To think a 3:20 finish is absurd?

[Itsr]

It’s mostly mums at the school gates. Because the 3:20 finish worked well at a time when most women stayed at home.

now most women work, which means two parents working, why does school finish ar 3:20?! Yes I know there are after school classes etc but some don’t go on for too long and they also cost.

what actually is the reason why the school day isn’t aligned with a work day (like it is with most private schools!)

Because kids get tired and need to finish attempting to learn stuff.

Because school is to educate and is not childcare?

Are you saying you think it should end at say 5pm? Because that would be a long day for younger children in primary school.

Also teachers dont finish their day at 3.20pm. ending the school day later would make teachers day too long with homework marking and lesson planning after 5pm

And you are assuming everyone works the same hours. What about shift workers? Should their kids schools do the same

Because schools are about what's best for the children.

Because it’s not work for the children.

Because the staff who work there do longer hours than the children so it would make their days even longer. It would also cost more in staffing.

Nails it. School is not childcare.

I left school 30 years ago and it was the same time then. It's not new.

Because teachers have a lot of work to do outside of the actual school hours (marking, planning etc etc asking them to spend even more time delivering lessons / activities to kids would make the job even more impossible and underpaid and even harder to recruit teachers. I'm.not a teacher (doctor here) but huge respect for my kids' teachers

Private schools go to co-curricular activities for the end of the day - so, essentially, clubs. As you can do in state schools. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but private schools also cost - and rathe4 more than an after school club in a state school.

Agreed with the above. School isn’t childcare.

Because school is to educate the child not sort out childcare, education isn't achieved at 5pm when they have been learning since 8...

The standard MN answer is “That’s why wrap around care exists”.

So by your reasoning schools should be open 24/7 for night workers too?

Private schools just charge extra for the wrap around though? Same as state.

I agree with you. It’s ridiculous that working days don’t align to school days. Whilst after school clubs are sometimes available, they aren’t always. It’s increasingly necessary for both parents to work due to COL.

Because children are not adults, they need to play, relax, do hobbies and spend time with their family. 9-3 is quite long enough for a child. And the teachers have to finish their work without the kids- should they stay til 8?

The school finish / start times aren't made to coincide with working day start and finish times - an extra 2 hours would be a lot for kids in school! And realistically you'd want to have school finish at 6-7pm to account for peoples commute time and start at 7-8am. That's a bloody long day!

Private schools don’t align with the normal working day , it finished at 3:30 when mine were that young .

My school runs wrap around care at a loss. Some nights we only have a couple of children till 5.30 when it closes. I think you'd be surprised at how many people don't want their children in school that long.

In terms of learning, children are done by half 2 in infants and not much later in juniors. A later day would just be babysitting - no decent learning would take place.

I've always thought school hours are illogical, given that it's compulsory so therefore one parent/substitute parent has to be available at 9am and 3.30, but I can't think of a better way of doing it. Maybe half days, so that one parent can work half days (morning) and be available in the afternoon?

It's absurd to think that tiny 4-5 year olds should do longer than 30 hours a week in school. School hours are long enough already.

The issue isn’t schools finishing at 3.20 (DD’s finishes at 2.55 in any case), it’s that it’s mostly mums at the school gates. Fix all the endemic societal and economic reasons that stop dads doing flexi and part time, instead of forcing kids into incredibly long school days.

Is this a wind up?

YABU re school, it's not particularly related to adult working hours.

YANBU to think there should be more, better quality and cheaper wraparound and holiday childcare provision for working parents.