Budget 2016 - watch it live here, 12.30pm!

[KateMumsnet]

Chancellor George Osborne will introduce his eighth budget at lunchtime today - he's expected to announce fresh spending cuts of £4bn, as well as a radical shakeup for schools in England, with every school becoming an academy by 2020, effectively ending local authority control. He'll also announce new funds to finance a longer day for secondary schools, with heads able to bid for funds for additional school activities and overtime pay.

Join us here to watch live at 12.30pm - and do let us know what you think of his announcements here on the thread.

Extended school hours is very worrying. My dd's school finishes at 2.30 something I am very happy about. I can't HE my dc due to my disability however I want to spend as much time with them as possible.
Children don't need a " work ethic" not in relation to paid employment anyway. Children need more time to play and just be children.
Interesting those with young dc in nursery use the word "cope" with long hours already. I don't want my dc to cope I want them to thrive.

I am totally in favour of compulsory longer school days for senior school children, round here the majority do 9-3, which is just a joke for a 13/14/15 year old. Also they do very little sport. This is one of the main reason we have sent ds to a grammar in the next county his school day is 8:30-3:30 so an hour longer, he also has more homework and does more sports.

Who is.going to be delivering these extra hours in school?

My dd school starts at 8.30 and only has a 30 minute lunch.

Tbh and now it's seven, it's lovely that you want to spend time with your teen, but quite unusual that she wouldn't rather be with her mates. Ime 11-15 year olds are likely to spend the hours between 3-6 (called the danger hours by the U.S. Police force) at best hanging around in costa with their cronies.

And yet in private schools they are very busy at lessons, after school clubs and all the rest. I don't see a problem with state schools being similar. If one of mine is waiting for his brother to finish an after school club he gets homework done at school or plays chess at school. 4.30pm is hardly a late finish.

BimandBam

"I can't see our urban comprehensive offering the activity dd does (horses)"

Maybe they should (many in London do) if there's a yard a short mini bus ride away? But I agree it seems unlikely it will happen.

"so it realistically means she won't ride at all from oct to February. It's already difficult enough battling against the dark nights and weather with her finishing at 2.45pm."

REALLY!? I think you may have an unusual take on this! All the yards I know do kids lessons 3-5pm or some 3-7pm year round. Our nearest Prep school takes the Year 3 to Year 8 riding from around 6:30pm until 7:30pm on weekdays.

Also, I think if my Secondary age DC finished at 2:45pm I'd be rather worried that the school weren't fitting in enough to the curriculum / co curricular and that the day was too compressed with academics and quite stressful! Isn't that about an hour earlier than most Seconday schools?

"At present even darkest winter I can have her on and riding for half an hour after school a couple of days a week."

I'm assuming your yard has floodlights so you can just ride in the dark? Or do you mean going for a half hour hack? Or do you have a Pony in livery so moving yards to somewhere with a floodlit Sandschool would be complicated?

My dd has autism she can't hang out with friends in costa, I do wish she could be me more independent though for her benefit.
I have 7dc one at a different school in sixth form and 5 younger dc. I would expect the younger dc to do as dd1 did after school a mixture of activities and quality time with myself and dh once he is home from work.
I don't actually now any teens who " Hang out" after school , only at weekends and holidays.

Know!

I don't actually now any teens who " Hang out" after school , only at weekends and holidays.

You may not know any personally but my anecdote is that I live in a very naice middle class area where teens hang out after school all the time, there was also a report in the national press the other day that a McDonald's has had to hire a bouncer because of teens hanging out there.

It's not an either or scenario.

While the Lifetime ISA might be good for people saving for a house, I really don't see any benefits at all in using it for pension savings. In fact, I can only see it as a bad thing and people being forced to use their "pension" instead of claiming any means tested benefits when out of work, etc. I don't see why anyone would use it instead of a traditional pension (unless they have already maxed out their lifetime allowance).

Coffeeisnectar

Your daughter sounds as though she has a very varied and fun week!

I think the thing is, that the majority of DC would benefit from the extra hour of extra curricular, especially those living in poverty whose parents can't afford extra classes at the local leisure centre.

It's sad that your daughter wouldn't benefit, but then perhaps it should be compulsory except in some cases of SEN / disability or other very extenuating circumstances?

I think the difficulty with making it totally voluntary is that it will be pounced on as a great opportunity by all the middle class families in leafy green comps, but will not get used by kids who really need it, such as those who would rather be hanging around smoking pot, playing computer games, kids whose parents want them home ASAP to help babysit the younger siblings, or even obese children who would benefit from more physical activity.

I think on the whole that some sort of FE to 18 is a good thing. Pity those kids didn't choose / have the option of something they were more enthusiastic about doing!

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124702

I wonder if the extra hour has anything to do with the compulsory Army training that kids are going to have.

Are they?

MsJamieFraser

Out of interest, what time would you like your DC's Primary & Secondary schools to finish?

Also, what sort of range do you think is acceptable for Senior? Do you think it's absurd that some end at 2? Or that some Public schools finish academic work at 6 then have clubs?

TeaBlanket

I agree mixing with kids from other schools is a good thing.

If every Secondary school ended an hour later, I'd be very shocked if the local leisure centres / Scouts groups etc didn't move their time slots an hour later. Otherwise nobody could go!!

Eternityleave
Fair enough if that's not what you want for DC, but keep in mind that the nanny state is ALREADY controlling virtually everything about your DCs education! So not much has changed.

Do you have the option of more than 1 Secondary that DC could reasonably go to? Does it tend to be the case that all schools in the same area have similar times?

We are only in catchment for one, so would have no choice.

Originally it was some of the academies that chose to start earlier and finish at 2.20 or earlier. I believe that many lay on after school catch up, homework clubs etc. I don't necessarily think a longer school day is bad thing, but it does depend on how it is managed. Many of the schools with shorter days appear to have cut lunch time so as to avoid potential behaviour issues.

Yeah, Rock. It's currently in the "floated" stage that lets the Govt say it's by no means on the cards, but experience tells us will be law pretty soon. It goes hand-in-hand with the similarly floated idea that, since Gideon's incapable of stimulating the national economy and opposed to letting people have money when they can't find a decent job, reinstating National Service is the way forward.

This means young adults won't need jobs for a few years - they'll be getting taxpayers' money but working for it - with added bonus that we'll have vastly more human fodder for the war machine we need to keep fuelling our arms sales to all the sides.

It is the work of a mad genius ... very similar, in fact, to the kind of solutions my less-astute classmates used to put forward to those weird dilemmas they give you in Economics.

So, yeah. Teach your kids how to polish boots.

No we don't have floodlights on our school. Neither does the riding school she has lessons at. Neither of us can have them due to planning permission and the light polution it would cause to nearby properties.

We also like the ponies to live out until Christmas and bringing in/turning out is hard work and probably dangerous in the dark.

I can think of 5 of dds classmates that do a serious amount of sports after school. All of these would be effected by the changes.

Not to mention that we don't have enough facilities that provide outdoor lighting or indoor alternatives at an affordable level. Football training on a playing field with a hut as a clubhouse is a lot cheaper than hiring a floodlit pitch for instance.

Not all teenagers hang around causing trouble. And if they do it isn't from 3-4. It's later on.

20 odd years ago when I did 9 gcses (and standards were higher apparently) we managed to fut it all in from 8.45 to 13.15 with an hour for lunch and a 15 minute morning break.

I would suggest that the problem with schools and results is a problem far deeper than an extra hour a day will solve.

Teachers should be there to teach not jump through hoops for accountability reasons and students should be there to learn. Constant low level disruption is more damaging than the occasional big outburst but I think schools lack the tools to bble to enforce discipline and consequences.

I don't think compulsory extra hours is the answer. Maybe if students could provide proof of an outside 'worthy' commitment then they could be excused the extra hour of school with proof of attendance? I don't know.

There will also be some comprehensive aged dcs that collect and mind younger siblings until parents finish work. Not ideal for anyone really but the reality for some families. I also had a job from being 15 after school. Having to stay an hour extra would have meant I lost wages. Ok those wages weren't paying a mortgage or putting food on the table but that after school job got me a job in a bank when I finished A levels because I had customer service and salea experience. That counter job turned into a career so ended up being pretty important. Plus it paid the livery on the pony I had from being 15 so made sure I wasn't hanging around street corners when I wasn't working.

I really don't want this for either of my dcs. Ds is only 2 so by the time he grows up he will be at school from 9-5, have to work until he is 75 and never be able to afford to leave home. And when he does retire poor bugger won't have been able to afford a pension.

GarlicShake if my DC are ever forced to do compulsory military training I'll move to another country! Something tells me it won't happen though, because all the rich stories won't want their DC to have to go to war if one happens (but obviously it's fine for other people ).

If all schools are to be academies how will the special school system and school places be administered if local council are not coordinating the areas schools?

DS1 is at a special provision within a mainstream school. The LEA coordinated his needs and arrange transport, his support and his place allocation.

If all schools are to be academies then the fairly small heavily cut back LEA education departments will no doubt be cut further and I can't understand how places could be assessed, financed and allocated fairly across an area and it could be each family for themselves in securing a place by petitioning each school.

As a working parent, I don't think the extra hour of school will help me. It's still considerably shorter than my working day and I worry the after school club won't be a viable business with only 2 hours rather than 3 (I think it's fun pretty tightly cost-wise) and it will just stop being offered. Or there'll be a price hike to make it sustainable.

Bimandbam could you get planning for less bright lights mounted a little lower? What a pain if you can't! I assume you're allowed normal lighting in your yard area? If not then your planners are as batshit crazy as ours refused roof solar panels overlooking 50 acres land in valley with no other houses or roads!!? Pity if there's no alternative yard she can ride at which does. Yes, bringing in in the dark isn't great. I used to bring in 20 from 2 different fields with the help of 2 other people at 7:15pm in winter. It wasn't pleasant, but we had about 6 powerful torches and carried 1 each and left the others tied on to the fence. We always managed somehow!

I'd assume the DCs doing extra sports externally would End up having their lessons moved later by the provider? Otherwise all these leisure centres will lose revenue.

I totally agree the problems are greater than just needing an extra hour a day, but on the whole I think it would be good for most pupils, but I'm very happy with the idea of those with extenuating circumstances being excused. Tbh I get the impression the state school system is going down the plug hole like the NHS.

I think in general, things that could help are: more funding for schools, building more schools so DC don't have to get bussed out, making teaching a nice profession again, employing more teachers, cutting class sizes, having more discipline in class!!! making learning more fun by having longer days padded out with more drama, art, music, fun clubs, having sport every day to help tackle obesity & linked health issues, SEN provision being consistently good.... But I admit it's probably impossible to achieve.

Heh, maybe we should 'fine' that c*nt Donald Trump by making him pay for a new school every time he visits the UK!!??

I totally echo your statement about the sadness of our DC working to 75, no pension, not being able to afford a house (plus erosion of nationalised healthcare), but personally I'm very grateful my DC has the opportunity to stay longer hours at school to have some amazing experiences the I could not provide out of school.

Academies have no obligation to make SN provision, Mis. So many don't.