To ask how often your DD/DS is in college?

[Sienna333]

Friends DD has just started college and has three afternoons off a week. I remember only having a half day once a week. Is this the norm now?

It depends on the course . I assume this is something vocational? A Levels are every day attendance.

DS1 did a C&G and was in 2 days a week, less as the course progressed.

No, A levels. I think they are in everyday but not full days.

An Y12 student has 4.5 hrs a week per a level and should be doing 4 at my college. So they might have three afternoons off, if the blocks fall that way, as there are 24 teaching hours for y12 and they would have 18 hours of lessons. And the afternoon session is 2 hours.

I remember being in a lot more when I was doing my A levels, am quite surprised

Now students are only doing 3 A levels, instead of 4 As levels, they have more Free periods than recently. My daughter stays in college to do her homework, and study. I imagine this enthusiasm will tail off soon

Depends on the college and the course. My DS are both in everyday. Oldest (yr 13) only has 5 study periods (free's) a week. Youngest (yr12) is doing a level 2 Btec and maths and English resits, so his timetable's much lighter. He has 16 hours of teaching week, spread over 5 days.

DD1 has about 3 days' worth of teaching time a week but is expected to be in school full time - and she is. She's meant to do an hour of self study for every taught hour and is sticking to that like glue. But then she was the one we had to stop from over revising for GCSEs.

I had 5 hours per subject, and took 4 subjects in AS and 3 at A2. I had 5 free hours a week during AS (3 late morning starts, one afternoon off), 10 during A2 (two mornings off, two afternoons off). I bloody loved it.

The government funds 16 hours a week and calls that 'full time'. A levels do get slightly more than vocational education. Colleges and schools bodge round with study sessions etc to make it up a bit.

Post 16 education, especially vocational education is,massively underfunded. Contact your MP about it.

2 year - 3 full days, and 2 full days home study.

Year 1 - was similar amount if hours but involved 2 full and 2 short days

Results from year 1 were great (double distinction *) so seemed to be enough hours teaching

Enough teaching if you are bright enough to cope and have succeeded at education.

A woeful amount if education so far has been a struggle.

As usual in the UK we look after the bright kids and neglect everyone else.

It will depend on what subjects they are taking. Having lots of non-scheduled hours doesn't mean they shouldn't be working on their subjects, probably not even that college wouldn't be the best place to do that. It probably means there are essays she should be writing, projects she should be planning, assignments she should be researching. This has probably been explained to her. But whether teens listen is, of course, a different matter.

Where I teach (school 6th form) A-level students get 4.5 hours for each subject, so 13.5 - 18 hours total, plus supervised study which I think is 2-3 hours a week.

Some of my students have one day where they don't have to come in at all, or get lie-ins/early finishes. Others have more awkward timetables with P1 and P5 nearly every day and a lot of trapped time in the middle.