You are the Secretary of State for Education

[Jon MW]

Streaming and setting are different things - if you're Secretary of State you should probably use the right vocabulary

A lot (maybe most) schools already do this, and I think the problem is that in practice very few pupils ever change set. But if if was designed with this as a specific objective it could make a difference.

[hector62]

I'd bring back competitive sport from the age of 9 upwards. Have national championships across a range of sports so that you could for instance be the U15 champion school for 2016. I would have it for athletics, swimming, football, and netball.

[DaveShoelace]

i'd make coding mandatory from primary school up to 18.

+1, I think they are heading this way.

Learning foreign languages at a much younger age would also be good.

[George2Loose]

Ban any type of exam until GCSE and associated league tables

[Graham C]

Some of the points are covered already, at least in our area.   French is introduced in junior school - I think my daughter started year 5 and did a bit this year too.  The meals are pretty good, not a chip seen on the menu until Friday (can't beat fish fingers and chips on a Friday) http://www.crownwoodschool.com/ff_files/04_School_Life/School_Meals/images/Summer_Autumn_2015.pdf   and for £2.20 it's cracking value and worth every penny.

Some kids are shown a language called Scratch in junior school but sadly we seem to have skipped this.  From September when we go to senior school the kids will be introduced to basic programming and if they choose to continue with it it will evolve into more complex things.

I'm not sure what I'd like to change, I think they do a pretty good job here.  

[TightEnd]

Real life at schools

Other half's son is in his first year of secondary school

This week they did sex education

"So Jamie" I enquire the other night "good day at school, what did you do?"

other half "today was sex education wasn't it Jamie?"

Jamie "Yes"

me "what did you learn then?"

Jamie "all about cocks and fannies!"

and he walked off

 

[mulhuzz]

i'd make coding mandatory from primary school up to 18.

+1, I think they are heading this way.

Learning foreign languages at a much younger age would also be good.

yes, but please not French.

Something useful like Spanish, German, Portuguese, Russian or Mandarin please.

[david3103]

Ban any type of exam until GCSE and associated league tables

Close to agreeing with this, but testing is necessary in order for the planning of each child's educational needs.
I would 100% get rid of league tables and prevent the results of testing from being used as a stick and carrot on teachers.

i'd make coding mandatory from primary school up to 18.

Coding requires a level of logical ability that is overly difficult to teach to young children who maybe don't have the aptitude or the desire to develop it. By all means make the opportunity available at Primary age, and give it a lot more focus in Secondary education

....I'd make it illegal for teachers to moan to their friends about holidays.

I'd suggest you get some new friends. Few of the teachers I know, and I have been married to one for 37 years, moan about their holidays. Most of them use their break from having children to educate and develop to recharge their batteries, be ill, and work.

[DungBeetle]

Ban any type of exam until GCSE and associated league tables

Surely practicing exam conditions makes you better prepared and less nervous for the real thing? 

[George2Loose]

Ban any type of exam until GCSE and associated league tables

Surely practicing exam conditions makes you better prepared and less nervous for the real thing? 

I don't agree with this. U don't need to practice life skills too early. I think putting kids and schools under this type of pressure as more detrimental than enhancing

[DungBeetle]

Maybe not at for the below 11 age, but if the first exam a kid ever sits is his real GCSE exam at 16 then that is going to be extremely daunting and unfamiliar. 

[Doobs]

Ban any type of exam until GCSE and associated league tables

Close to agreeing with this, but testing is necessary in order for the planning of each child's educational needs.
I would 100% get rid of league tables and prevent the results of testing from being used as a stick and carrot on teachers.

i'd make coding mandatory from primary school up to 18.

Coding requires a level of logical ability that is overly difficult to teach to young children who maybe don't have the aptitude or the desire to develop it. By all means make the opportunity available at Primary age, and give it a lot more focus in Secondary education

....I'd make it illegal for teachers to moan to their friends about holidays.

I'd suggest you get some new friends. Few of the teachers I know, and I have been married to one for 37 years, moan about their holidays. Most of them use their break from having children to educate and develop to recharge their batteries, be ill, and work.

At my daughter's school, they have had the use of ipads from reception year.  They can get their homework off the internet etc.  She is 7 and has had her own tab for around a year and I am guessing she was later than most.  I can't see many of them struggling with technology like my generation did.  I know they aren't coding yet, but I can't see them struggling with technology when they left school like most of my generation did.
 

[Jon MW]

Ban any type of exam until GCSE and associated league tables

Surely practicing exam conditions makes you better prepared and less nervous for the real thing? 

I don't agree with this. U don't need to practice life skills too early. I think putting kids and schools under this type of pressure as more detrimental than enhancing

A standardised test in year 7 would show the secondary school the level of achievement for each pupil; it would show them what they need to teach but wouldn't be part of any league tables as the pupils would come from different primary schools and the secondary school wouldn't have had any affect on them by that stage.

[The Camel]

Stop fining parents for taking their kids on holiday or on a special day trip. They learn more than they would in school anyway, and surely the odd week off can't affect that education that much.

Absolutely this.

[AdamM]

Off the top of my head:

Entirely remove RE from primary education.
Currently, the RE syllabus is agreed locally, and in our area is longer than the rest of the combined syllabus.
Continue to teach the citizenship, ethics, community elements from the current RE syllabus but from an entirely secular position.

By all means offer RE as an option at secondary level within the 'humanities' options.

In early years, much greater focus on creative, critical and logical thinking than on times tables, spelling, historical facts, etc. Ask most 7-8 year olds and they can rattle off facts about Henry VIII's wives or the Romans. They also know a dozen different ways to multiply and divide. Ask the same kid 5 years later and they've forgotten it. Better to leave that till a later age when they might actually remember it.

Raise the school leaving age to 18 (is this happening anyway?) and go for a more modular 'high school diploma' than entirely separate GCSEs/A-Levels.
Drop the heavy examining at 16.
I don't object to internal testing to gauge development, but no external qualifications until 18 or league tables that affect school funding.

I would like examinations to reflect real world conditions, ie use of calculators, spell-checkers and even internet research. There is no need to commit such large amounts of information and techniques to memory. It is more useful to test that students are able to find the correct information or results using technology.

Outside of general English, Maths and Science, introduce more general studies/citizenship/life skill type courses and then beyond that allow specialisation/options to fill the rest of the kids' time tables.