DS's school want to intoduce longer school day!

[MrsSawyer]

Will keep this brief, to start at 8.45, break at 11 - 11.15, lunch 12.15 - 1.15, "learning through play" then until 3.00, then enrichment activites until 3.45, for example, metalwork, golf, athletic, cooking, gardening, sewing etc. Would you be happy about it? My DS will be just 6, i worry hes too young for a longer day. This will only be from year 2.

That's a shorter academic day than my dd's primary which goes on till 3:30. Only difference is your son's school would be 15 mins later finishing but the last 45 mins are more like an after school club/activities not classwork.

Sounds OK to me.

my ds2 is 6(year 1) and his day is 8:45 to 3:45, if he does clubs its an hour longer.

i don't consider it long but then i suppose its the 'norm' for us.

what hours does he do now?

forgot to say ds school dont have the enrichment activities bit although im sure they do all that within the school day anyway.

It doesn't sound that long to me either . And the idea to add a session specifically aimed at doing enrichment activities sounds brilliant.

No it wouldn't bother me at all. Its not like he is sat behind a desk chanting times tables,

it sounds like a great fun opportunity for them.

since it's afterschool type activities, I'ld be very happy with it!

I'd think great, an extra half hour to sleep after my night shifts!

Does sound like quite a positive use of time though, I'm sure the children would enjoy the activities.

Sounds good to me! Mind you, mine are all older, so I may be forgetting just how knackered a 6-yr-old can get by 3 pm.

he does 9am - 3.10pm, the more i think about it, the more i think its ok, but theres an uproar at school and think im getting swept along with that. i know this is fairly common across the country.

That sounds like a really nice day. I would be fine with it but it would be impractical around here as many of the out of school activities would clash.

Flipping 'eck. That is a long day. My DS1 is in P2. His day starts at 9am and finishes at 1.55pm and he's always wrecked by the time he gets home. From P3, his day will finish at 2.55pm, apart from Fridays when he will finish at 1.55pm.

Sounds FANTASTIC!
What kind of school is it?

that is our only problem- lots of activities in the comunity start way before school finishes but then as i said with us its always been the case so its just something you get used to.

for example, leisure center offers free swim once a week but it starts at 3pm, by the time we get there at 4 its sometimes full so we either go home or wait and swim for half an hour or 20 minutes.

mine start at 8:45 and finish at 3:15 so an extra half hour wouldnt bother me too much, if mine have clubs they tend to finish at 4:30 (they run from 3:30-4:30) it will depend on the child thom, little ones may find that a bit much and tbh my yr 2 child would find that a lot if it was everyday, he does stay at after school clubs but only 2 days a week.

in principle it sounds ok, but i would rather it was an optional, esp for little ones.

It's 30 minutes more - which really isn't much and it sounds like it will include all sorts of lovely extras that can't regularly or easily fit into the busy school day.

It also means that you're making the school run (if by car) at an earlier and slightly later time than others - again easier.

Personally, unless your DS is struggling with the full school day right now - he'll probably take this extra half-hour on no problems.

It sounds like nice wind-down activities/ blow of steam activities that he'll enjoy and it probably will be a lot of fun.

I wouldn't worry about it too much - and who knows it may result in a life long love of golf or a musical instrument. Also no bad thing learning to cook young - he's going to have to fend for himself one day!

I think the only real issue I can see with this is whether this extended day comes with a hidden charge for parents - i.e. the school will expect an extra £50 a term or something to cover all these lovely extra lessons. Then introducing this wholesale without consulting parents is problematic.

DD's school have recently extended day by 15 mins in morning to an 8.40am start and 10 mins in evening and it is working well.

By going in earlier they are all ready to start work by 9am. Less traffic at that time (othere schools nearby start later) and parents have a chance to be in work for 9am if they work in the nearby town.

Sounds like they are making the school clubs part of the school day.

I'd have no objections.

DS has done 8.30 -3.30 since reception, and none of them seem to struggle.

Sounds brilliant to me. I would LOVE it if DC were at school for longer, and so would they!

thanks everyone, culturemulcher, its a non-religious primary school, little country village school, i think it will be fine, but yes pastsellbydate, that is my first question, extra cost! ds quite excited.

Gosh dd has been 8.40 to 4pm since year 1 with enrichment activities till 6pm so fine.

8:30-3:30 here but always stays late with clubs etc until 5:45 - since Reception

I can't believe people would make a fuss, the only thing that would irritate me is the fact its from yr2 only. So if your dcs have younger siblings it makes pick up last forever. I think the long lunch and time to run around would do the kids alot of good.

DD's school starts at 8.50 and ends at 3.15 (reception) 3.20 (infants) and 3.30 (juniors). She is there till 5.45 sometimes in afterschool club and seems no more tired than if she was at home but she is lively at home too.

Our school opens at 8.40am
It's a godsend for those of us who start work at 9am
Closes at 3.30pm