Length of school day, including start and end times, at London day schools?

Hi bonsoir
Yes the hours are like a working day (longer than many peoples, actually) in the French system.
Its not geared to whether it is healthy or not for the child.
After quatrieme, they lose the Wednesday half day. so no time in the week for any extra sport/music lessons etc
it is excessively long. also in Northern Europe, in winter, your child will be going to school in dark and returning in the dark with commuters.
School day at lycée in London is 830 to 605pm many days.

French parents complain, but nil will change. they will keep having the conseil de classe, etc but nil will improve/alter..
The timetable is set for the convenience of the profs regardless of impact.

(as are the parent-teacher meetings at teacher convenience, which have a mayhem of parents doing a mock-up of a school day, going from classroom to classroom, while the teacher stays put, bizarrely)

no point in questioning anything, no prof has any 'power' nor does proviseur (who change regularly anyway)
thats just the way it is ! :)

-def check out the homework/constant testing , DD ended up having to drop most extra curric Y8 . academically v rigorous. V traditional teaching methods great - but killed the enjoyment of learning as homework was heaped on.

8:25am - 4pm with 1.5hrs hw

Bonsoir- but french schools often have half day Wednesday for sports and some late starts and permanence in the middle of the day.
We came from the french system and I was convinced we did more hours in school- registration was 8am and often 5.30 finish, however after meticulously adding hours and subtracting holidays I found we did a few hours less annually than UK schools in school but the homework aspect was more than double starting from year 7.
The school holidays were longer than our UK counterparts.

Just outside London: Drop off at 7:30am and pick up at 7:30 pm. All meals taken at school and homework done there as well

DD gets in at 5.30pm 3 nights a week (7pm on the other 2). She showers, eats then chills until 7.30pm, does HW from 7.30 - 9pm then bed.

This way works as she gets to spend time with younger siblings and they are generally in bed or at least winding down when she's doing HW.

Dd walks and leaves at 7.30 because she likes to get there early. Is home by 3.45pm unless staying for after school clubs.

I love the fact that she has time to unwind when she gets home.

About 1-1.5 hrs homework a night though usually due in following week so can be rejigged a little if dd has after school sports and other clubs.

8.15 - 3.20. State secondary school.

bonsoir
try Berlin - it would drive you potty
BUT
teenage sleep hours are variable - my two have a 5 hour gap
and
dd of a good friend has never needed more than 6 hours

• currently doing MRI phD at Oxford ....

The 9.5 hours sleep thing has been a real game changer in our household. I've never been a stickler for early bedtimes but thought I'd give this a try when DD (13) was getting argumentative and behaving in a way that was becoming difficult to manage as she just seemed unable to help herself at times. It was instigated as a'punishment' which she chose rather than losing her iPad for a week. She was so surprised at the difference it made to her overall mood that she has kept it up ever since. That was a few months ago and things are much much calmer around the place now.

Is going to bed at 9.30pm still too early by Paris standards Bonsoir?

We have been having very early starts for years ( choristers) and you just get used to it.

My DC have always been ones to go to bed early though. Even as teens they ask to be tucked in (bless) before ten ( weekends included).

MY Ds (y7) at a prep school starts at 8.30 and finishes at 6.10pm m-f and 8.30-12.15 on Saturday/

During the week he has homework every night of the week factored into this and 3 nights activities all within this time frame. Wed afternoon is mostly matches and saturday is lessons

Its a long day - but when he's home he's home iyswim and little other school related stuff to do

The commute would need to be minimal but even then those hours are tough. With teenage DC needing a minimum of 9.5 hours sleep she would need to be in bed by 9pm to get up at 6.30pm. A 30 minute commute would leave 3 hours in the evening to chill/eat/shower/do homework/practise instruments - that's not a lot of time. It could be as much as 3.5 hours I guess if up at 7am.

My DD manages a similar schedule but refuses to do anything on a Saturday :)

bonsoir
it would take me a while to find the link and the thread but somewhere there is a link to the legislation about teaching hours in state schools in the UK
basically its standardised and has not changed since the 1950's
and because most UK teachers in all sectors are in the main unions, the number of classroom teaching hours in independent schools is darned near the same

the days are longer but the terms are shorter
and the sports / enrichment / homework hours are not part of the official 'teaching' time

DD's school is 8.15 to 4.30pm.

EC activity takes place each lunch time and after school until 6pm (though none of this is compulsory, most girls do a fair bit).

Homework was minimal in years 7 and 8, building in years 9 and 10 to the horror of year 11 .

Matches/reahearsals etc often on Saturdays.

But looooooooooooooong holidays.

She is 15. They have Saturday commitments too......it seems to be pretty much the norm among all her friends, even those at other schools nearby.