So I believe that it's very important that schools include that practical teaching as part of a student's experience. Or find ways to make other teaching relevant...fitting English skills into letter and resume writing, going to an international restaurant to use language skills, bringing an actual torn item of clothing into textiles, doing a budget in maths. So many students don't see the relevance in the things that they're learning, I know I certainly struggled to see how I would use teddy bear making and American history in my life.
You couldn't see how teddy-bear making was important? Pillow-making was daft, I agree, but I enjoyed making a bear (that was for extra marks though). American history was not important but at least it was taught by someone interesting so it wasn't a chore. I mean, I'm English, we have enough history without importing it! But I still like learning history and so does DH, so we often take DS to historical castles and museums, which he seems to enjoy.

OK, so you learn how to write a CV at school - what does it replace? And I was graded on a CV at Uni - how do you do that? I mean, each CV is individual for each job, you can't do a bog-standard one and have it graded! I'd big-up different skills on a CV for a shop job than I would for a laborartory job than I would for an admin job. Would it replace... the Shakespeare module? The poetry appreciation module? Would the Chaucer study be cut short, or would the book not be read aloud in the class? I cannot teach or advise on the ins and outs of The Merchant of Venice nor can I talk through Of Mice and Men, but I can look through a CV. OK, others cannot. So why not have a school careers officer (remember them?) who will look through it?

Everyone should be able to write a letter and write one well before leaving primary school. They may not want to but they can.

I just want to know what's being dropped for this. I don't want my son learning things he knows from home all the time and missing out on his actual education. (Although I'd love to home-school just so I could do the whole lot and not focus on just passing exams, although I will every night ask him what he learned at school and make sure he learnt it, not just how to regurgitate it in an exam if I don't teach it myself.)