Please tell me about break times in your school

[cyclinghappy]

DD came home today and said that the school day is being reorganised a bit. Currently morning break is 20 minutes, lunch is 1 hour and afternoon break is 10 minutes.

From Monday the morning break will be 15 minutes, lunch is being brought forward to an earlier time and the afternoon break will no longer be. Instead, there will be an afternoon assembly.

All of this information is coming via the children who have been informed by the teachers. So far no official communication has come from the school.

Please tell me how your school's day is organised? How can the children work well in the afternoon without a break?

Primary School - 9 am start, 3.30 pm finish. Fifteen minute break each morning and afternoon and one hour for lunch for all children.

Must admit I don't know the lengths and timings of my DC's breaks! However I know they all have a morning break and lunch break and the younger ones (year 2 and below) have an afternoon break too.

Personally I'd leave it up to the school to organise the day as they think best.

In our Infants timings are as follows,

School starts 8.50- 9.
Morning break - 15mins
Lunch- 1 hour
No afternoon break.

Used to be an afternoon play years ago, but no anymore. This is an inner London school by the way.

Infant school where I work:

am - 25 min
lunch - 1hr10min (inc eating time)
pm - 15 min

At the feeder juniors there is no offical afternoon play, but teachers are allowed to take their classes outside for 5-10 mins during the afternoon if they wish, at a time that suits them.

DD's school has am and pm breaks throughout the whole primary, but it does have longer days at 8:30am to 3:45pm

Thanks to all. Should have mentioned that we already have a slightly longer day than most schools. Day starts at 8.50 and finishes at 3.50 for KS2. Lunch has been 12.30-1.30 but will be moving slightly earlier so the afternoon session will be longer. Seems as though many schools don't have an afternoon break and manage well. Will be interesting to see how this works out.

From September I'm re-introducing an afternoon break for KS2. I;m cutting down lunchtime to 45 minutes because that's when most of the behaviour issues occur but didn't need any more teaching time. The Governors weren't receptive to the idea of finishing school earlier so we decided to have an afternoon break instead.

My dc never have afternoon break. They were a bit when they went into juniors and the first week they give them a short break in the afternoon, to help them get used to not having a break. They actually found it distracting to have to stop and start again.

Do they do the same subject all afternoon DeWe?

No child in my DC school has an afternoon break (apart from reception) but they don't do the same subject all afternoon although the afternoon is only about 1 hour and 40 mins of teaching time.

Not sure how many subjects but usually at least 2 and if the weather is nice KS1 is usually taken outside (large playing fields with pond and allotment) for part of a lesson or to the ICT suite for a change of scenery and PE (when scheduled).

Most schools would do two subjects in an afternoon which involves stopping and starting again ...

Maybe that is what they do, it is definately at least 2 although hard to be sure as I am in the corridor reading with kids not in the classroom iyswim.

Kids seem to enjoy whatever they are doing which is the main thing

no afternoon break at my daughter's school (she is reception)
If I remember right they have 15 mins morning break and lunch is 12-1:10 then home at just gone 3

But surely they can go outside whenever they want (within reason)?

It's years since I've come across a school having afternoon breaks.
That said, your school does seem to finish a LOT later than most schools I know.

It's a faith school so requires extra time in the day to fit in the additional curriculum.

who do you mean simpson?

School starts at 8.55
Morning break 10.45 - 15 minutes
Lunch 12 - 1 for reception, 12.10 - 1.15 for KS1, 12.20 - 1.15 for KS2
No afternoon breaks for anyone
School finishes 3.15pm

We also have whole school assembly every day 10.15 - 10.45.

Sorry, I mean peri.

I would have thought reception classes should be able to go outside when ever they want (within reason).

Our reception class doesn't have any "breaks" because they have free flow outdoors as you say simpson

15 mins morning, 1 hr lunch, 15 mins afternoon, for both infants and juniors

At our school The day starts at 8.55, FS/KS1 break is 10.45-11 KS2 is 11-11.15. KS1 have lunch from 12-1.15 and KS2 is 12.15-1.15. KS1 have a 10 minute break in the afternoon. The day ends at 3.30.

08.45 start
10.00 assembly
10.15 break (15mins for all)
11.45 KS1 lunch starts
12.00 KS2 lunch starts
13.00 afternoon school starts for all
15.00 school ends for all

Afternoon break for KS1 but no afternoon break in KS2. Seems to work just fine.