Extending the school day

[LemonSherbetFancies]

What are your thoughts on this?
Many are saying it is pointless and won't achieve much if an extra half hour or so is tagged onto the end of the day. Others have said that it should be based more on sports and free choice activities but my thinking is, isn't that what after school clubs are for?

If only they'd asked education professionals how best to spend this 1.5 billion quid.

We ran extra intervention classes for kids who 'got behind' during lockdown. They rarely, if ever, turned up for them. Can't see extra time after school going down well.

I really really can't see it happening.
I would personally only support it if it was ringfenced for extra curricular activities
Why should the kids have to have an extra half hour of formal schooling per day because of a pandemic which was not their fault?

We had a parent who told the Head point-blank that she wasn't going to waste any more of her time on Home Learning because the Gov't would be funding catch-up sessions so they'd do that instead.
Although they haven't attended any so far.

My dc would struggle with a longer day. One has autism and barely holds it together for the current school day.

Great idea.
It'll kill extra curricular sport though - if we're teaching for an extra half hour, we won't be able to offer winter sports because of the light. Music will suffer the same likely fate.
The funding for TAs will have to stretch again so the children entitled to support will get less of it.
The kids who travel an hour will be even more knackered by the end of the week.
And to catch up on what exactly?!

My DD's dance / gymnastics training starts at 4pm weekdays so I won't be letting her stay at school later than 3.30pm.

@Stroopwaffle5000

My DD's dance / gymnastics training starts at 4pm weekdays so I won't be letting her stay at school later than 3.30pm.

In all seriousness, won't meddling with the school day impact our Olympic chances in about 8-12 years' time???

So many kids are going to have the best thing in their week spoilt by this. It is really a negative response.

I am very opposed to this and therefore I mean this kindly but middle class parents fretting about brownies and ballet class aren't the target audience of all this.

@Piggywaspushed

I am very opposed to this and therefore I mean this kindly but middle class parents fretting about brownies and ballet class aren't the target audience of all this.

Do you think the school day extension will be targeted only at those with a need for catch up? I think that is going to really piss those kids off, which surely isn;t going to help?

The media reports sounded like it would be across the board.

I would say though that it is very narrowminded to think that only middle class children will be affected by restricted access to sports etc - things like football remain well attended by working class children.

Yes, it will be compulsory (apparently) and piss everyone off. But what I mean is the Dfe won't care if it pisses off the affluent .

I am definitely not narrow minded but most of the comments on here are about after school things that your kids on deprived estates aren't generally accessing. Football generally at weekends or later in the evening. I reckon some football clubs will start working with schools.

What will really suffer is after school paid for wraparound care.

And actually thinking about my own friends from school - who were mostly wc - they did a wide range of things, so I have just been narrowminded using football as an example

My children are doing 30 mins less than they were before COVID due to staggered start and pick up times. I'd be happy if they just went back to normal hours (and equally wouldn't complain about an additional 30 mins on top too!)

But what I mean is the Dfe won't care if it pisses off the affluent

I just don't know how many voter groups the Tory party can piss off and retain that 40% polling though. I do assume it will be popular with pensioners .

Will this be popular in rural Tory county seats where kids have to get buses for an hour anyway etc.? And where the kids don't need this and therefore miss out?

Surely this makes no political sense because the people who need it are concentrated in Labour seats and the people who will hate it are concentrated in Tory seats.

Politics makes no sense to me anymore!

There hasn't been an election since Blair though where a major voting issue was education. In MN world we think it is terribly important but , politically, it isn't.

I think half an hour's free childcare might actually be quite popular...given how much it will save some families!

I'm not sure it will save childcare costs really. Maybe childminders will reduce fees for the reduced amount of time, but lots of after school clubs are a fixed fee per session and would likely struggle to break even if they reduced it. It might mean a few more parents are able to rejig hours and do pick up themselves.

I think the idea is the school do for free what they were charging for?

That would have saved me loads!!

Childminders and after school clubs providing childcare will go to the wall. They need to Rise Up.

And if childminders and after school clubs attached to private nurseries go to the wall then that exacerbates the crisis in Early Years places closing down..

I suppose the thinking is to make the school day the same length as a private school day as a temporary measure.

The DC will cope, just as they would if they had been in private school.

But state schools aren't used to it, and all current planning is based on the existing times, and it would be a significant new task to rework those plans.

I guess the underlying question is whether there is any public appetite for a catch up programme, and preferred options for when it shouid take place (I really don't think it can be shoehorned into the existing school day). And whatever form it takes, it'll be a new demand on teachers

@Piggywaspushed

I think the idea is the school do for free what they were charging for?

That would have saved me loads!!

Childminders and after school clubs providing childcare will go to the wall. They need to Rise Up.

But that makes no sense politically either! I can't believe the Treasury will lose this £15bn argument?

@Pyewackect

MY 16dd went to private school. They start at 8.35 and finish at 5.15.

Not all private schools do those hours at all ime. None of our local ones do, including the ones Dd went to.

I suppose the thinking is to make the school day the same length as a private school day as a temporary measure.

And will they then change the very short lunch break many state schools get to the full hour or more most private schools get? And change the holidays too?

And where will the money come for the staff to plan, prep, teach and possibly have to assess these extra hours?

And where will the money come for the staff to plan, prep, teach and possibly have to assess these extra hours?
It won't. So we'll have to make some people redundant and cram more kids into each class. We can maybe ditch PE and art and music and drama and DT... they're not important after all.
And then, when we've squeezed all of the joy from the curriculum, our work will be done and the little vessels will be able to accurately describe a horse. Happy days.

I would be all for it for my two primary aged children. Our days have already been shortened due to covid....finishing by 2.30 on a Friday. It essentially means they do nothing after lunch, so losing half a day. It seems ridiculous when they have missed so much already.

I find it really interesting to hear how exhausted so many people find children to be by 2.30. My primary aged children definitely aren't. Part of my schooling was in Spain and our days were significantly longer and I don't remember being in any way exhausted. Definitely different cultural expectations/norms.