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Original poster

A Level teaching time/ fuding help

55 replies

Piggywaspushed · 23/09/2017 11:47

Before going in to full attack mode with DS's sixth form, I want to get some facts straight. I am sure there are people who can help me on wonderful MN!

Can anyone explain how sixth form funding works? I recall hearing a couple of years back that schools are no longer funded 'per leg' as our head used to say, but that they have to prove they are providing a certain number of hours of 'education'? At my place, there was much discussion about how we would be able to prove this to DfE but I didn't pay much attention.

Now, DS has started full A levels in Spanish, business and politics. They have 12 x 50 minute lessons (all doubles) on the timetable per fortnight. In business and politics, two of these lessons (ie one double ) is unstaffed (we have this at my school so I am not unfamiliar with this concept, even if it is not the greatest idea in practice!) so essentially they are having 10 50 minute lessons (some of them are 55 mins : weird). less than a private school but I can live with it.

But here comes the big however..

However, in Spanish (where I also suspect the teacher is not qualified : she is a native speaker, young and not strong in the classroom ) there are FOUR non taught lessons, so only 8 x 50 mins with a teacher per fortnight. Since these are all doubles, he basically only sees the teacher 4 times a fortnight. This is unacceptable for so many reasons! In addition, in the large number of already untaught lessons, work hasn't really been provided or set and MFL is not exactly something you can teach yourself! In case anyone is wondering, this is it : the classes are not shared between two teachers.

I think the school is going to justify this by saying they have 12 lessons, but that's bollocks, isn't it? And it isn't the same as other subjects! I know in French 11 of the 12 lessons are being taught.

It's a shambles.

The one fact I do know is A levels are predicated on 360 hours teaching time and DH reckons that's about 9 hours a fortnight.

They really should have communicated this better, shouldn't they?

Advice? Help? Thoughts? Shared dismay?

OP posts:
Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 23/09/2017 13:05

Sorry, I know it's a bit confusing. Took me ages to try to make it clearer. Lots of schools do teacherless lessons; it is very normal in state sector.

But, no, as I said, (I think!) they have a fortnightly timetable.

If you want to talk per week for clarity, DS is getting approx 3h25 mins of teaching in Spanish.

OP posts:
titchy · 23/09/2017 12:58

Your post is a little confusing - do they have 5 hours per subject per week? 50 mins of which are without a teacher for business and politics, and for Spanish its 1 hour 40 without a teacher?

I'm not sure about the concept of teacherless lessons and I'd question the quality of provision overall. That's said they have more contact hours in two subjects than my dc does, and only a little less in the third subject (four hours per subject per week) so they are fulfilling their funding requirements (although I don't think sixth forms in school have any such requirement as part of funding in the way that colleges do - they're funded differently).

Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 23/09/2017 12:49

Must remember to typo check subject line : it should say funding

OP posts:
Original poster
Piggywaspushed · 23/09/2017 12:49

They are quite common- blame the government/ funding cuts/ understaffing ...

A clearer example would be:

Anytown High School A level student:

One A level = 10 hours per fortnight on their timetable,

One hour is unstaffed (not on the teachers' timetable as the poor sods are off teaching bottom set year 8) and students are expected (haha!) to be doing work on that subject in that hour.(fat chance)

There is a lot of workload chat in our school about this (for staff not students!)

So in the scenario above, most poeple would say those students were getting 9 hours a fortnight taught time, even if the school can report they are getting 10 hours 'guided learning'.

My DS's situation is more complex than that but we have just worked out that he is getting very little taught time (frankly all I care about!). It's more than average 'guided time ' at 10 h 30 mins per A level but he taught time for bus and pol is 8h 40 and for Spanish is 6h50.

It's because of budget cuts, a teacher ( a brilliant one!) who left, a teacher (a good one!) on maternity leave and a national recruitment crisis in MFL. I sympathise with the school on those fronts but it should not have this kind of impact on learning.

OP posts:
Userwhocouldntthinkofagoodname · 23/09/2017 12:23

What the heck is an untaught lesson? I have never heard of that, it sounds like homework. The school must be doing something dodgy its mental.

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