To think extending the school day is a terrible idea

[footballdisharmony]

Apparently Boris thinks that extending the school day is the 'right thing to do' (as reported in the Guardian today) I think this is an awful idea. I'm interested what others think?

I think keeping them at school longer is a mistake and is unlikely to be properly resourced to really make positive impact. Why not just invest in more more teachers/TAs/targeted help. A longer day just eats further into time with friends and family, and time to do other extra curricula activities that children actually really want to do and get a lot from. My primary DC already have homework, spellings, times tables and reading to do after school - surely they need a bit of time to just relax and play!

How many more people are going to say ‘private schools do longer days’? They have much longer holidays so you can’t compare the two. They also have much smaller class sizes. A secondary teacher has, say, 8 classes of 30 students = 240 students and 240 tests and books to mark every few weeks. If a private school teacher had 8 classes of, say, 10 that’s 80 tests to mark every few weeks so there’s a huge difference in workload and that’s not considering the different lengths in parents’ evening, time spent emailing individually parents and students which obviously increases the more students you teach, time spent making, printing and setting out resources for 30 students 5 times a day etc. I know private school teachers will have increased workload and stresses in other areas (eg increased pressure from parents, possibly more extra curricular activities), but you just can’t really compare state to private in my opinion.

we had an hour for lunch and I'm sure we had an afternoon break as well as a morning one. Also the curriculum was less controlled so I seem to remember doing lots of craft/singing/PE in the afternoon - and there was always time for the teacher to read us a story before home time. I loved that - I was introduced to lots of books/authors that way.

That sounds great to me. More time to play & do nice activities.

[quote SlothinSpirit]@RaindropsOnRosie. What do you think the parents should do with babies then if they need to work? Take them to the workplace? Leave them in a desk drawer when they have to go to meetings?[/quote]
I think there should be better provisions to prevent parents from being in that situation, no parent should be in a situation where they have to leave their child earlier than they want or need. It's not the parents I'm mad at!

Doubt it will happen. Doesn't work for a lot of parents and after school clus would all suffer as there would be no need for them.

Also how would you have felt as a child if you were told the school day was extending an hour? I’d have been furious 😂

Mine go to private school, their day is long (8.45 (with clubs before)-4 (with clubs after)) and they have homework when they get back. They get to do a lot more enrichment activities and get longer school holidays. I think it is a good idea as long as it's funded properly and I mean paying teachers more alongside extra staff for this.

Also, I think from reading the comments a lot of parents don’t realise that lunch breaks have just reduced which is why the day seems shorter. I had 1 hour 20 at secondary for break times, whereas the school I teach only has 1 hour (2 half hour breaks) so we finish 20 mins earlier.

(In a lot of instances)

@quizqueen

Extending the day till 4 pm would be reasonable, even if the teachers just read a story to them and then discussed it. That would be a relaxing end to the school day.

Be tough on the group of children I know including my own daughter who then start at the dance school at 4.30pm

Childminders, nannies and after school club providers would all suffer come to think of it.

Completely agree but millions of parents shove their kids in nursery from 6months+ childcare from 7am - 7pm and no one has an issue with that! (whole working mum brigade of my kid is being enriched and it's perfectly fine blah blah)

Oh, get in the bin.

I won’t worry about it. This is a government spend £22 per primary school child to help them catch up. They are not going to be funding an extended school day anytime soon.

Schools seem to close earlier by the year.
I can remember we went for 8.50 for registration, started at 9am and left school at 3.45 a proper day of learning.
Primary was 9.00am - 3.15pm

My 16 yr old daughter goes to a Indepedent school and they start at 8.30 and finsh at 5.15. But then expectations in every aspect of their behaviour and education is set very high.

People are happy to put their very young children in nursery between 8 and 6 so I don't really see the opposition to the actual lengthening of the time they would spend at school.

There is no way this would happen though. Secondary school lunch times used to be so much longer, hence kids finishing at 4pm when I was at school in the 80s. Now they've cut the lunch break short to try to reduce the behaviour issues, and it's a frantic rush to get them all fed and through and back into lesson. THAT'S why they finish the school day apparently "early".

They make me laugh the way ministers who've been educated in the private system announce these pie in the sky plans for state schools. It's just champagne plans on a lemonade budget.

Personally I think they want to keep secondary kids in school for longer as too many are causing anti social behaviour issues after school. if your kid's not sporty there's little for them to do after school, hence the hanging round high streets and parks in gangs etc.

Plus more families with 2 FT working parents means that teens have difficulty getting across town to attend clubs.

I have liked them starting school at 8.30 but it’ll move to 8.55 in September - hardly enough to pay for childcare and options are limited but no chance if starting work at 9am. My boss will have to her used to me starting after 9am every day again. But I don’t want them in school longer at primary. Our secondary finished at 2:50pm so I think they could do an extra hour if I’m honest.

'People are happy to put their very young children in nursery between 8 and 6 so I don't really see the opposition to the actual lengthening of the time they would spend at school'

I think the fact that nursery for babies/young children is completely different to school is a key factor.

And of course not all parents are happy to put their children in nursery 8am-6pm. Some are happy about it. Some aren't happy about it but do it because they have no other choice. And many, many, many don't do it, using alternative childcare/not working/working part time etc.

My DC's high school is shortening school hours as from September.

Let’s face it, they can propose whatever they like but it won’t happen because it would actually involve funding the education system effectively.

My school has lost 3 TAs this year and won't be replacing them as we can't afford to, we don't even have the budget for paper and glue sticks. We have hand driers instead of paper towels due to cost, a lot of the nursery children are terrified of the hand drier so just don't wash their hands if left to toilet independently which is a whole other issue! I don't think extending the school day is going to happen anytime soon.

I think school is more tiring/structured than nursery though...DS1 happily did 4 days a week nursery 8.45-5.45 aged 2.5/3, now at 5 he comes home at 5.15 and can be weepy and overtired on after school club days.

The school I teach at is 8.50 till 3.35. Most staff are in well before this. Most pupils come by bus which leave the premises by 4pm. So our day would actually end at 4.30 for Most pupils. Lots have journeys of over an hour. Ridiculous idea.

The actual teaching hours haven't changed but breaks have been drastically shortened. My lunch breaks in school were at least 1.5 hrs now most secondary schools have at most 0.5 hrs. Similar with break times - we had two 20 minute breaks. Now it's one 10 min break

@thecognoscenti

I think it's a great idea provided it's not all lesson time - as a PP said, if it's drama/music/sports. So many more parents (especially mothers) will be able to work full time and not be financially and professionally crippled by having to fit their working lives into the shorter hours.

I agree with this, as someone who's child will need to go into wrap around care anyway to enable me to work. However it needs to be properly funded and staffed, which I doubt BoJo will do.