment in different areas and manifest strengths and weaknesses in different subjects.
While it can hardly be disputed that there are key skills that must be taught in the classroom to help ensure our learners are prepared for future life in society, I argue that when these core subjects dominate curriculum time, the focus on mental health, well-being, and the development of the understanding of relationships is lost. The curriculum should have human Science at the heart of it. Still, the accountability and pressure from assessment results often mean teachers are overworked in planning, delivering, and marking the work from these academic subjects, with little time left to explore the big philosophical questions about life that the children in our classroom may have.
As adults, we appreciate that if things are worrying us, it can be harder to focus on the tasks we need to do. How, therefore, can children be fully emerged in learning when they are anxious, upset, or feeling insecure?
As our world was turned upside-down in the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic from March 2020, my one hope as an educator is that we would see a curriculum reform. In national and global lockdowns, schools were closed, and children were forced to learn from home. The focus shifted from scores on mathematics tests to playing in the garden, drawing chalk rainbows on the pavement, and finding some respite from the normal ‘busy’ classroom timetable.
But as school days return to (mostly) normal, assessment prep, homework tasks, and a focus on the academic over the social have returned. Where is the reform that we were hoping to see? Where was the realisation from those in power that our children’s well-being needed to be centralised and nurtured, now more than ever, in this post-pandemic landscape?
Let me take you back to something that happened over a decade ago. In England in 2009, The Rose Review, led by Sir Jim Rose, aimed to find out:
- What should the primary curriculum contain?
- How should the content and the teaching of it change to foster children’s different and developing abilities during primary education?
- Understanding English, communication, and languages;
- Mathematical understanding;
- Scientific and technological understanding;
- Human, social and environmental understanding;
- Understanding physical health and well-being;
- Understanding the arts and design.
I propose that to best prepare our learners for their futures, we need to refocus on what it means to ‘be human.’ The main topics we teach should be about having healthy relationships with others and ourselves. It is more than doing a yoga session with your class once a term; well-being is about providing practical coping strategies when stressors are affecting us. Helping children understand stress and anxiety from an early age encourages us to have healthy discussions about how we feel; too often, poor behaviour is seen as ‘naughty’ when there is an underlying need. Learners are denied access to the curriculum because they cannot focus; behind these behaviours may be trauma, worries, or unmet needs. We need to help those in our classroom care better understand themselves and learn ways to help find self-regulation and consider self-care when needed. In our statutory educational curriculum, mental health and well-being should be one of the core subjects, if not ‘THE’ core subject.
Author bio: Dr. Poppy Gibson currently leads the innovate Blended Accelerated BA Hons in Primary Education Studies at ARU (Anglia Ruskin University), Essex, England (UK). Poppy is a senior lecturer in education and recently graduated with merit on the Masters in Mental Health Science (MSc). Poppy is also a qualified Inside-Out Prison Educator. Poppy previously worked for four years as a Senior Lecturer in Primary Education, and Course Lead of the 2-year accelerated Primary Education degree at the University of Greenwich, moving into Higher Education after over a decade working in London primary schools. Poppy’s primary research interests revolve around mental health and well-being, but Poppy also has a passion for edtech in helping students achieve.