Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

to think it's awful that British children have to spend 8 to 9 hours at/travelling to secondary school, plus 2 hours homework

63 replies

emkana · 18/10/2010 23:44

When do they get any time to be? Dd1's transfer to secondary is getting closer and I'm dreading it! I am from Germany and school finished at 1 pm most days (started at 8), still managed to learn lots and lots, but also had time for other things!

OP posts:

ZZZenAgain · 18/10/2010 23:46

It'S changing in Germany though emkana, you have to keep that in mind. Full day schools as they call them from 8-4pm are becoming increasingly the norm, even from year 1.

Lauriefairycake · 18/10/2010 23:46

Well yeah, that's 5 hours of learning in Germany

Here its the same-ish, just with a lunchbreak and 2 form times.

DD walks 2 minutes round the corner to school

Original poster

emkana · 18/10/2010 23:47

Yes but frequently the afternoon bit is optional, or filled with extracurricular stuff, or filled with getting the homework done so that when school finishes it really is finished.

OP posts:

said · 18/10/2010 23:48

Hey? Where's this? My teen is travelling/at school for 7 hours and seems to do zero hours homework

ZZZenAgain · 18/10/2010 23:48

she'll be fine. It freaks you out no end to have them move into secondary,doesn't it?

Original poster

emkana · 18/10/2010 23:48

Yes!!

OP posts:

GrimmaTheNome · 18/10/2010 23:49

Not really,TBH. My DD has just started secondary; she could have gone to a school nearby which starts at 9 and been home just after 3. She chose the one with a long bus journey - she loves the school and the bus! In year 7 its only about an hour homework, same as she had in yr6. She seems to have plenty of time for other things.

ZZZenAgain · 18/10/2010 23:49

not really emkana. They are striving to make 8-4 compulsory (8-2 I think on Fridays) right across the board and the hw is done after school.

said · 18/10/2010 23:50

What are the childcare options if finish at 1? Where do they all go? Who is looking after them?

Original poster

emkana · 18/10/2010 23:51

In primary school there are childcare options ("Hort", basically an after-school playscheme), in secondary they don't need childcare anymore.

OP posts:

cory · 18/10/2010 23:53

Said, if Germany is anything like Scandinavia, it is unlikely that anyone is thinking in terms of childcare for secondary school children. More likely to be asking them to cook dinner, if they can spare time from their social life .

ZZZenAgain · 18/10/2010 23:53

it worked in Germany, that was the way they did it 8-12 or 8-1pm, sometimes also with school on Saturday morning to fit in all the work. Lunch at home and homework but then the dc were free to do other things. Germany offered (still does) excellent cheap music provision and sports training which a lot of families are no longer able to take advantage of in the same way with the increasing trend towards expanding compulsory school provision from 8-4. If a child then has homework to do , it is difficult to fit in sports club and music lessons and all the other things which Germany does a fantastic job of providing to families of all incomes to a very high standard.

Hard to say what is the right approach really.

chandra · 18/10/2010 23:58

I used to attend from 7 - 2, but that was only because there was a second "shift" of students starting at 2. And then I had to do other 3 hrs of homework a day.

I believe that in Spain children attend from 9 - 5 (primary) but take an hour break and maybe a short nap, at 3.

ScaredOne · 18/10/2010 23:58

Well I graduated from a German highschool n 2007 and travelled there every day by train. It usually started at 8am, meaning I left the house quarter to SEVEN to get there on time. I got up before 6 every day.

Once a week I had school starting at period 0, which is 7.05am. Quite normal at good highschools.

Sometimes school was till 4 or 5 pm and no lunch breaks, only cold bread in between lessons. Other days were till 1pm.

So to be honest, the british school system is nicer. It is regular and you can rely on it. Yes, you might have to travel far and do homework but that's the case everywhere.

ScaredOne · 19/10/2010 00:00

Oh and also, once you are getting to higher levels in English highschools you have way less subjects. I did twelve in my final year at school. Quite a difference whether you have homework and exam preparation for 5 or 6 A Levels or 11 subjects (I am excluding PE here, no preparation done for that or even much participation, lazy me )

AllGoodNamesGone · 19/10/2010 00:00

Mine certainly don't get two hours homework every night. Some nights they don't have any. Years 11 and 9.

said · 19/10/2010 00:01

But what are these teens all doing in the afternoons? They are not all dutifully doing chores/homework/reading improving novels/sports? They're just hanging round teh shops/watching Jeremy Kyle, surely?

LittleRedPumpkin · 19/10/2010 00:02

Yes! It's horrible. I still have really sad memories of getting the bus at 7.30, getting home at 5 and still have 2 hours homework to do - I was 11! It's stupid. You can't learn like that.

LittleRedPumpkin · 19/10/2010 00:03

But said, what''s wrong with hanging round the shops (I draw the line at Jeremy Kyle)? You can't force-feed learning into children, they need some time to be doing their own thing.

said · 19/10/2010 00:06

Nothing. Mine does it all weekend. She's be doing every day though. No-one here to police the Jeremy Kyle viewing so she'd be doing that when it's cold. Oh. She does already. Just seems easier to keep them in school another few hours. She's home at 3.30 so hardly an exhausting day

SarahStratton · 19/10/2010 00:09

Mine are at secondary school, we leave the house at 7.40 for the school run. School starts at 8.40 and finishes at 3.40. One morning break and an hour for lunch. DD1 gets 2.5 - 3 hours homework a night, DD2 gets 1.5-2 hours a night. They will have around 5-6 hours to do over the weekend.They are 17 and 14 and both cope just fine.

There would be a riot if they had to go to school on a Saturday!

ZZZenAgain · 19/10/2010 00:12

I don't know, just because we do it this way in the UK and it was that way when we were at school, doesn't seem enough reason to me for finding it good.

I think it is too long a day personally.

If I came from a country where school ended at lunchtime, I'd be worried thinking about how much longer my dc would be at school. Seems quite a natural reaction to me.

ZZZenAgain · 19/10/2010 00:14

mind you the thought of having to concentrate on school work in any subject at all at 7.05 scares me. Even worse would be doing PE, I'd fall over and break a limb, I'm sure of it.

I wouldn't like to be a secondary school dc again. I think we try and cram too much into children in too long a day. Not even sure it really works tbh for most dc

Original poster

emkana · 19/10/2010 00:15

I spent hours reading as a child.

Dd1 already has little time for it, even though she is at primary school still. But with school, homework, violin practice, playing with her siblings a bit (especially her little brother who is very insistent) it's difficult to fit it in. Before you ask, she doesn't watch TV during weekdays.

OP posts:

Original poster

emkana · 19/10/2010 00:16

I used to have the "zero lesson" at 7.05, horrendous.
School should def start no earlier than 8.

OP posts:

Flip

1 2 3