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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to ask if anyone can tell me the point of a 2 week timetable?

75 replies

freddiefrog · 11/09/2013 20:53

Eldest daughter started secondary school last week.

They have a 2 week timetable which just serves to confuse the dickens out of everyone, mostly me

Helpfully , school haven't indicated on the timetable which side is week one and which side is week two, meaning that we both got thoroughly confused this morning and she ended up needlessly carting her games kit around all day.

I had been going on the assumption that this week was week 2. Their first week was last week and I wrongly thought that that would be week 1, being week 1 in the term and all that.

I'm sure she'll find her feet soon and it'll all make sense, but dear god, they don't make it easy for you.

Is there a point to it that I'm missing? She has the same lessons each week, just on different days depending on which week it is.

OP posts:

YoniBottsBumgina · 12/09/2013 00:09

We had this when I was at school 14 years ago. It's not a new thing.

Everyone got the weeks mixed up in the first couple of weeks of term, sometimes on purpose "Oh no, miss, I didn't bring my book because I thought it was week 1!"

Most people write week 1/week 2 or A/B etc in their homework diaries in a corner. We also had a big sign at the front of our tutor group (so, effectively, in all classrooms which doubled as tutor rooms) and one at the school office announcing "This is week 1/2" so you couldn't really miss it.

Most school websites are dire so they probably wouldn't think to put anything helpful like the week number on there.

NoComet · 12/09/2013 00:10

We had 7x35 minute English and maths lessons. Also 5x35min per O level subject IRC.

They now have 50 minute lessons, but 3 one week and 4 the other etc.

Averages out to about the same amount of time, but longer lessons waste less time settling down to work.

Still a pita when they forget to update the website with this years week numbers.

YoniBottsBumgina · 12/09/2013 00:11

Normally most of the lessons were the same though and it was just a few which would swap around week to week, IIRC.

The timetable you get given at the start of term is usually terrible as well. Doesn't she want to spend hours copying it onto a smaller, neater sheet and colour coding it?!

themightyfandango · 12/09/2013 00:14

We have blue week and red week. The pages in his planner match the colours of whatever week we are on which is helpful in remembering.

Admiraltea · 12/09/2013 00:14

6 day timetable here. Gave up a long while ago. Dd2 knows what number day it is .. she is awesome. We all bow at her level of organisation.

Jude89 · 12/09/2013 08:52

My brother's school had a 7 day timetable as they played lots of sport on Wednesdays and Saturdays and didn't want them always missing the same lessons. Somehow he managed but I remember being really anxious that my school would have a similar system (but it didn't!)

Original poster

freddiefrog · 12/09/2013 09:09

Not all the days are different, and on most of the days where it is different, it's only a minor difference - maths on a Monday is in period 1 in week 1, period 4 in week 2, she's knackered and overwhelmed and can't remember what she had for breakfast this morning, let alone which period she had maths in 2 days ago

She says there's no immediately obvious signs in school telling them what week it is, and having dug around on the website there's nothing on there. But the big problem was there was no indication on the timetable which was week 1/2

It's a new system for the school as well so it's organised chaos for all at the moment, I'm sure it will be fine once everyone even me gets used to it

Surely at secondary school it's up to the pupils to remember when to take PE kit etc

Well yes, but she only started last Wednesday. It's all very new, they don't have lockers so can't keep games kits in school all the time, the information provided by the school is sketchy at best and she got confused so asked me for help.

OP posts:

happygirl87 · 12/09/2013 09:27

Is she 11? She should have a form tutor or similar, can't she ask them how to tell which week it is?! At my school it was on a blackboard in the big hall.

I think the point is a) to prevent boredom/truancy e.g. as said up thread that "Friday afternoon French" thing, and b) we def had some lessons spread unevenly, e.g PSE was once every 2 weeks.

Mandy2003 · 12/09/2013 11:36

DS's school diaries (called Independent Learning Journals) have which day it is from 1 to 10 printed alongside that day's date. It does get confusing after half terms etc as to whether they are starting back on a Day 1 or a Day 6 so then the journal has to be consulted.

She could sit and write that on the diary if its not printed on. I guess if she went back to school last Wednesday that would have been Day 3? Monday just gone Day 6?

I think it works really well although I was really surprised when I heard about it on Induction Day.

HattyJack · 12/09/2013 11:44

It's not that complicated - although it would seem the OPs school has some teething problems in that they haven't labelled the timetable as week 1 or week 2.

If we could manage a 7 day timetable without homework diaries to help us, and without having friends on the end of Skype, Facebook and their own phone, I don't think any 'modern' child should have too much issue with remembering, or being able to find out, if it is week 1 or 2.

I do remember going back after one half term with books for every subject and a PE kit because I didn't know what day it was. That also worked.

And I really did appreciate the 7 day timetable for the fact that you didn't have the same lessons at the same part of the week. When I was a teacher I used to hate my Friday afternoons because I had my two hardest-to-motivate classes. I don't think it was a coincidence that they were hard to motivate on Friday afternoon, but that was the only time I saw them in the week, and they did less well than the other groups I saw at other times in the week. If the school I'd taught in had a 7 day timetable, I would have seen them on different days of the week, which would have been better for them and me.

eddiemairswife · 12/09/2013 12:16

Not the same school Hattie. We had an old house at the front, and a large modern extension behind it. At least it was modern then; probably classed as an ancient monument now.

TheContrastofWhiteonWhite · 12/09/2013 12:22

Two week timetables are good, for the reasons people have said.

It should be clear on the timetable and at least somewhere at school what week it is though. Our main entrance (which only parents, staff and sixth formers were actually allowed to walk through!) had a big 'week 1' or 'week 2' sign blu tacked in the window.

HattyJack · 12/09/2013 12:29

The school I went to has been knocked down, addiemairswife I can walk through a car park and reminisce. "Eeeh I remember when this were all classrooms" :)

Spikeytree · 12/09/2013 19:48

Hatty, was the school in a park?

TheContrastofWhiteonWhite · 12/09/2013 20:31

My school has been knocked down too...

lucjam · 12/09/2013 20:39

My dd started secondary last week. They have week A and week B. She was given a diary from the school which has a or b printed on each day to show what week it is. It also has school closed in big black letters across inset days and all holidays. Must cost the school a small fortune to give one to every pupil as there are 350 year 7's but its very helpful. Are you sure they don't tell your dd what week it is?

FrogsGoWhat · 12/09/2013 20:42

The school I work in publishes which week is which (1 or 2) in both the school diary issued to parents AND on the term dates sheet on the website - although it's not necessarily obvious - just a little 1 or 2 by each week row of the calendar....

RubberBullets · 12/09/2013 20:55

Our timetables were the same every week. There was a balls up when we reached year 10 when they realised that they had given us more lessons than the timetable allowed for. The school's solution to this was to make us stay on until 4 on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Not sure how they managed to make this mistake as it hadn't happened previously and it was only our year that was affected. To get round the problem for the future they made people choose either history or geography whereas both were compulsory for us so we were the only year every to have to do it. All our lessons were 50 mins long.

KittyKatkatKat · 12/09/2013 20:59

If she started last Wednesday, surely she was following one of the timetables on Thursday and Friday last week? So this week she's following the other timetable.

It sounds very unlikely that her tutor hasn't told her which week she's on. Your DD has more likely forgotten.

MrsMongoose · 12/09/2013 21:00

I liked a 2 week timetable at school, the variety was nice.

HattyJack · 12/09/2013 21:50

Spikeytree no, the school wasn't in a park. It was falling down when I was there and not long after I left they built a new one on the playing fields and then knocked down the old one, which is now mainly a car park. No idea if they still do a seven day timetable though!

sleepyhead · 12/09/2013 21:58

I still have anxiety dreams about losing my timetable and not knowing where I'm meant to be.

I left school in 1990

Lomaamina · 12/09/2013 22:09

OP one tip is to not be like me and be too dim to realise what happens after half term (namely, if it was week 1 in the last week before the break than obviously except to me you have week 2 when you go back).

And yes, I do think it's entirely reasonable to help your newbie year 7 with her organisation (I still do so with my 15-year-old: why not? We all need help working out things sometimes!)

CandidaDoyle · 12/09/2013 22:17

My school introduced a 2-week timetable when I was in sixth form - many, many moons ago.

We were told the reason for this was that over the course of a year the school was closed on a disproportionate number of Mondays due to bank holidays, inset days etc. So subjects only taught on Monday, might only be taught a handful of terms in the spring term, when everything should be gearing up for exams.

By having the 2-week timetable, they could vary the subjects which fell on Mondays.

CaffeineDeficit · 12/09/2013 22:26

I'm another one who suffered with an eight day timetable, over twenty years ago! This was justified by explaining that we wouldn't always miss the same lesson for music lessons each week. In practice, it meant lots of conversations along the lines of "so, is this Monday Day 3 or Day 4?" and every so often you'd have a day where you needed to lug books, PE kit, home ec ingredients and a musical instrument. In retrospect, I think it just amused the Head.

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