Creative skills urged for primary

By Katherine Sellgren
BBC News education reporter, Bournemouth

Practical skills should be taught in primary schools, says Mick Brookes

Primary pupils should learn skills such as carpentry and cooking, say head teachers.

Mick Brookes, leader of the National Association of Head Teachers, said 11-year-olds spent too much time preparing for Sats tests.

Mr Brookes said pupils should be able to develop practical and creative skills before leaving primary school.

And he warned of "an army of the unemployable" if more was not done to engage teenagers in education.

In his closing address to delegates at the NAHT's annual conference in Bournemouth, Mr Brookes said: "Our primary children should be freed up from the narrow curriculum forced on them and able to develop fledgling specialised skills."

Cycle maintenance

Mr Brookes spoke of how much 11-year-old pupils at his former schools had gained from a parent, who was a professional carpenter, coming into class and teaching them new skills.

He said older primary pupils could learn to cook basic healthy menus and be able to this knowledge home.

Basic mechanics and bicycle maintenance could also be covered.

"These are the sort of skills we're missing out and losing," he said.

"The earlier children are introduced to those skills the better. We should be building those skills at a very early age and then following them through into Key Stage 3."

'Army of the unemployable'

Mr Brookes told delegates more must be done to tackle disaffection and resentment amongst teenagers who had not been successful at school.

"These young people, who have been denied the taste of success in their school careers, vote with their feet at the earliest opportunity.

"We cannot allow a whole army of the nation's youth to leave school with nothing to show for those 11 years except disaffections and resentment.

"The current number of unskilled jobs in this country is estimated at about three million today. The effects of technology may well mean a huge shrinkage of this employment market.

"When this happens, we will not simply have an army of the unemployed, we will have an army of the unemployable - a huge threat to social cohesion."