Does 2.45 seem a bit early for end of school day?

[madhairday]

At present my dd finishes school at 3.40. We're moving in the summer, her school there ends at 2.45. Have never heard of school ending before 3pm - how do they fit it all in? is it even legal? They start at 8.45am so not much earlier. Panicking slightly about logistics of collection at that time / after school care fees etc. anyone any experience??

that's early though one school round here ends at 1pm on a friday

how old is she?

My ds is in P2. His school days is 9 - 2.45. Moving to 3.15 next year.

ours is 8.45am - 3pm, so 15 mins is not that much earlier.

She is 7, going into Y3 in sept. My ds will also be starting reception there, finishing at the same time.

well at that age it's the norm where I am for all the schools. I think the High Schools are 3.45pm.

Our school is 8.55 to 3.15. That is how long the day needs to be to fit in the hours they legally need to be taught for and ensure they have decent playtimes and lunchbreaks. Any school doing less than this is probably making playtime and lunch breaks shorter as Ofsted would quickly pick up if they were teaching for a shorter time than the legal requirement. Until 3.40 OTOH sounds like a very long day.

Here the P1 - P3s start at 9 and finish at 2.35, P4-7 finish at 3.30 (all finish at 12.45 on Fridays)

Rosa yes I thought that when she started here. They have a v long lunch and an additional afternoon playtime, they do get worn out though. Interesting to hear some places finish so much earlier - I'm happy about that for my reception child, but did wonder about the volume of teaching for the Y3.

That is early isn;t it?

DD does 8:30-3:30, going up to 3:45pm when she hits junior age. Some of the local primary schools start nearer 9am and finish around 3:15pm.

Our school starts at 08:30 and finishes at 2:40 for KS1 and 2:50 for KS2. It is a bit early although quite good for dropping off kids and getting off to work on time for me.

Do they have a shorter lunch time? At Ds1 school (in Edinburgh) they finish at midday on a Friday. To fit everything in they have a 40 minute lunch break and no break in the afternoon.

Normal round here for infants, plenty experience. I'm sure it will be legal.

My old secondary school finished at 2.20. After the strikes when school finished at 1.30 (due to lunch not being able to be served) the school briefly returned to a 3pm finish...but they polled all the parents/pupils & it was decided a 2.20 finish was preferred.

Registration was at 8.45/8.50 and there was a 10 or 15 min break mid morning, can't remember which and a half hour lunch as opposed to an hour lunch as before. It worked really well & I loved having the afternoons free...meant we could relax & play a bit before homework needed to be done..or get it done as soon as you were at home & have the evenings free.

Just to make you feel better, here in Brazil schools start at 7.30 and finish at midday, it's a bl**dy nightmare!

Hi, yes 2.45 is early. Here in Canada, schools run 8.15 to 2.45. but Kindergarten (until age 6) goes 8.15 till 10.45 !! I beat you Califrau, it's a nightmare, dd2 is often home before I've had a shower!

Dc's junior school starts at 9 and finishes at 3.20. But I expect they could easily fit the same amount of teaching in in a shorter day by cutting down on break down- or those tedious assemblies.

In Sweden, different classes can finish the day at different times- and the same class at different times on different weekdays. But then very few Swedish mums collect their children from school.

Our school used to start at 8.55 and finish at 3.20 but they now start at 8.40 and finish at 3. They have done away with afternoon break, but to be honest that's no great loss because the afternoon session is so short anyway. Also, afternoons aren't for 'academic' stuff, that's all generally dealt with in the mornings.

One school here starts at 8.30 and finishes at 2.30. However, Ofsted said that wasn't enough teaching time for the juniors, so now every Weds afternoon they have compulsory 'enrichment' time for the juniors, until 3.30. That's a nightmare for parents with infants as well though, they either have to pick infants up at 2.30 and juniors at 3.30, or else pay to keep infants in the after-school club until 3.30.

Secondary schools here all run 8.30-3.

Ours (Scotland) start at 9 and finish at 3 (so hours wise that's the same as you). They only have a morning break and lunch is 40 mins.

We're the same as haggis

cory, out of interest, why don;t swedish mums collect from school?