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!)

I'm in Northern Ireland my daughter is in preschool at 12.30-2.50 and my son is P1 which is 9-1pm. I've had to give up work and get a job as a waitress, a few nights a week and every weekend and holiday. It's crap as we never have family time anymore but we need to pay the rent. Unfortunately there's no child minders or private nurseries in our village and there's only 4 busses a day.

Is this a serious question?!?! Schools are their for educational purposes not as a childminding facility! I won’t even bother listing the numerous other reasons why!

Because school is for education, it’s not childcare. Because young children get tired and can only take in so much. Because the day school is planned for the children, not to suit the needs of parents. Oh and my children went to private school and the day didn’t align with a working day. They finished at 3.30pm and then further up prep school, it was 4.00pm. Do what other working parents do and organise yourselves to meet the needs of your children.

Why not?
Families where both parents need to work are often families who might not be able to afford after school care.
My niece went to after school care where the contribution was dependant on the income of the parents. So some some parents didn't have to pay anything. It was a state school.
Why wouldn't it be possible to implement this everywhere?

just pay for childcare like everyone else, stop expecting it for free.

Lucky u don't live in Northern Ireland... P1 & P2s finish at 1.30pm ... P3 - P7 finish at 2.40pm ...
High school (teenager when u don't really need a sitter) finish at 3.30pm

That would change the purpose of schools. Schools are for education. They're not child-minding services.

There may be a strong argument that the state should subsidise places in after-school clubs for parents on low incomes but that's a very different proposition to funding the provision of universal care for kids out of school hours, whether or not that additional care is needed for all families. That's what you're essentially advocating.

You’re asking the wrong question. Why does work have to be 9 - 5 why can’t it be adapted to suit school hours where possible.

Not disagreeing but teachers receive half a day per week planning time when they are not in the classroom. If qualified less than 2 years, that is increased to one day a week. Nevertheless, they still spend much of their own time on lesson planning. After 3:20 they are mainly involved in senior leadership/staff meetings, year group meetings, resolving issues around SEN requirements and preparing their classrooms for the following day. all this takes much longer than you might imagine.

Not everyone does work 9-5, M-F. Not all roles could WFH. Not all roles can allow access to phones whilst working. So the question should be why can't more workplaces allow flexibility to accommodate school hours AND what can be done to help people who can't have the flexibility (think surgeons etc.).

The half a day out of class (for full time teachers only) is not enough time to get all the planning done never mind the marking and assessment. Part time teachers get a proportion of the half day per week.

Totally agree. My wife was an infant school teacher for 35 yrs, just retired. Whilst marking not perhaps as onerous as it would be in a secondary school, it still takes time. Generally, left school at 6pm and then worked most evenings, for at least another 2-3 hours. My daughter qualified as a teacher but, after graduating decided instead not to enter the profession and re-trained as a pharmacist!

School is education not childcare.

very true, people are terrified about kids being unsupervised nowadays, there have been lots of cases in the media about people being reported to social services for having primary school kids walk home alone. I think I was walking home alone from age 7

Because the vast majority of private school children (particularly primary are NOT doing those hours - it may be an option but it's not most kids doing it) Mine when in private primary did 8.35am - 4.00pm that was the standard day. They could stay until 5.15pm for clubs or homework at no additional cost or then until 5.45pm for tea at a cost, the vast majority were not staying that late on a regular basis.

So you want your child looked after for additional times a day but don't think you should pay for it!

I know this is an old thread but I'm just reading through to get an idea of people's experiences and it's blowing my mind a little how many people are saying along the lines of 'a school day is long enough' etc, cool- I concur. Except that I have to work? Wrap around care is proving impossible (not enough availability, first come first served unreliable places) and everyone is judging people who use it apparently.

Not everyone has a family member just sitting at home. There needs to be more support for working families.

School isn't childcare. We're lucky to have socially funded education in the UK and we're lucky they've aligned it roughly with a working day so it means we don't need childcare all day every day. It's not there to keep them occupied so you can work. The lack of high quality, affordable childcare is a completely different issue.

I agree, I definitely don't want them doing school work all day. School isn't childcare.

At the same time how are people supposed to work? Childcare options past the age of 4 seem to drop off a cliff.

"Roughly". Give or take 2-3 hours 🤦‍♀️

It's within the working day. It could start at 6am and finish at 12pm, but it doesn't. It's designed for the children, and they've also made the hours as convenient as possible for the parents, but that doesn't involve making the day too long for the children to get any benefit from it.

Society: "You'd better be working 35 hours a week as a parent, or you're a leech on the state"

Also society: "How dare you ask for school and childcare to be set up in a way that actually enables you to work you entitled hussy?!"

Also society: "Why does nobody want to have kids any more?!"

The problem is that teachers aren't going to stay with the children until 5pm. I get into work for 7.30am. My school dismisses at 3.20pm. One day a week, I run a club after school until 4.30pm and then work until 6pm. Another night I have staff meeting/training. And then work after until 6. That's usually marking and doing displays. 2 nights a week I stay until 6 marking and updating assessment data. 2 nights a week, I work for another 2 hours at home to finish the planning because there just not enough time to get it doing during PPA.

So that leaves bringing people in to run clubs. They'd have to use classrooms because we have one hall and a dining hall. Only they can't use classrooms because teachers are in there working.

The logistical difficulties of running after school activities for a whole school makes it impossible. We'd need at least as many clubs as there are classes in school. More really because 30 children is too many in a single activity. And that would be for 5 nights a week, 39 weeks a year.

And, even if we could magic up the space and the people to run the after school activies, who is going to pay for it? Our school is currently in the process of restructuring with redundancies for teaching staff because the funding cuts mean we are in a deficit and cannot afford to keep teaching staff employed.

So schools can't afford to subsidise after school activities.

Compating state schools to private just shows a complete lack of understanding. There are fewer children in private schools. There are far fewer 'needs' of many different varieties. Parents are able to afford to pay for the extras or the extras are covered by school fees.

I don't disagree that there is a problem. I have two children myself. But expecting schools to do more isn't a viable solution.

@crackofdoomyes, exactly.

I'm a teacher, so a profession that needs to retain staff. .. except it feels impossible to work.

Society wants women being economically active for obvious reasons but doesn't want to loose all the free caring work women provide so it's just all brushed under the carpet until, before you know it, that stage of life is over and you don't have the energy or inclination to fight for change.