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!)

You would have known about school times your whole life, so when you chose to have a kid, it's between you and the father to arrange who'll pick her up. It's not some sexist plot like you're implying.

As a teacher, but not Primary, parents should do the parenting, so not the toilet training, holding a knife and fork, manners, discipline more and more is piled on teachers that is not education, next news parents will want teachers to bathe,bed and read a story to their kids.

It’s a UK thing OP.

In other countries the child can come to school as early as they like and leave when they like (after lessons). The school building is always open up until 9pm or so. It’s a hub for children.

They can do after school clubs, some are free, some are paid for. They can also not do them and simply sit in a classroom doing homework supervised by a teacher, read/ study in the library, use computers to study or browse for fun, use the sports hall/ gym/ pool/ dance studio.

That’s a normal school setup across Scandinavia and Eastern Europe/ Germany.

When I heard school finishes at 3:20pm in the UK and parents pick kids up, I literally went ‘wtf?’

It’s a system that presumes parents don’t have serious jobs. Yes, there are different hours and some have flexibility and home working now, but many jobs (doctor, barrister, police, …) the mum can’t just walk off at 3 to pick up the kids. 10 years ago very few people had flexi hours…

Moving to the UK was also the first time I heard of anyone working part-time or not working at all because of childcare. It had to be explained to me, I just assumed childcare was free or very cheap like in other countries.

These sorts of jobs and lifestyles barely exist in many countries where there are provisions for parents to be parents and have a career as well. Or at least it wasn’t something I ever came across in Europe, I’d never once heard of someone’s mum working part-time, I think there were some SAHMs but not many.

We are reading to rhen. Even in secondary. We are reading to then because nobody at home does.

For people saying that schools are childcare, and that teachers are snobs and that’s why they deny it’s childcare; I’d happily look after your children for the day on the same wage I’m getting now.
Between the hours of 7.30 and 5.30 (or whatever) it’d be a breeze in comparison to trying to teach, get them up to standard and deal with behaviour all day long.
I could visualise the day now: turn up, leisurely breakfast, morning cartoons, few team games, playtime, colouring and chilled out worksheets, lunch, board games / team games outdoors / sport, more colouring / drawing, playtime, CBeebies / cbbc, tea time, playtime and home. Maybe we’d go to the park or local area when the weather was nice.
Maybe we’d whip out an iPad when children were struggling to regulate. I’d clean my classroom, rather than teaching in the filth I currently do.

It sounds like a lovely day to me and I’m definitely not snobby enough to do that for a job 🙂

I was answering from the position as a widow. So the buck stops with me

Do they? When I was at secondary school we had lessons/prep up to 6.15 in winter, with games in the afternoons (except Wednesdays). In summer we had lessons/prep up to 4, and games between 4.30 and 6. We managed.

I’d agree with you. I think ideally do learning in the morning and sports in the afternoon. So say schoolwork 8-30 to 1, an hour for lunch variety of sports taught 2-5. Optional homework club till six. Teachers could get on with marking and lesson planning during p.e. Kids could get plenty of fresh air and exercise.

I had to work school hour jobs for a number of years as no wrap around care where I am. All of them physically hard, paying minimum wage and predominantly done by women.

Its been a real struggle to get back to higher paying work now the dc are older.

I never said it was teaching. Where did I say that?! Teaching finishes at 4.15pm at my DC’s school, clubs start at 4.30pm after a break and snack.

I believe that state education should include low cost wrap around care for all making it easier for parents to work, thereby generating tax revenue and increasing equality for women.

Maybe the government can start by teaching women to pick better men to procreate with. I'm not in the UK and there are many men at the school gates, couples use a combination of after school care, paid child care and staggering work hours around pick up and drop off's. There is no expectation that it's all the mums job to do it.

This,
Your kids are your responsibility school is for learning not child care.

Because school isn’t childcare

What? Of course teachers read to students but hopefully not at 7.30pm or 11pm when my neighbours 5 year old goes to bed on a school night!

@itsr "how does the private system manage"? My 5 year old is in year 1 in a private school. End of her school day is 3.05pm, earlier than yours. Either she's picked up then, or there is after school care till 6pm, payable at £30 a day.

School isn't there to facilitate parents working, it's there to educate children. And kids can't do a 10 hour day.

Yeah, I worked with a French woman a while back- living here and married to an English guy with a toddler- who could not understand how it works for anyone here. "But way back in the 80s both my parents worked full time and I was in school until 5.00pm- parents have to work!"
They did have much longer lunchtimes though, enabling them to have a proper break and a nutritious cooked lunch.

I think this sounds fabulous.

Well taxes would certainly have to go up to pay for it.

I think it’s a shock sometimes when parents go from having children in a private nursery where days can be long to school. But as everyone points out school is to educate.

Tbh I would love the school day to be shorter!

Tied yourself in knots finding a way to blame women there, haven't you 🙄

School is there to educate children, it isn’t childcare.

its a long enough day for them as it is.

Isn’t the problem that we all work too much, not flexibly enough and the load isn’t equally shared?

I think Joe Public really thinks that teachers rock up to teach with a text book and no prep. They have no idea about the hours of marking, planning, creating resources, internal meetings, continued training, running clubs, organising trips, supervising breaks, etc etc etc. There is a refusal to value teachers in our country so they are underpaid, scorned and blamed.

School is not child care.

WTAF?

I keep on saying it, that school suited SAHMs of the 1950s to 1970s but since then its all change. Of course we all work too much but we have to, and many want to. School is childcare whether people like it or not. Theres no legal obligation not to be at work while the kids are at school.

Work isnt going to bend to school, it needs to be the other way.