Which school would you choose for KS2 just based on the timetable?

[Lowdoorinthewal1]

Assuming that in School A the phonics lesson changes to comprehension in KS2 (it's just a generic example for that school).

School 1
School 2 is a very long day for ks2

Not much to choose, presumably independent school. Do you want/need a day that long?

well, on th eface of it, the only real issue is the length of the schol day.

Which raises other questions for me, is this a prviate school with longer holidays? Do they have a longer day becaue they don't do any homework? Is the longer day designed to help working parents (which is fine, but is not necessarily what is best for the child)

If I was to choose a school with a long day, I would want there to be extra stuff within the day - more pe, more drama, more art etc.

hmm, just had another look, they do a lot more sport, all tuesday pm.

so that is why they have a longer day.

In that case, what is your child like, would that suit them?

School two for the actual timetable but concern over length day.
Is there less homework then school one? Longer holidays? What is the commute like?

It's not a choice I am making. I'm just curious theoretically in what people want.

Those who wouldn't choose School 2 because of the length of the day, do you have a SAHP so your children go straight home after school?

Well it doesn't have to be a SAHP. Many people work part tike, compressed hours etc
.if you only needed wrap around care 2 days a week vs 4 or 5 it would come into consideration as much as if I was a Sahp

One school is Independent and the other is a state school which vigorously markets itself as being modelled on the Independent sector.

However, the difference in cost between the cheapest 4 bed within .5 mile of the state school vs .5 miles of the Independent school would buy 27.5 years worth of fees, so finance isn't really a factor in favour of the state school.

School 1 as the other one has too long a day.

Most state sector schools are restricted by the LA as to the number of days they teach. I think academies can get round this.

Independant schools do nit have th esame restriction, and most have 4 wekes holiday at Christmas and easter and 8 full weeks in the summer. They do that by having longer days.

So how ever much the state school wants to mimic the independant , they are restricted by the need limit on days.

After school clubs and childminders etc are different to the school day. Most kids are too tired to concentrate well at 4 pm.

If school 2 had a longer day plus a "no homework" policy then I'd prefer that as we could get by with no additional childcare and so would actually gain time. If they wanted homework done in addition to the longer day then I'd definitely be put off.

School 2 has a very long day but if you have a sporty child who would be at a sports activity every evening if they could, then it would probably be ideal.

I'd choose school 2. DC adapt to whatever the normal length of the day is, and the timetable looks more varied.

Those sounds fairly typical timetables for a state and an independent primary school (longer day plus including more sport and non-academic subjects in independent day; huge focus on maths/English in state school).

So I guess it depends whether you see having sport/music etc as part of the timetable as a benefit that outweighs the longer day vs a more DIY approach vs state school + ASC.

I think School 2 does sound like a longer day especially in Reception. If an independent school you may find the focus very much on football/rugby/cricket or netball/hockey/tennis and if your DC turns out not to really like these sports they may find the extra PE very hard work (the experience of my nephews who go to a school with similar timetable).

'School 2 does sound like a longer day especially in Reception'

We don't know anything about reception-yr2 at either school. Those are the KS2 timetables.

I think I like the look of school 2

I don't think either of them are very good, way too much "phonics" "maths" "english" "handwriting" and not enough developing those skills via topics which also provide general knowledge and critical thinking. (Of course it's possibly that's what they're doing, which is why simply looking at a timetable really does tell you nothing)

Personally I find large amounts of sport or music taken up by "school" is a big negative, there simply aren't the number of kids to work with peers of a similar ability, and even more so if your focus is a more niche one where your school peers may not value it all. However if I lived rurally where you'd have that problem anyway it might be different, it also might be different if my child was bad or hated the activities where by the encouragement of school might be valuable.

School 2.

Yes the day is longer, but there’s also a longer lunch and an afternoon break. And if that timetable is typical of all the ks2 classes, then there’s not many days where they are going to be sitting in academic type lessons all afternoon. It feels like it has more balance to it.

I don’t think you can assume the phonics lesson changes to comprehension in ks2 though. Is that a ks1 timetable?

School 2 as long as there's a no homework policy

The longer school day has more break time, though - 45 minutes more, I think. I quite like it, I must say.

I think developing skills through humanities might be more likely in school 2. They’ve got at least 3hrs a week whereas school 1 seem to have banished it to a hour on a Monday + 1/2hr RE.

Although some of the English in school 1 could technically be humanities. They seem to have English under enough different names on there not to need all the slots labelled as ‘English’.

My personal take on it is that school 1 (state) has much more focus on English and maths whereas school 2 (Independent) has less of those and more of 'other things'.

My gut instinct is that the increase of maths and English- at the expense of time spent on other things- in the state primary day is driven by attainment and progress data, not necessarily because it is what parents want. I was just interested to see whether that is my own bias though.

School 2, definitely.

I agree with your point about English and maths, it's driven by league tables. My DC are at (Indy) school from 8-4 then do clubs and homework. They get tired but having a wider range of lessons helps, they do a lot of PE, drama, music that balances things out.

When I first started teaching 15 years ago it was not common to teach maths and English in the afternoons, the whole afternoon would be given over to other subjects. Now, I think it is pretty standard practise for core subjects to creep into the afternoon in some form and there to be only an hour or so a day for anything else.

That would be my take on it too. That timetable is everything I dislike about a certain ‘type’ of state primary. You could free up a lot of time from that by getting rid of a fair amount of time for the different bits labelled English.

I don’t think anyone needs, 1/2hr of guided reading, 1hr English and 3/4hr of phonics a day.

These Y2s only seem to be doing around 3hrs of other subjects. Thank goodness 2hrs of PE is statutory.

People queue up for these schools that get amazing SATs results though, so I assume many people are keen on it.