What They Should Teach At School But Don't

The National Curriculum is set by the Government and governs which subjects and standards are used by schools so children learn the same things. It covers what subjects are taught and the standards children should reach in each subject and are meant to set them up for life but there are many subjects that our children should be learnt which would be more useful in life but the students don't find out about until they have left education.
Thinking back to my own experiences, some of the things that i would have benefited from being taught at school were:

Taxes: Taxes are confusing enough with tax codes, rate bands, national insurance, expenses, Self-Assessment or PAYE and personal allowances and even a brief introduction could make paying your taxes a little simpler and help make the whole process smoother because i have spent a small fortune paying someone to do it all for me.

The Imperial System: Quite rightly the metric system ruled in my school and it is quite easy to pick up but once you get out into the World you come across people who continue to use the Imperial System and knowing how many centimetres are in a metre or grams in a kilogramme when you are faced with a carpet salesman asking you how many square feet you need or a market trader how many pounds of potatoes you want can be awkward. I cope by once being told that a standard door is 6ft which is almost 2m so when faced with imagining something 12ft tall for example, i imagine 2 doors on top of each other or 3ft is half a door. It's got me through so far but i always end up with too many or few potatoes as door sizes are no good for buying vegetables.

Cars: Cars can be incredibly unreliable but knowing how to change the oil or replace a spark plug or bulb would not only have saved me time but from paying a greasy man in overalls to charge me an extortionate amount for something that takes minutes to correct.

Computer Maintenance: When i was at school Computers were the domain of the nerds and floppies and Microsoft was the cruel nicknames for any boy who upset us and while i now know my way around Office and Email, being able to repair and maintain my own PC would have said me hundreds of grovelling trips to the IT Team at work when the useless beige box on my desk at home refuses to work properly.

Home Maintenance: Unless you are lucky enough to marry a handyman, at some point your property will need some work done and hiring a carpenter, electrician, or plumber can be an expensive hassle to fix something so small that it takes them longer to drink the strong, sweet cup of tea you made them then to fix the problem.

Self Defence: You never know when you might find yourself alone in an unsafe part of town, and knowing how to defend yourself is definitely a helpful skill to help you out of an unsafe situation when a kick in the assailants plums and running is not an option. You don't need to be trained to black-belt standard just enough to use a few techniques to protect yourself if the worst ever happens.

First Aid: Everyone gets a nosebleed at some point and you will simultaneously be told to hold your head forward, hold it back, pinch your nose, don't pinch your nose or as one person told me, just shove a tissue up your nostrils. The ability to treat a minor wound or injury can be invaluable or at best save getting blood all over your new blouse.

I'm sure there are many more things and we tend to pick them up as we need them as we go through life but knowing Pi or who was the third wife of King Henry VIII isn't going to help you complete your Tax Return or if you are choking on a peanut.