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In Great Britain. Task. Read and translate the text.






Task. Read and translate the text.

Within the traditional family pattern dom­inant in Britain through the whole 19th century and well into the 20th, women were not encouraged to go out to work. Indeed, there was even a kind of stigma attached to working women. There was very much the feeling that their proper place was in the home looking after their husband, their children. Little wonder then that till the 1970s there was actually no countrywide system of nursery (or pre-primary) schools: there were a few state kindergartens, some private kindergartens for under-four-year-olds. In some areas there were nursery schools and classes for four-year-olds (or, in England, reception classes in primary schools). These provided informal education and play facilities a few hours a week, but they were not compulsory and only 25% of three- or four-year-olds attended them. There were also some pre-school playgroups organized and paid for by parents themselves where children were brought twice a week for an hour or two.

With 45% of women now going out to work, the present Labour government has made expanding pre-school education a priority. Since September 1998 it has pro­vided free nursery education in England and Wales for all four-year-olds whose parents want it.

To rectify the situation, Local Education Authorities, in partnership with private nurs­eries, playgroups and schools, have drawn up " early years development plans" of pro­viding four-year-olds with basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. The plans are designed to show how co-operation be­tween private nurseries, playgroups and schools can best serve the interests of chil­dren and their parents. In addition, the gov­ernment aims to establish " early excellence centres" designed to demonstrate good prac­tice in education and childcare.

Normally, the average child begins his or her compulsory education at the age of 5 starting primary school. There are infant schools for children between the ages of 5 and 7 and junior schools for those between the ages of 8 and 11.

For the first two years of schooling (5— 6) children are expected to learn to read and write, to do simple sums, to learn basic practical and social skills, and to find out as much as they can about the world through stories, drama, music, crafts and through physical exercise. As one British education­alist put it, " A good infant school is rather like the older years in a good Soviet-time kindergarten, except that much more em­phasis is put on reading and writing, and children are perhaps more strongly encour­aged to do and to make things themselves."

It is assumed that most children can read by the time they start their third year of schooling. Some of them will be fluent, others will still need help, and for school work now depends on reading and writing. From 7 to about 11 or 12 children are at school where the class teacher is still a central fig­ure for them, because he or she teaches many basic lessons. But increasingly there is emphasis on subjects with subject teachers. There will be probably a special teacher for maths, another for crafts, an­other for French, if French is provided at this age. But at these ages, except perhaps for maths, children are not usually divided into different levels of abilities. However within each class there may be several dif­ferent groups, each working on a different part of the subject, requiring different in­tellectual understanding.

Classroom work is often done in an in­formal manner. Children work at tables and move around fairly freely in the course of studying a practical topic. Such learn­ing methods are the pride of many Eng­lish teachers, parents and educationalists, and the despair of others. Do children learn essential skills and knowledge best if they are sitting in rows listening to the teacher in front of the blackboard or if they can follow their own inclinations and work in their own way at their own pace? Of course an obvious answer is that a mixture of both methods is probably best — and probably most often practiced — but the discussions tend to divide people into opposing camps.

At about 11 or 12 children move to a new school, usually a " comprehensive" that will accept all children from three or four neighbouring junior schools. Changing to a " big" school is a great moment in life for them.

 

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