School work not tough enough, say some pupils

A study concludes a fifth of young people strongly believe that their lessons are not too difficult, and there is some evidence that bright children are more likely to feel they are not being stretched.

The study, conducted by the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education (CUREE), is based on a survey of more than 8,000 primary and secondary school pupils.

The children were asked about their experiences of school and the national curriculum.

While children were not asked directly if they found their lessons too easy, they were asked if they agreed or disagreed with the statement “lessons are often too difficult for me”.

The findings for 2010 show that a fifth of primary school pupils aged between eight and 11, and 16 per cent of secondary- age pupils, aged between 11 and 18, strongly disagreed that their lessons were too difficult.

The researchers concluded: “This may suggest that they found lessons too easy, although it could just mean they found lessons appropriately difficult.”