Like Emma Brockes, I have been trying to help my 10-year‑old granddaughter prepare for her Sats, and I feel deeply saddened, and frankly horrified, by what she faces in these papers (My kids are taking their first big exams – and revealing my own anxieties about AI and long division, 7 May).
As a former primary school teacher, I could not believe the English curriculum for 10- and 11-year-olds. I remember being introduced to the subjunctive when I was 18 years old and studying French. I did not have to understand noun clauses, fronted adverbials, modal verbs and passive and active changes. Who has put this material together? I cannot believe that former teachers have been involved in devising it.
