How long is your 6-7 year old's regular school day?

[SSSandy2]

I'm struggling with the long school day here at dd's new school 8am-4pm compulsory.

It's a long day for the dc and what with travel time and low energy levels doesn't leave much time for anything else.

Do many people's dc have such a long day (maybe with after school club) and if so how do they cope?

Ours is 8.50 am - 3.10 pm.

In England the legal requirement in schools for taught time (does not include breaks) is 21 hours per week for children aged 5-7 (KS1) and 23.5 hours per week for children aged 8-11 (KS2). Which strikes me as very little. Maybe the German system has different requirements, (though from what you say about the other school there does seem to be something odd).

My kids school is 8.55 - 3.00

They get on the bus just after 8, ds still gets picked up at 12.15 till next week, and dd1 gets home about 3.30. So even with travel they are only out of the house 7.5 hours.

We dont need after school club so they dont have a longer day - I dont think it woudl do them much good.

He has to be in school between 8.45 and 8.55am and he comes out at 3.15pm.

That's a long day.

Mine are in school from 8.45am - 4.30pm (this is France). They have nearly 2 hours at lunch (no other breaks), and no Wednesday school. I think the day is too long though - they come out starving for one thing, despite a 3-course lunch! They handle it quite well now, but go to bed pretty tired and tend to sleep quite late on Wednesdays and Saturdays.

I drop off at 830am for 845am start, & supposedly pick up at 320pm, but its usually more like 330pm. Thats a long enough day imo.

DD will be 9am to 3.30pm from 4.5yrs until secondary school. With a lunch hour and morning and afternoon breaks.
All schools round here have similar hours - some 8.50 until 3.20 though.
Will leave at 8.30am and should be home by 4pm at the latest (when walking) unless we go to the park.

9.00am - 3.30pm here (SE London).

Thanks girls. Didn't realise the times varied so much around the UK. I think (but that is what I had personally 9-3 is fine at that age, or even a bit less. I am really struggling with this 8-4pm day.

Cool, whereabouts are you?

wow that is a long day, I don't think dd could cope with that. dd only ever does 8.50-3.20 and she is acting like a zombie on that.

Dd goes in at 9.10 and home time is 3.30.

That would suit me cool, but hard on the working mums those 2 months.
Thanks everyone I feel I'm right in thinking 8-4 is too long for a 6 year old.

So now what I do though?! Since I doubt my ability to single-handedly reform the BErlin school system..

Can you find out a little more about what they are doing at school? My two go from 8.55 to 3.15 (yr 2) and 8.50 to 3.30 (yr4), and they have breakfast club from 8am on two mornings. At nursery they did 8am to 6pm, but that included quite a lot of down time. Any change is going to be tiring, but it may be that after a little while she will adjust. ds used to come out of school very tired, but having a high energy snack ready as he came out of the gates did the trick. With dd it's about making sure she goes to bed at a good time. If she has already just changed schools once I'd give it a little more time, but check to see what double maths actually means, and what breaks/quiet time they get in a day.

Hello Sandy,
so glad to hear that you got a new school which seems to be better. About the day, my children were doing 8.25 - 4 in france, at that age. They did come home and have a proper dinner in the middle of the day though, as well as a brotzeit.
I think she will get used to it, I remember being tired for the first week or so at this age myself, and that was in the uk.

Wish I could get mine into a ganztag school.

hmm, the day is really 7.15 - 5 though. That is a bit long, I can see why she is struggling.
Do you have any room to shorten the journey, or make use of it? my children would probably be eating breakfast in the car, if a car journey.

Hi there NN. Hope your dc are all settled now and things are looking up ?

Ganztagsschulen are crap here if you ask me because they are just stuck there for that time but there is no real concept of what to do with the dc. They have Erzieher employed who occupy themselves with the dc. That will probably all change for the better in the future because it's a very new development here and I think it will be constantly improved on over time. I don't find them great but for working parents of course they are a lot more convenient than half-day schools

Hi,
most things are OK thank you, just the school which is not better. ds2 & dd1 still totally unmotivated and results bumping along the bottom.
There is a ganztagschule in the town next to ours, but I am not sure what they do.
Interestingly, ds2's class (2nd year) have got extra deutsch and maths classes in the afternoons, so effectively ganztagschule on 2 days per week.
I could see of course that ds2 is a very slow reader, but it seems he isnt the only one. He is much slower than dd1 or ds1 at the beginning of Yr2, both of whom learned in the rather more relaxed French system.
Of course, the school tries to put the responsibility on the parents ("you must read half an hour a day with your child, on top of homework"), but in ds2's class, it doesnt seem to have worked.