Your Y12 or Y13 timetables?

[paranoidmumdroid1]

My DS is looking around 6th forms (England). For context he's expecting 10+ GCSEs at 8 or 9 including FM.

He's interested is seeing a typical timetable of someone in Y12 doing "his" subjects, as the students we've spoken to on open days have been more humanities subjects.
He's planning Maths, Further Maths, Physics and Politics. All seem to be Edexcel or AQA.

If your DC do similar in Y12 or Y13 do you mind sharing a screenshot of a typical week, or saying how many free study periods they have in a week, what extra curricular they have time for etc. He has quite a few evening commitments.

Thanks!

I think this is difficult to answer. I have a child in y13 and another in y13 at different schools. Y12 child is doing 4 a-levels (incl maths and fm), y13 child doing 4 a levels (incl maths and pol) as well as an epq. They generally have no free subjects as any spare time is taking up with additional ‘subjects’ they school has. The y12 has a little bit more but the free period is supervised study - so may as well be in a class. She is finding it so overwhelming that she may drop to 3 a levels. Y13 has picked up a free double period due to epq ending. One free afternoon a week!

Other schools may also have additional extra curricular study that they are expected to do, so it is different for all subjects and I think it is an individual question you should ask each potential sixth form.

Ds does FM and maths, which run concurrently, physics and computer science. All four subjects have four hour's worth of classes each week and the expectation is that they do as many hours independent study.

Edit: He does do extracurriculars but not ones that demand a huge time commitment or would leave people at a loss if he didn't have time to attend.

Here’s my ds timetable - he’s doing Physics, Chemistry, Maths and FM so very similar to what your ds will do.
He is doing DofE gold but has dropped plans to also do EDQ as there simply isn’t enough time to do it all.

So far, he’s enjoying it, but is very organised and has made quite a strict schedule to fit in study, volunteering/ skills (DofE), hobbies and GF 😅

Five contact hours per subject would be the usual.

My son does 4 A levels and has 6 lessons (a full day teaching) for each subject which means he has one morning and one afternoon free per week. Most students at his school do 3 subjects (6 half days) and then either an EPQ or some sort of extracurricular/volunteering.

Actually, it looks like the college has five hours per week for each subject, but only four sessions for each. First time I've looked actually and I'm not sure how that's split up.

DS is doing Maths, FM, Physics and RS so similar. He will do Maths at end of Yr 12 and FM at end of Yr 13 so Maths lessons are double what would be normal for a maths A level over 2 years.
School has 7 x 45 min periods per day and a Week1/Week2 timetable. Every 2 week block he has the following:
24 periods of Maths
13 periods of Physics
13 periods of RS
14 free periods
2 periods of Values
4 periods of Games.

At lunchtimes he has debating, prayers and history societies.
After school he mentors a GCSE student in Maths and attends Badminton Club straight after school so is late at least 2 nights a week, some nights he hangs out with friends before he comes home.
He doesn't do activities at the weekend at the moment but has signed up to do some volunteering and DoE later in the year. I would like him to get a part time job as he seems to have loads of time to game during evening and weekends. I think he gets most of his homework done either in lessons or during free periods although if he has a deadline he does work more at home some evenings. He does do a lot of reading in the evenings both for the RS and for pleasure/interest.

I should also add that school is a 1 hour bus journey away.

My DD's 6th form college states that A level students (all subjects) will have approximately 14 hours of lessons for 3 subjects over the course of a week and are expected to do the same amount of independent study.

She's a humanities student so actually has 4 and a half hours per subject, but she also has extra language talking sessions and Psychology workshops which she is expected to attend plus one hour's tutor group. Theoretically, if she was disciplined she could get all the independent work done at college during normal hours but she has no lessons on a Thursday so doesn't go in and uses the day for homework and driving lessons.

DS has 5 hrs per week of each subject and like others on here is expected to do the same in his own time. In reality he has to do more than that to get through the workload. He's doing maths, physics and computer science.

Thanks everyone, that's really helpful. @Mumski45 i concur with the part-time job idea. I think this would be of more value in terms of life skills than DofE gold which he wants to do. His hobby is scouting so he covers a lot of DofE boxes anyway but it makes it hard for him to commit to a weekend job as he is a young leader.
He's not keen on an EPQ on top of everything.
He's already ruled out an excellent but huge 6th form college that is an hour commute (2 buses in unpredictable traffic) so he is being very practical but i think with one eye to his social life and hobbies!

50 timetabled lessons a fortnight (5/day). Each subject has 8, plus 2 EPQ/maths for scientists/ something I can’t remember but another useful add on, 1 pshe. Two for a work experience afternoon. Plus part of a tutor group but that’s not within the 50.

recommend minimum 4 hours independent study per subject a week.

And i think his conclusion from reading the above will be that the freedom of a college environment over a school environment will not make a huge difference given the amount of contact hours he will have for 4 subjects. But that schools may timetable more extra lessons than colleges - PE, PSHCE-type things?

I am not sure that a school sixth form would necessarily timetable extra lessons or activities compared with a college. At my DCs' comp sixth form, there was an afternoon free of timetabled lessons that was meant to be allocated by students to activities other than their A level subjects eg EPQ, work experience research, but that was it.

My DC also did 4 A levels, inc FM and a physical science and a non-STEM subject plus regular work shifts and volunteering commitments totalling approx 12-14 hours per week. The key was to work hard in the free periods they did have and most of their friends did the same.
Obviously there are beneficial overlaps between Maths, FM and Physics but it also means you need to be 'on it' from a time management point of view right at the start of Y12. Your DC will need to watch that the practising to hone mathematical skills is not all left to the weekend; best to drip feed during the week too.

My DC definitely found time to socialise and enjoyed their sixth form experience. They did become very organised and that stood them in good stead for the next stage. Hopefully it will all be a positive experience for your DC too. It is less about the specific setting and more about personal mindset, I think.

Dc had 4 1/2 hours of contact per subject which in their case 4 A levels. Also 1 1/2 hour session which they used to cover anything and everything from future planning, talks and presentations and homework. They had an assembly for 45 minutes per week.

No free periods in college as Dc did 4 A levels maths, further maths, physics and computer science. But that was over 4 days as they had 1 day at home for independent study to get them ready for university so all their free periods were then. If they didn't submit homework etc then this day at home was removed and they had to come into college.

They also did enrichment on an afternoon which covered a broad range of topics.

Tbh my ds is a young leader for scouts and it has been the making of him.