New School Day Proposed

[saturnsarah]

DD13 came home from school today (it's an academy) with a letter saying they want to change the school day.

They want to change it so they start at 08.30 and then do not have a break until 11.30. I think this is far too long for children to go without a drink or a proper rest break. They then will have a break until 11.55 and work until 13.15 when they have lunch until 13.55 and then they work from 13.55 until 15.15.

AIBU to think the three hours is too long or am I being PFB?

That is our school day. Works well. They and teachers soon got used to it. They will be allowed water to drink in lessons

We weren't allowed water bottles at school and we didn't get a morning break either. We thought nothing of it.

The OP's timetable is pretty much the same as DS'. He leaves the house at 7:10 and he usually has a snack during the morning break to hold him over to lunch.

My classroom gets up to 29 degrees in the summer, not allowing the kids a drink would be inhumane.

We have a similar timetable with a late lunch. The last lesson before lunch is pretty bad for concentration as the kids and teachers are all hungry and exhausted. We have a slightly later start and a slightly earlier lunch so I reckon it would be worse at the OP's school.

I think your complaint should be about the water, not the three hour lesson block. My boys are at a shiny and new academy and they have water bottles they can fill as they go.

Yanbu. It is counter productive. The students will learn better, think better and perform better with a short break between 80 minute lessons. Obviously it depends on the lesson being done, but if it is 2 sit-still-in-your-seat academic lessons then a short water and loo and stretch break will improve their concentration.

I am a teacher And I would be starving if I had to wait that long for lunch. Teenagers must be chewing the furniture by then.
:)

noble then the heat of the classroom is what needs to be addressed!

Yes, space, it does. I was told to try opening the windows.

There's no legal upper limit for temperatures in schools.

Aren't exams three hours? So teaching them to concentrate for that long without a break surely a good thing

No, exams aren't three hours any more. I guess they realised that expecting kids to produce their best work over that length of time was counter-productive?

Most schools now allow children to have a water bottle in lessons don't they? They don't really need a rest any sooner than that though, secondary school is a lot about preparing children for the world of work. Obviously my working days are longer but I'm allowed to have a drink of water whenever I want to so would expect the same for my children.

I would much rather have a long morning and a short afternoon.

If my 6 month old baby is Ok going 3 hours between a drink (feeds 3 hourly, not interested in water from a cup yet) then I am sure a teenager will be fine.

Our kids are mostly a lot younger than that and do 8.30-11.00 so I think at 13 an extra half hour is fine. We then do 11.30-1.15 with a staggered lunch somewhere in that and 2.00-4.40. So to finish at 3.15 at secondary age is a walk in the park imo.

We discourage water bottles in lessons but don't ban them, children can go for a drink or to the loo during the lesson (in a double lesson we stop in the middle to allow this) and our lessons are only 40 minutes long for a single.

So I think it's the length of lessons and inflexibility that is the problem at your school, not the length of the day.

Water bottles are very recent. Generations of kids survived with just a water fountain to use between lessons.
Highly unlikely a child sitting in a classroom will become dehydrated in three hours.

I can't remember the break times etc at my school, although I do remember that we didn't drink in lessons. Nobody really talked about hydration much then (70s/80s). I'd just hope that they are going to be reasonable about letting pupils go to the toilet - I remember struggling with period flooding at school and it was so embarrassing when the school started being really strict about letting people go to the loo during lessons.

Why do they have to start so early? if they're starting at 8.30, they'll have to have their breakfast pretty early and it'll be a long time until lunch. I wouldnt call 40 minutes a lengthy lunch break either. When i was that age we started at 8.50 for 9.00 and only had 40 mins for lunch, which was quite short by the time you got from class to the canteen, but we finished at 3.20 so a slightly shorter day.

I don't know about the water thing, i went through a phase of hardly drinking anything at school, as you didnt get much time to go to the loo between lessons.

This is such a non-problem. They just need to make sure they get to school for 8:15-8:20 so they can have a drink before school, er like you at work you know....

At secondary school (11+) we started at 8:40 and worked until 11:55 for lunch. Usually single period classes in the junior school but often double classes as we got older. No water/food permitted in school expect at lunchtime. No one carried water bottles in the late seventies/ early eighties. They will adapt

Studies show over and over that a later start at secondary school is far better for results, so why then schools want to start earlier is beyond me.

Logisticly if schools started at 9:40 or 10 it would make travelling far easier for pupils.

YANBU. That is completely ridiculous. 3 hours is too long for learning. All the paedogogical research shows that shorter bursts with frequent breaks are best.

Yes, exams are that long but (1) you're not learning in an exam - it's a completely different skill and (2) most people are completely drained after leaving an exam.

Personally I'd ask to see the research on which the school is basing its decision that this is better for learning. It'll put them on the spot because there just isn't any. This is a decision made solely to cut costs, and it's bad for pupils and teachers. Tbh, I'd consider removing a child from a school with this timetable. I just think it's dreadful.

My school day was like that but we finished at 4, back in the day before water bottles were allowed. I'm not sure I see the problem?
I would have thought they just got them in and settled, then break disrupted everything?

I employed a sixteen year old once, 'what times morning break' he asked.

We did 8.40-11, break, 11.20-13.20, lunch until 14.05 finish at 15.30

We were allowed drinks but no one was really bothered, although most of us did demolish our lunches at break and then ended up in the fish and chip shop with their £1.50 student special at lunch...

Never struck me as being too long, it was definitely the 14.05-15.30 that was the killer..

"Studies show over and over that a later start at secondary school is far better for results, so why then schools want to start earlier is beyond me."

I agree. DD's school day starts at 8.20 and finishes at 2.50. She is a teenager and always tired in the morning.

In DDs primary school (Scotland), the children are encouraged to drink water throughout the day. The information here may help you put a case to the head of your DDs academy:
www.educationscotland.gov.uk/Images/Water_is_cool_in_school_tcm4-663301.pdf

It's a pdf about the "Water is Cool in School" campaign, which explains the benefits of good hydration linked to learning.