What were your school hours when you were young (and in which decade?)

[mauvish]

Related to the thread about school starting times.

At my senior school, we started at 9am. There was no such thing as a breakfast club; everyone arrived from about 8.45 onwards. There was a really long lunch break, about 1 hr 40m - some kids went home for lunch but also it was a huge school so they probably needed a longer lunch break to allow for several sittings, I don't remember (I always took a packed lunch, and we were allowed to eat outside in good weather). The school afternoon was 2-4, though you might stay later if you were doing an after-school activity - up to 5pm. This was in the 1970s.

As far as I remember, 9am was the standard school starting time across all ages when I was young. And in infant and junior schools, it was a minority of children who stayed for school dinners; we all walked home and back in the middle of the day.

I guess now that SAHMs are so unusual for families with school age children, people need to get to work in the morning and I wonder if that's part of the reason that the school day starts earlier now.

9 to 4 in primary school with lunch 12:05 to 1:30, 15 min break morning & afternoon, 60s/70s

Secondary school was 8:50 to 3:50 with lunch 12:25 to 1:45, morning break of 15 mins, no afternoon break 70s

Certainly no pre or after school clubs, and all clubs like chess or history club were at lunchtime

Not sure at primary how many went home at lunchtime but the school had a high number of free school meals. The dining hall has since been demolished and is a staff car park, in the 60s most staff walked to school and there are now far more parking spaces than there were staff then!

At Secondary only 2 girls went home for lunch, most had a long journey to school.

9am-3pm with an hour for lunch and I often went home for lunch. This was in the 80's. No such thing as breakfast club or afterschool club.

07:40-14:20, except on Wednesdays when school finished at 1pm due to sports matches. 1980s (but different country where school started early due to the heat).

9 to 4 in the 70’s/80’s. Secondary school had a long lunch break (I remember strikes where we were basically thrown off-site) usually spent hanging around the local chip shop or at someone’s house.

Got to school at 8.30am. School started at 8.50am. School finished at 3.30 pm in primary at 4pm at secondary. After-school clubs twice a week for sports. No breakfast clubs. I had to walk for 30 mins to get to secondary school too and 30 minute's to get home.

9-3 with an hour for lunch but free clubs after school until 4pm.

1960's-70's.

I haven't got the faintest idea to be honest, it hasn't stuck in my mind at all. 1970s/80s. I don't remember anyone going home from lunch, everyone stayed. There were no breakfast clubs etc but we got ourselves to school and back from age 8 (both my parents worked). Before that mum took us and we went home with the neighbour and her grand-daughter who was in my year.

9:00-3:30 in primary school through 80s and 90s. It was 8:50-3:20, I think, in senior school. Dc's now is 8:50-3:20 so not very different at all. They do open the gates at 8:35 and have breakfast club available from 7:30. I know at junior school there were often kids in the playground well before the bell went. They were dropped off early so mums could get to work.

In primary, 09.00 - 15.30 with a 15 minute morning break and an hour for lunch. I think starting around year 4 there was a weekly after school computer club but no other "wrap around" type care. Everyone brought a packed lunch, there was no canteen to provide school meals. This was in the 90s.

Funnily enough I don't remember the timings of secondary even though it was more recent. There were definitely more after school clubs though, but nothing before school.

I think in primary school in the late sixties it was 8:50-3 :30, with morning and afternoon breaks and an hour for lunch.
Quite a few children went home for lunch, but there was no packed lunch option, you either had school dinners or went home. I used to go home by myself from 5, no one was checking. I'd just walk out of the classroom and see myself out.
Most children came to school and walked home without adults, certainly in junior school ( Y3), but many younger than that.
In secondary school, we finished at 3:30 until Y9 or 10, when it was a 4:10 finish.
There was no wraparound care at all, and any clubs at primary were held at lunchtime. There wasn't much need for wraparound care because either the mums were at home , or you were a latchkey child ( from about 7 years old) and looked after yourself until an adult came home. School holidays were more of a problem, I know my Mum would give up her job at the beginning of the summer holidays and start a new one in September, in the years when we were too young to be left alone all day. I think most adults worked shorter days, if you were in an office you'd finish at 5 or 5:30, it wasn't the norm to work late into the evening like it is now.

08:45 to 3:30 I think. Had to actually be in the playground by 08:45 and be sitting in classroom by 09:00. Decade:60's

I went to private school in the nineties.

Primary school - lessons were 9-3.15, but breakfast club started at 8am and after-school club ran until 6pm.

Secondary school - lessons were 8.30-3.20, but school opened at 7.30am and you could stay until 7pm and have dinner on site if you needed to. Buses for day pupils left site at 5.30pm but you could just hang out or go to the library after lessons, or you could use the gym or music studios, or do activities.