Is it the norm now to not have playtime in the afternoon in the juniors?

[Kbear]

DD just started year 4 and says that instead of playtime in the afternoon they do reading. I'm all for reading but isn't that what they do all day and surely ten minutes exercise running round the playground twice a day is quite important too?

Interested to hear if other schools do this.

My local primary school do this. It changed because after an OFSTED inspection, it was realised that the children were not getting the set amount of educational time they were supposed to. I personally feel the staff and the children would benefit more from a 10 minute break to let off steam and wake up a bit!

Same at my kids school. Eldest has gone into the juniors and has no afternoon playtime now.
I think it was only implemented last (school) year though.

My DS has just started juniors and misses his afternoon playtime but it was a bit daft in the infants he went to as the break used to be for 10 minutes from 2.40 to 2.50 which meant that they only had another 25 minutes before hometime. It would have been better to have to have a break at 2.15 and even up the afternoon a bit.

I suppose they figure that the session from 1pm to 3.15pm isn't too bad and hopefully the teacher will take it easy at the later part of the afternoon. When I was at school that used to be the time the teacher read to the class as a whole which is a good activity to have then.

At our school no-one has an afternoon playtime, not even the Reception children.

thanks - anyone have a view on this (in the light of the obesity problem and lack of exercise we keep hearing about)...?

Bomper - where are you???

The school I teach in has afternoon play for foundation stage only. Even our year 1s go from 1.35pm to 3.20pm without any official break!!!

Yes, quite common. That's what our school does, and now I think about it, I'm sure it's only reception children who do have an afternoon break.

I'm not actually sure they need one though - our afternoon is so much shorter than the morning. Lunchtime finishes at 1.05 and school ends at 3.00, so not even 2 hrs. Even in the morning the children have to go 2 hours before break and then 1 hr 35 mins between the end of break and the start of lunch. So not so very different. I would rather have this system than have a break but school finish later.

ah, had a newsletter from school today explaining it.

They haven't met the government targets for reading and PE so had decided to abandon afternoon play to fit in an extra 20 minutes reading every day and an extra PE session once a week.

I suppose that explains it and but feel a bit sad for the kids - playtime is important too, socially, for letting of steam enabling them to concentrate more in the classroom etc.

Also the teachers won't get their cuppa and break in the afternoon either!

i'd prefer it if they had an extra 15 minutes at the end of the day (they end at 3) so they would have time to play. it's important especially at primary age

ds tells me that he doesn't have an afternoon playtime either, but dd in the juniors does. dd gets a third playtime really, as she has 15mins after school when we are waiting for ds to come out. Then they usually go to the playground next to the school for another half an hour or so. Plenty of running around!

Yes

The school I work at hasn't had afternoon playtime for all the time I've known it - DS started there 13 years ago.

Only infants have an afternoon playtime in our school, DD has just moved to the Juniors and so far so good hasnt mentioned not having afternoon play!

No afternoon play for juniors here either (DS1 just staretd Yr3

Oh, okay, seems to be the norm then. It's just something new they've introduced in the juniors this year.