To ask if parents support a longer school day?

[namechangingf123]

As Michael Gove is proposing? Would it help you as a working parent?

How long would suit you/your child? And if you didn't agree with longer day (as I don't) would you/could you just pick DC up at 3.15ish as usual?

god no.

my younger ones would be knackered and as for it being a way to stop obesity! my.kids are skinny as rakes. but they walk to school and back and we often stop at the park. they do extra sports and after school clubs if they want to.

my kids also play out tho...which would see me labelled as a bad parent on another thread.

i dont want them at activities everyday after school and i want to spend time with them, prepping dinner together and even doing homework etc together. we can do.it at our own pace and chat etc and then i cam still get little ones in bed by 7:00pm but its relaxed and not rushed.

quite happy to have there be good wrap around childcare there for those that need it, but not to make it compulsory.

Longer school day but with more sports to fill the extra time.

Yes this would be fine IMO. Sports, or drama, or Brownies, or crafty stuff after 3pm. What we do anyway really.

None if the three schools my kids attend offer adequate music drama and dance across the spectrum my kids wish to access (the primary is rubbish full stop, both secondaries have some strengths but some weaknesses and not one of the school offers any dance). I have no reason to believe that if the school day was extended any of the schools would magically stop being to a greater or lesser extent sub optimal with its arts provision.

primal I don't think my DD2 would consider losing her dance and drama lessons and having them relaxed with compulsory guides or brownies or sport as anything other than a breach of her human rights. :(

One problem with "longer school days but more sport" is that it leaves no opportunity for children to develop their own interests: they will be stuck with whatever their local school can offer, even if they are Olympic sports material or promising violinists.

It leaves no space for those children who simply need to crash out for an hour or so after school before they can engage with after-school activities.

And no space for those children who want to use their initiative and provide their own after school activities: the children who write stories or read stories or simply play outside.

And absolutely agree with 5madthings about wanting time together.

Providing longer school hours and extra sport will cost money. If we put that money into improving optional childcare we can still help working parents but allow them to be flexible.

For clarity - I'd be annoyed (but possibly better off financially). She'd think it was the End Of The World.

And the worst thing is that parents are criticised enough for the amount of time we don't spend with
them, or for not feeding them or for not having family time and dinners together , for kids not having suitable age appropriate bed times etc. Every aspect has apparently been reported by teachers and damning reports filed about lack of parenting. Yet now he is on about keeping them for even longer? Increasing tiredness, burn out, and then we have to send them in the next day for teachers to try and teach. Yeah conducive to learning these worn out frazzled kids.

Private schools do longer days often.

And it doesn't seem to affect acadmeic standards. And the DC all seem able to do a whole raft of extra activities. And there's no evidience they're all from utterly miserable families who only recognise one another by name badge!!!!

At 4, mine did 8.30 - 3.45.
At 7, mine did 8.30 - 4.15.
At 11, mine did 8.30 - 4.45.

But these were basic hours. Many kids got in earlier for choir, orchestra, sports. Many kids stayed later for all manner of clubs.

That said, we get much longer holidays!!!!!

I would welcome longer hours for the older 2 DCs at High School - up here they finish at 3.40, with a 12.30 finish on Friday (8.30 starts), and I firmly believe that they could be using the additional hours in the day more productively, perhaps with homework clubs or study sessions. I wouldn't want the 6 year old to have a longer school day - he finishes at 3.15 and then goes onto an after school club until DH or I pick him up around 5.30. That's a long enough day imo.

Most parents I know work anyway, so a longer school day wouldn't affect them much.

From a parent point of view, my child already goes to a wonderful childminder before and after school. She gets to play with her friends and chill out. I would not want her in school for this time. She is 8 and still gets very tired towards the end of the week and is nearly on her knees now because this half term is 8 weeks.

I do agree that there should be more before and after school child are available. This should be child are, not education.

As a teacher I think we need to reduce class sizes. One morning a week my class is split and I have 17 instead of 34. The amount they learn on that morning is tremendous compared to the rest of the week.

Secondly as a teacher I currently work 3 days a week and get paid for 20 hours. I work in an average week 35-40 hours. When I worked full time I put in about 60 hours a week.

This does not include the hours I work in my so called holidays.
Yes Mr Gove I love my job. No Mr Gove I don't love it so much I want to work even more hours for no extra pay. I am not superwoman and I do have a life outside of work.

I think school hours and terms are long enough as it is in this country.I grew up in the States and had an 8:15-2:15 school day in primary years, with half-days once a month and a luxurious two and a half summer break.

Quantity does not necessarily equal quality, Mr Gove, etc...

None of our local primaries have anything that could reasonably be described as a playing field. Most urban schools don't.

A longer school day would have meant our children taking all their daily exercise on a small patch of concrete instead of climbing trees in the park or exploring the woods with a parent or childminder. No space for more than one class to e.g. play football at any one time.

No drama teacher in primary and only the most basic dance lessons with an unqualified teacher.

Instruments taught in school but no space for individual children to practise their chosen instrument.

tiggy that is absolutely true!

And frankly, it is no easier for working parents, because whilst one has a longer day to play with, the kids are off 21/22 weeks off a year!!!!

I think I'd like to see core time, say 9-3, and optional time between 7.30-9 and 3-6, which was more about things like free play, extra music, drama and art, friendship building, homework clubs, music practice, chillout zones, possibly a bit of sport and the occasional trip out swimming or whatever. I wouldn't expect classroom teachers to be responsible for all of that though. I see that as supplementary to education.

If they start wanting my kids in 9-5 every day from when they are barely out of nappies, sitting in rows like the French, I think we'll dump the whole school thing as a concept, tbh.

In primary, I did 9-3.30, in secondary it was 8.30-4, and in sixth form it changed to 8.50-3.20pm. That was long enough. I stayed for after school clubs as my parents worked, but I wouldn't have wanted to be in structured lessons for any longer.

I think especially difficult proposal in rural areas when high travel times each way are common.

14yo DS is in favour of the idea. But only if it means no homework. 8 hour days plus homework would be ridiculous in his mind.

I looked at a private girl's secondary school that does 8 hour days. Plus > 1 hour travel time from here each way. Plus an hour of homework most nights. Room for a life? I don't think so.

BTW I think children should be in classes of 20 and certainly no more than 24. Our class sizes are huge and the teachers are spread too thin. Yes, there were bigger class sizes in years gone by, but if children misbehaved teachers were allowed to bash kids with rulers, and also everyone was forced to do the same work at the same time. Now that has changed we need to keep class sizes as small as possible. 20 is achievable and allows the class to have a bit of a social life of its own without as many noise and organisation problems as classes of 30 experience.

Why is there the need to push young children into work style hours? Do 4 year olds really need that.

I don't think you can compare private schools with state schools, as the former often has larger grounds, better facilities, a wider range of teaching staff and more often than not, half the class size of a state school.

I think there should be less forced into the curriculum and more time spent learning the basic foundations of subjects rather than walking before they can run. Longer learning days wouldn't improve test scores and magically increase all round levels if the children are too tired to learn.

Gove is so out of touch with state education it would be funny if it wouldn't damage so many children.

cat that's true.

If my DC stayed after school to do, say, football, there were proper pitches and PE staff. Often specialists from outside would come in for clubs/activities.

And drinks/snacks were always provided too!

Wordfactory said what I was going to.

My daughter who is in Year 2 does 8.30pm to 3.30pm currently four days a week. The fifth she starts early to do a class.

I wouldn't support longer than that for Primary but would for secondary.

And yes to whoever said that concetrating on smaller class sizes is more important.

Nope, would not want that for my kids.

In primary we already try to squeeze all the maths and literacy into the morning lessons because that's when the children are at their brightest, and that is when they learn. We try to keep the afternoons for sports, craft, IT, nature studies - less intense lessons.

In case anyone out there is thinking that perhaps it would be a great idea to stick an extra maths lesson for this age group in at, say 3.30 ... you are seriously deluded! NOTHING would get learned. By that time of day the average kid is lolling in their chair, has an attention span of about 5 mins. and needs to be allowed to stitch off, with a change of scenery and pace. ie: home or a relaxed after school club.

I'm also mulling over the ways in which the government would manage to wriggle out of paying support staff for these extra hours while the classroom are all still in use. TAs etc already tend to do at least 30/45 mins unpaid work per day. In the empty classroom at the beginning and end of the school day, doing displays, sorting equipment for the next day, helping lesson plan with the teacher, sorting lost property, printing off letters, printing off work sheets etc etc etc. These seem like small considerations - but if the school is still in full swing and full of pupils at 4.30/5pm, when is all this going to get done? Later and later. (and will these staff ever get paid for it?)

No. Would feel v sorry for my kids if they had to do this. They need their down-time too.

It is absolutely about childcare, in independent boarding schools the children are supported to study, play sports, socialise in a safe environment. It's good for them and makes much more sense than going from home to childminder to school to childminder to club to home (for example)

Yes in an ideal world we would all work 9.30 til 3 and have enough money to support everyone but it doesn't work like that.

People need to stop viewing it with the idea that it will be a longer school day and instead look at how well it works with boarding children.

I think it would take the pressure off parents a lot, which would be good for kids.

The major problem with the education system in this country is that it is too "one size fits all".