I just found out there is a school near me teaching to Steiner/Waldorf principles. They start German aged 5.

FYI - the top subjects in a primary school - that is the ones that must absolutely be taught are: Maths, English, Science and IT. Anything else has to be fitted in elsewhere. A clever teacher will find ways to combine and integrate subjects to cover more than one criteria.

The problem is that there are only so many hours in the day, and to fit them all is makes it harder for schools to give a rounded education. Sure, introduce languages, but at the expense of what other subject? The next thing will be our relatively poor performance at the Olympics, and the edict that there should be more sports will be passed down.

As many in the audience on QuestionTime said last night - politicians should stop interfering and let teachers and schools make these kinds of decision as they are more often than not motivated by political goals. The latest wheeze from Gove is to have children of 5 learning and reciting poetry. Not, it seems, understanding it, just spewing out the words like a tape recorder.

To be fair, I don't think pupils in the UK go to school for enough hours in the week.
my sister is doing the new "light" french system and she is in school 4 days a week from 9-12 and 1.30 til 5.30. which is 28 hours a week, plus 2h extras a week of personalised support, nearly 8h a week more than a British child. And she has been learning English since reception.

At A-levels I had 42h of lectures a week, 8/9 h a day on average plus wednesday and saturday morning until 1. That included 2 languages + latin on top of scientific subjects.
There's a saying which goes: The brain only goes mushy if you don't use it.

Completely agree that there are limited number of hours in the day and something will suffer. I do wonder whether a staged process is required eg just concentrate on basic numeracy and literacy skills in the first few years, nail it down, and then slowly bring a few more things in. I think IT doesn't need to be brought in until age 9-10 (ie year 5 & 6).


The French may study longer hours but don't they also start school later? No idea what they do in the pre-school years in terms of study. I'm wary of cramming in too much at a young age. That saying only really applies to adults and particularly the elderly, in whom it's proven that learning new things can help ward off dementia.

I was at school before turning 3 and could read a decent amount and count fairly well before grade 1. All schools in France have "nursery schools" which try to teach children basics literacy skills before they get to primary.
And there's a different between teaching a lot and teaching for a lot of time. Students who have difficulties would prefer doing something for 6h a week than 3h and have 3h off.