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Original poster

Sixth Form Teaching Hours

35 replies

BDonna · 20/09/2019 13:32

How many face-to-face teaching hours does your DC's sixth form provide?

At DD's school (Academy) each lesson is 1 hour.

She is doing 3 A levels and gets 3 hours teaching a day on Mon to Thurs and 2 hours on Fri, so 14 hours a week.

The rest of the time is self-study.

It seems that teachers are often absent too, so actual hours with a teacher are less than this.

I'm worried that this isn't enough.

OP posts:
Aragog · 20/09/2019 18:17

DD is in Y13 now but its similar to when she was in Y12.

3 subjects

  • each subject has 4-5 hours a week. Some are doubles, some singles. The idea is that in one year the subject gets 4 hours, the next year 5 hours. However, this hasn't been the case for two of her subjects - they still only get 4.
They are then supposed to commit an extra hour per subject to be in a classroom for independent work - on coursework or practical elements mainly. Nobody ever checks up on this though and there is no supervising teacher. It's left to trust. Rest is recommended to work independently on each subject but they can do this as and when, wherever they want, and it isn't checked up on. If a teacher is absent it isn't usually covered, unless its mid-long term absence. They are supposed to leave cover work, sent by email to the students. To be fair, most do. But they can then do thes work at home or school.

Form time

  • compulsory once a week, about 20 min.

EPQ

  • think they had some teaching sessions in Y12, but not weekly. Was the odd hour every so often. Then adhoc meetings 1:1 with a tutor, as required.

Assembly

  • the odd compulsory one every so often, bit probably no more than once per half term.

Rest of the time she is free to come and go as she likes. DD is pretty organised and works well at home in her study, both during the day (if not in school til later, or finishes early, and after school into the evening. She still has plenty of free time between lessons where she and friends sit in the local coffee shops chatting and playing cards though! She doesn't really do any of her extra independent study at school as she feels it isn't a great work environment and prefers to put the hours at other times at home.

She has also committed one afternoon a week to relevant work experience, with some extra sessions where she can.

cantkeepawayforever · 20/09/2019 18:12

Both of mine - 2 different schools - are / were 9 hours per fortnight.

However, both schools started everyone with 4 A levels, so 36 hours per fortnight, plus an hour of games / PE per week, then 1 or 2 of EPQ-type stuff / speakers and 1 or so of stuff that looks forward t(UCAS, Unifrog, apprenticeship speakers etc) per fortnight.

in Y13, both schools drop down to 3 subjects, in general, which ups the amount of self study.

BackforGood · 20/09/2019 18:05

Sounds normal to me too.

SqueakyPig · 20/09/2019 18:01

5 Hours a week per subject here (so 15 hours per week) and it is recommended to replicate this in self-study

cricketballs3 · 20/09/2019 17:58

We do 5 hours a week per block, but we aren't covered if we are not in as it's not a legal requirement however we are expected to send through work for students to complete if we are able

BringOnTheScience · 20/09/2019 17:53

4 or 5 hours per A level per week is typical.

IB is 5 hours/week for three Higher subjects. 3 hours/week for 3 Standard subjects. 2 hours/week ToK. Plus compulsory CAS hours!

pikapikachu · 20/09/2019 13:37

Sorry each period is 50 mins and it's 11 periods not 11 hours.

She's at a comp

pikapikachu · 20/09/2019 13:36

I think dd has 11 hours per fortnight per subject. (She's at school so I can't check) She's expected to self study/do homework the same amount that she's in school so this is also 11 hours per subject per fortnight.

noblegiraffe · 20/09/2019 13:36

Ours get 9 per fortnight per subject so about the same as your DD.

helpmum2003 · 20/09/2019 13:34

Ours get 4h per week per A level.

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