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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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:

said · 19/10/2010 00:21

I missed the posts about school starting at 7 I'm not even up by then and I work. Starting at 8 sounds bad as well.

Nice if you have children who enjoy reading but not all kids are readers.

LittleRedPumpkin · 19/10/2010 00:22

See what you mean said - not so much the activity as not being able to control it, that makes sense!

I do find it telling that one of the commonest complains from first-year undergraduates is that they're 'not spending enough time in class': having been crammed into structured lessons/homework for years, they have no idea what to do when they're not timetabled.

It's also telling that apparently real academics, whose business is learning, don't spend very long each day trying to think about something new (a couple of hours, maybe). I know children are different from adults, but still ...

ScaredOne · 19/10/2010 00:22

I agree, I hated it. Only once a week but it meant taking a train no later than 6.30! So I left the house around 6am, it was absolutely ridiculous and I wasn't back home till 5 that day either. Long day.

I just find it nicer to have a regular day like here in the UK and not one day from 7-5 and others from 10 to midday. I prefer it nicely spread out and like the long lunch break

ScaredOne · 19/10/2010 00:22

Oh, that was to Emka, typing too slowly

SarahStratton · 19/10/2010 00:26

How on earth does that early start work when they are teenagers? It's a hell of an effort for the DDs to get up on time to leave at 7.40 as it is. If they had to be in school 40 minutes before that, well I'm not sure how they would cope. Obviously they would have to but it seems incredibly unreasonable.

ZZZenAgain · 19/10/2010 00:28

7 is the exception (probably down to time-table/scheduling issues), 8 is the regular starting time

ScaredOne · 19/10/2010 00:31

In my school everyone had such an early start at least once a week. Otherwise it was 8, yes. Oh and primary school started at 7.45am. Weirdly enough my small town had different times than the high schools in the city close by. So Sarah, by the time your kids get up I was in school every day. I really really prefer other school systems, have worked with both kids in the States and the UK now and can say they are well fitter in the morning. When leaving the house before 7 as a teenager I never had breakfast etc, just because I could not be arsed to get up even earlier

ScaredOne · 19/10/2010 00:36

Oh and (again forgot something, of course), while 7.45 for example was the regular starting time you could not rely on that. Sometimes you would have to be in for first periods but other days not. So school hours are irregular in both when you start and when you end. Try being a single parent with something so stupid. My mum had huge issues.

ZZZenAgain · 19/10/2010 00:38

I never really understood why secondary school in Germany didn't always start at the same time every morning because surely the teachers have to be there at the same time every day

SarahStratton · 19/10/2010 00:40

It sounds hideous :( And not much better (if not worse) for free time. At least UK kids know exactly what to expect as the times are static. I would also have huge issues.

Original poster

emkana · 19/10/2010 09:30

ZZZ, German teachers are only required to be present in school for the lessons that they actually teach, so if their is not until the third period for example, they don't need to come in before 9.30 or so.

OP posts:

sarah293 · 19/10/2010 09:39

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn

Original poster

emkana · 19/10/2010 09:40

So a 10 hour day - more than a lot of people in paid employment!

OP posts:

canella · 19/10/2010 09:42

schools in bayern dont seem in any hurry to change to a full day yet zzen!! still very much an option at the gymnasium but every other school is still only in till lunchtime! and no 7am starts here yet! think my dd would cry!

i agree that school in the UK is a long day but emanka she wont have loads of homework to begin with - they break them in gently to it!

WidowWadman · 19/10/2010 09:42

I went to school in Germany, and when I started secondary school, it was 8-1, one or two days 8-2, during the week, plus 8-12 every other saturday. Once I made it to Oberstufe sometimes days ended at half four. And I had to commute an hour each way. And of course I had to do homework.

MrsC2010 · 19/10/2010 09:43

YANBU.

abr1de · 19/10/2010 09:47

Mine are out of the house at 7.30am, home again at 6pm.

It's a long day, and often there is homework, too, if they haven't done it in prep.

But they have long holidays. That makes up for a lot. In the sixth form they are able to leave earlier.

FluffyDonkey · 19/10/2010 09:57

Don't move to France. I know a 6 year old who starts school at 8.30 am and finishes at 4.30pm. This time will get later as she gets older. My DH often used to finish at 6.30pm . He thinks the hours are really short in the UK.

I used to start at 8.45am and finish around 3.30pm with a 50 minute lunchbreak. Homework rarely took more than 90 minutes per day at GCSE level. Plenty of time to do lots of other activities.

Gory09 · 19/10/2010 10:06

When was in High Shool in Swizerland we used to strart at 7.30am (to allow us saturday afternoon off)the bus to school was at 6.30am I do not know how we/our parents managed it! I struggle with mine starting at 9 o'clock.

In primary we were going from 8 am to 11 am then went back home for lunch start again at 1pm until 4pm. 6 hours, pretty much like here as my dcs start at 9am and finish at 3.15 but with only 1 hour break at lunch time.

GrimmaTheNome · 19/10/2010 13:24

Gory: So was it pretty much compulsory for swiss mothers to be SAHMs? That model wouldn't work here at all nowadays.

MotherMountainGhost · 19/10/2010 13:41

DD2 is in a Ganztagschule (literally an 'all-day school') from 8-4, and although that time is supposed to cover their homework, in practice it doesn't and they have extra work in the evenings and weekends. That time also in theory covers activities and music lessons, but we have a crap new head at the moment who's trying to squeeze all that out so they can do extra group projects. DD2 is exhausted and I'm fed up with it.

DD1 has just started Gymnasium (grammar school) in year 7, and they start at 8 and go through to 2.30, and 3.30 twice a week. Only 30 mins for lunch break, so they have 7 or 8 45 minute lessons in that time. She has to leave the house at 7 am and gets back at 3.30 or 4.30, then there's homework and constant revision for tests. Also crap and exhausting. School in the UK was so much easier than this. Starting at 8 is just idiotic, especially for teenagers, especially in winter. It's like some sort of perverse competition for how much kids can take before they crack, and then you read newspaper articles about how much headaches and depression are increasing among children. Well, big surprise.

ZZZenAgain · 19/10/2010 13:51

you're in Germany MMG?

ZZZenAgain · 19/10/2010 14:10

when you're in Germany the media are full of people banging on about Ganztagsschulen like they're the new vehicle for salvation: We need more Ganztagsschulen. The answer to lack of integration of migrants is Ganztagsschulen. The answer to everything seems to be Ganztagsschulen. Worth a try I suppose but I do think it is far too long a day, particularly for primary. When you have travel time and homework on top of that, it is exhausting.

I had the impression that a distrust of parents was in part a motivation for expanding these type of schools. The govt has said that the aim is to have Ganztagsschulen as the main school type throughout the country. I suppose the reasoning is that children from immigrant families are exposed to more German if they are at school longer, and also to general socialising away from the parental culture - and the much disparaged Hart IV (long term benefit) families need their dc away from the parental home as much as possible for their own good. It comes across to me a bit like that.

I do have the impression though MMG, from reading threads here on MN, that schools in the UK are turning into cram schools in a way too, more so than when I was at school.

ZZZenAgain · 19/10/2010 14:11

Hartz IV

titchy · 19/10/2010 14:30

I'm not sure our system is so bad. Both mine leave at 8 to get to school at 8.30 - 8.45. 5 hours of lessons. Home by 3.45.

Chillout (wathc tv) and snack till 4.30. Then an hour of homework. Tea 5.30 - 6.00. Between half an hour and an hour music practice each night takes them to no later than 7pm.

Then an hour of facebook , reading, chatting, Cubs, swimming club, band etc and bed at 8 or 8.30. Still quite reasonable.

Obviousy the schedule may change depending on the time of any non-school clubs but the quantities of time are the same - nothiing for example stopping dc2 doing maths homework while dc1 at swimming club.

If they do an after school club I pick them up so they're home at 4.15 so still chillout time before homework starts.

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