Maths and English yr 9/10/11 - how many hours a week should they be taught?

[mummaemma]

My son is going into year 9 this week. The whole year will be starting their options over 3 years.

Their year group is divided into 3 sets A (top set) B (middle) c (lower)

My son is in the A band and will be taught 2 lessons of English and 2 lessons of maths a week (thats 2.5 hours each a week)

Bands B and C will be getting 3 lessons of english and 3 lessons of maths a week (thats 3 hours 45 mins a week)

Is this the norm? the idea is that the band A students are more capable so instead of the extra lesson in maths and english they are doing an additional gcse in a chosen subject. i think this is crazy.

Bit worried as although he is fairly good at maths his english is poor.

tell me about your school and what they do. not sure whether to approach the school about it.

[ravenAK]

We do 4 x 50 minutes in y9 - so over 3 hours.

I'd be more concerned about the frequency - twice a week isn't good for a skills based subject - than the total time spent.

However: they really aren't going to re-do the timetable on 2nd September, so your only real option is to ask for ds to be moved to the B band.

Much better for him if his English is shaky than an additional GCSE!

[NoComet]

Under our new system we are going to have 2,1 and a small no MFL groups, with I believe more core subjects (English, maths and possibly science) filling in the gaps for years 7 and 8, I think Y9 may be the same.

I'm afraid I don't know exactly what the lower ability Y10 and Y11 do, but I think they do concentrate on ensuring they get English and maths as first priority.

DDs aren't back at school yet so I haven't got any new timetables.

Personally, I wouldn't worry, I'm very under convinced that more English for bright DCs especially scientists like me does anything other than make us hate it more and spend even less time on our english HW.

(I refused to do any English Lit except on the bus. Ended up getting an A which just goes to show that a little bit of work done regularly isn't a bad way to revise).

[titchy]

He isn't in sets, he's in streams, which are a very lazy way of organising a school - most now set for each individual subject. Ours get 4 hours a week for M and E, with bottom groups getting an extra hour a week in both in place of a 2nd language.

[titchy]

He isn't in sets, he's in streams, which are a very lazy way of organising a school - most now set for each individual subject. Ours get 4 hours a week for M and E, with bottom groups getting an extra hour a week in both in place of a 2nd language.

[longingforsomesleep]

Just looking at last year's timetable:

DS3, who was in year 9 last year had three 50 minute English lessons and three 50 minute maths lessons a week. He was in top set for both subjects but I'm fairly certain, given the way the timetable works, everyone had the same.

DS2 had four English lessons a week in year 11 and three maths lessons (but that was for AS maths not GCSE).

Two of each a week doesn't sound near enough. Especially as the government has now announced students are going to have to carry on with maths and english after 16 if they don't get a minumum C grade at GCSE.

What on earth do they do with the rest of their time?!!

[poppydoppy]

Get a tutor !!! All my children have an hour of maths and English a day.

[NoComet]

Just dug out DDs Y10 timetable
Maths 3hrs
English 3.5hrs
(Averaged, they have a two week time table.)

She's in the top predicted grades group too, so 2.5hrs sounds low.

A English tutor might be a good idea as I'm assuming changing bands will, detrimentally effect, the levels he's taught to in other subjects.

[noblegiraffe]

7 hours a fortnight. 1.25 hour lessons sound dreadful, and only two lessons a week for maths is not enough.

Our top sets do the same amount of hours as the bottom sets but the top sets will do an extra maths GCSE in that time (don't know about English).

[jellybrain]

Ds2 is going into y9 this week. I will post when he has his timetable. The school only sets for maths and MFL though and works across a fortnight rather than a weekly timetable.

[Anthracite]

My DDs' school has 6 40-minute lessons of maths, English, Science in Y9 so 4 hours each.

[creamteas]

In my DC's school they are on a fortnightly timetable and had 7 hours per 2 weeks for each. Top sets did 2 GCSEs for each subject (eg Lit and Lang) and the bottom sets just single qualifications.

[bruffin]

DD yr 11 (top sets) has
4 x 50 english
4 x 50 maths
6 x 50 science

[RedVW]

Year 9. 2 week timetable

7 x 50 mins English (4 wk 1, 3 wk 2)
7 x 50 mins Maths. Ditto
14 x 50 mins Science (4 Biology, 4 Chemistry, 4 Physics and 2 Creative Science).

Grammar School, no sets, starting KS4.

How different all the schools are!

[bruffin]

forgot to mention DCs school is a comprehensive.