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?

[HexU]

No. My KS2 DC wouldn't cope with longer hours and certainly not the younger DC. They already get too much homework that eats into the evenings.

Perhaps home work clubs at secondary schools would be a good idea - somewhere quiet for DC to work but this would need staff and I'm not sure teachers would be happy with that.

More affordable childcare and more wrap around clubs on school sites - yes especially if they have some flexibility and no waiting lists.

[loopydoo]

I totally agree that it's better government provided wrap around care we need, especially for older children who aren't able to be home alone.

Our middle school is piloting a survey to provide wrap around care but it won't be free....it's with a private company who would provide it. As long as it's a reasonable cost, ie not as much as day nurseries charge, then I'm thinking its a great idea. For working parents there is very little in the way of good after school care.

I don't believe children should have formal education later than it already is......but after school chilling out/sports/play is fine. My son has epilepsy and his seizures are triggered by tiredness so I'd worry about him having to do formal lessons after 3:30/4pm

[numberfloutyfour]

No no no. They're not machines that you can just push a bit harder/longer to get better results.

Everything Michael Gove seems to do or suggest makes me take another step towards homeschooling my kids.

[willyoulistentome]

Very very bad idea. Poor kids. The length of the school day should not be all about getting parents to work more and therefore pay more taxes.

Yes, it WOULD allow me to work more, but the school day is QUITE long enough already. My 10 and 8 year olds are shattered after school.... and they are not even that little any more.

I work 35 hours a week, starting very early, but managing to finish in time for school pick up three times a week.

In my case, getting longer working hours was more about flexibilty around the school day, rather than just making the kids stay at school longer. But then I have a DH who does the morning 'kid' shifts. Of course not everyone has this luxury.

[pointyfangs]

No. Voluntary after school clubs - definitely. Optional sports, drama, arts etc. - great idea. Homework sessions at school in secondary so that it doesn't need to be done at home - would be a good idea. But what Gove wants is the Korean model, with children slogging away for ever longer hours and then burning the midnight oil at home as well. No, and no, and no. I will home educate if this comes in, and I am as far from being a believer in home ed (for my own DDs obviously) as it is possible to be because they love school and are thriving there.

[Rufus44]

Don't like the idea of a longer school day, although an extra hour and no homework would be good!

More after school options for working parents would be better

[Cookethenook]

My DS has an 8.30-3.30 school day. They're linked with an infant school, so they do a longer day for the juniors in order to acomodate parents with kids at both schools.

I think this is long enough, even too long, especially with the amount of homework they set them too. What really gets my goat is the fact that 1 hour on friday is dedicated to golden time, which they vote on. Since term began, it's been watching TV. ARGH, just no!

[quoteunquote]

No, It would not work for my children.

[ivykaty44]

I can't understand how when the Finland comes out best for education and they have a short day at 5 hours - why does then GOVE want to break are children by forcing them to be in the classroom for longer when it will not do anything but turn them off education.

Why when they don't get homework or tests do the British government look at what they are doing and then do the flipping opposite

[junkfoodaddict]

I don't support it.
I am a teacher AND a parent and there is no way I want my child staying in any sort of educational or childcare setting until an hour and a half before he goes to bed!
Where is the quality family time?
Is it me or is the government of this country trying to produce workaholic, robotic drones for mass capitalisation? It's beginning to resemble Brave New World!
If 'we' are supposed to keep children in school, extra-curricular activites etc until late into the evening, until parents generally finish work, does that mean MY child will have to endure an institution for longer on school days because I wouldn't be able to leave to pick him up until my work had finished which in effect, would be later than everyone else!
Not so long ago I worked out that in order to work a 7:30am - 5:30pm day (which was being proposed or stated by the British media) I would have to get my nearly-2-year-old to the childminders at 5:45am and not pick him up until 7:30pm which would, at the moment, be after his bedtime!
This government is NOT family friendly and are more committed to producing a mass workforce that work endless hours for the sake of world-wide, glory, profit and mass globalisation! It sounds extreme but that's how I'm seeing it.

[manicinsomniac]

It's fair enough to not want your children doing longer days but I think all those who are saying their KS2+ children wouldn't cope would be surprised.

I teach in a fairly large non selective prep that specialises in taking children who haven't coped in the state system or who selective privates won't take. We have about 40% AN or some kind (physical, educational, emotional, behavioural, mental). It's rare that any of of our children don't thrive, even rarer that they don't cope.

I take the point about inner city schools with no space to play though.

I find even the extended day leaves plenty of time for activities afterwards xanonon Mine do drama, dance or gymnastics most nights - I just had to find sessions that didn't start till 5.30 and weren't more than a 30 minute drive from school.

[comewinewithmoi]

Nope it's not childcAre

[MamaBear17]

I am a teacher and a mum of a pre-schooler. I am heartened by this thread. A longer school day would be detrimental to children in so many ways. I am glad to see that the majority are against it.

[ipadquietly]

NO! The children work hard (much harder than in the past). They get tired.

They are CHILDREN!!!!!!!!!!! They need to play!

[Herisson]

This is a terrible idea. I would not support it (I work and have a child).

[acsec]

As a teacher and a stepmum to a 9yr old boy, I would NOT want a longer school day. As it is I get to school at 7.45am to set up my classroom, the children arrive at 8.30am and leave at 3.20pm (or when the parents arrive which can be 4pm). I then either attend meetings, mark and file work, sort out resources for the next day all before I have to rush off to take DSS to his clubs. I usually leave school between 5.30 and 6.

As it is I bring work home to do. When would I ever have a chance to just be me, if I had to have an even longer teaching day?

[olibeansmummy]

I don't support this at all. Yes I'd be able to work longer ( because I'm a TA) but I actually want to see my child, I want to be involved in his education by helping him with his homework and reading etc and I enjoy taking him to after school activities.

I can already see what would happen; teachers would set out to deliver lots of enriching activities, but as the pressure mounts to achieve results (and don't forget they'll be getting performance related pay) the fun activities would quickly give way to yet more maths and literacy. Of course these extra lessons require extra planning and marking ( the teachers at my school already work till 11pm+) the result being burnt out children and burnt out teachers, with the ultimate result being more sickness of both children and teachers and loss of teachers to other professions.

[muddymarvellousdarling]

For secondary school age DC, an extra hour or two in a Homework club with support would be okay.

But for primary. No way. As a PP says Children need to play/be Children. It's already a long day for them.

Lots of schools have before/after school childcare, also sports clubs. So I suppose, if the Dc are already in some sort of childcare setting/club then it would be easier on a working parent/ less childcare costs.

It's a hard one as i'm a SAHM, and don't use/need childcare.

[Picturesinthefirelight]

I would be absolutely dead set against it

In her last school
Dd left school at 3.30pm (would have been 4pm if she'd gone to the linked seniors) & by 4.15 was in ballet class. She detests sport.

Any school provided extra curricular drama/dance clubs would not have been an appropriate standard.

She would have been dreadfully unhappy if forced to give up her dancing & drama

She does now go to a school whose hours are 9am-6pm. It's a vocational dance/performing arts school & she copes because she is dedicated but gets very tired towards the end of a half term ;& terms are shorter)

Ds would never cope with those hours.

[neverputasockinatoaster]

Hell no!

[manicinsomniac]

acsec it really isn't that bad. I almost never take work home from school. Twice a week I work nights (9.30pm and 11pm finishes) as it's a boarding school but when I am not at work I am free. So it's a very different life from being a state school teacher with much longer 'office' hours but I find that the differentiation between work and home is much clearer than it was when I taught in state. When I am at home I 'get time to be me' instead of trying to mark in front of the tv while making the children's tea or whatever.

[maddening]

no, but there should be more, less expensive wrap around care available.

[ZZZenagain]

no, I would be completely against it

[Spikeytree]

I'm a teacher. I'm in school between 7.30pm and 5pm most days and bring work home. If I was teaching for longer I'd have more prep and marking with less time to do it in, so the quality of my teaching would decline.

Our school day is 8.40 - 3.15 with a 15 minute break in the morning and 45 minutes for lunch. We have 6 periods a day and by period 6 the standard of behaviour declines markedly. I have the same class P6 one day and P1 the next and the difference in what I can get done and how they respond is remarkable. If we had another lesson after that there wouldn't be much learning going on.

[ZZZenagain]

As a teacher then spikey, do you think the current school day is too long?