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As someone "new" to the Forum I wasn't aware of your other thread, sorry Colin.
Your experiences are not unusual. Some schools, including local ones (Marsh Academy being one), have decided to abolish discrete subjects in first year of secondary. Instead, the kids learn through "project based learning". There are still specific learning objectives and outcomes attached to each lesson, but they are not restricted on a subject basis. Who knows what questions might arise from a lesson, and which things kids most want to explore about a project. Access to ICT makes these sorts of lessons all the more effective - teacher is a "facilitator" and not an oracle.
Everyone has a bias towards a certain learning style. I can remember stuff best that I've heard spoken or verbalised, but others prefer the visual or diagrammatic, others prefer to learn by doing, hands on, practical. Some even learn best by diving in and making mistakes. A good teacher will make use of all approaches over the course of a year, and won't always get the textbook out and lecture and drill. Two weeks ago my Year 7s were doing long division over and over again until they could do it automatically, but then in the next lesson we sang a song about how to find the area of a trapezium. In another lesson we made posters "An idiot's guide to negative numbers". With the Year 8's, I was teaching pre-decimal currency and rather than do 10 questions from a book, I got them to design a role play where they used old money etc... I am by no means an outstanding teacher, but I try to have a variety of experiences.
What do people think about project based learning? Or are we attached to discrete subjects? Does the curriculum have the right subjects in it? If not, what is missing?