Ghost lessons / State Sixth form

[Littleham]

My dd described her 'Ghost lessons' to me, as follows....

1. Teacher doesn't turn up but it is scheduled lesson

2. Only one French teacher in the sixth form requires kids to be there & sets work. None of the other teachers bother to turn up - she doesn't do French.

3. The sixth formers are not required to be there, there is no set work, they are not required to do anything, but it fulfils the education requirement for 10 hours a week for a subject. (So 9 hours of teaching, plus one ghost lesson). So she spends Monday at home working by herself in her bedroom.

Her Monday A2 day consists of one lesson, plus one ghost lesson (where she is free to go home).

Please could I ask - is this replicated around the country & how can she possibly compete for a university place on this basis?

I didn't know it was government requirement to have 10 hours a week per subject! DS had 9 hours per fortnight + enrichment and general studies each week. Sorry I can't be much help, but nine hours of teaching per week for A2 sounds a lot to me so she should be absolutely fine. If you're still worried you could query it with the school?

That should be nine hours of teaching per subject, per week sounds like a lot at A2

I teach sixth form and have no idea what you are talking about, either in terms of ghost lessons or in teaching hours requirements.

My DC at private schools had 7 lessons per week per subject - each of 40 mins for AS, going up to 8 per week per subject in A2 year. so thats way less than 9 hours per week.

Who calls them ghost lessons-the staff or the kids? That sounds awful-I've never heard of lessons like that. What are the school's results like?

It is nine lessons per two weeks ( so 4.5 per week) - sorry if I confused you.

The staff call them ghost lessons. I don't see the point really. Why bother? It is an academy if that helps.

30 timetabled hours a week sounds a huge amount for a levels! Assuming she is doing three of course. Are these ghost hours supposed to be teacher led? I suspect not given she has 9 hours taught a week already!

That's more like it! Why doesn't she just ask what the purpose of them is? I bet they're supposed to be student led, or for prep or something.

Sorry - I meant Nine Lessons per fortnight (they work in fortnight blocks). Brain is addled!

If they're getting 9 hours of teaching a subject I'd imagine the results are OK. That seems a lot. I'm pretty sure we only had 6.

Done in the right way, this could be a good idea. If the teacher's timetabled to be there but the students don't have to be then it's the ideal time to talk to the teacher about anything you are struggling with. Perhaps so they can go over it again 1:1. Doesn't really work if the teacher doesn't turn up though.

may be meant to prep them for uni? when they have 3 lectures a week and have to self learn an awful lot. So 9 hours a fortnight of teacher led study, one of self lead...

Sounds reasonable to me.

No - the teacher is never there for the ghost lessons. It is 9 hours per fortnight.

So on Monday, she only has one lesson and the rest of the time she is sent home. Is this normal?

My school had "guided study" where they came to my room for that period, but worked independently on a subject which was not my own. The work they did was set by their teacher... Mostly long homework tasks, or projects, or extra reading.

The idea was to prevent them dossing about in the common room. And also to fill the teachers timetables.

But there is never any work set.

My son only has 2 lessons some days. Afaik it is normal in Sixth Form to have "free" lessons. From what you have said it sounds like your dds school have simply scheduled a room for the student's use during that period - so rather than, say, a French lesson with mrs Blanche, they have a study period in mrs blanche's classroom?

If it helps, my son has 9 taught lessons a fortnight for each A level subject too. And 4 for Welsh Bacc. So it looks like the "ghost lessons" are something extra, rather than the school trying to pretend they are teaching the right amount, but not actually.

I suspect they're supposed to self study. That should mean them working on topics they find difficult, or reading more broadly round a topic. They shouldn't expect the teacher to tell them what to all time, the onus should be on them to start independent learning rather than the teacher spoon feeding directing them.

4.5 hours per A level per week where my son is. He is doing a 3 A level equivalent so will be taught 13.5 hrs and the rest are frees (but they will eventually include sports activities and self study for his course assignments).

So she has 9 hours of teaching for each of her A-levels per fortnight and these ghost lessons are in addition to that? That sounds fine, really. I wouldn't expect work to be set for study periods as sixth formers are supposed to be managing their own work.
How many A-levels is she doing?

I would say that sounds about right. It's early days yet so I'm sure the intensity of the work will pick up and she will start getting set more work. However I do agree that she should be self studying in those lessons and not necessarily requiring work to be set. When you say she goes home on a Monday, does that mean they are not allowed to stay in school during untimetabled free periods? If so that does sound strange.

My dd1's school have free periods but also Independent Study Periods, which may or may not be supervised, and they will have work set in lessons which is supposed to be done in the related ISP - but in practice, they can do whatever work they want - it's just a lesson that they have to use in quiet study, not lazing about in the common room.

Dd2 just has frees.

Looking at DD's timetable, she seems to have 8 lessons per fortnight for each A level subject, plus 6/7 frees a week. (Plus PE and cultural/special interest/personal ed timetabled one afternoon a week. The sixth formers lead the special interest group afternoons for lower school.) So the same amount of teaching time and frees as your DD, op. I agree that having all day Monday off school is a bit too much freedom in year 12, and sounds like lazy time tabling (or engineered for staff provision, perhaps, and to save money on paying full time staff if all sixth formers there have the same frees.)

Thanks for your help. Seems it is similar everywhere. I was just a bit shocked that she is at home the whole of Monday (apart from the first period) with no work set.

I agree with independent learning, but this is putting an awful lot of faith in a bunch of 17 year olds!

Back in the 80s we used to call them 'Free Periods'. We weren't allowed home but were allowed to work in the library or one of the designated 'Free Period' (unsupervised) classrooms. These classrooms were all near senior leadership offices and they would patrol from time to time.

We weren't supposed to go in our Common Room during 'Free Periods' but often did and got chucked out when a teacher discovered us, usually because we were playing the stereo in there too loud!

Back in the 80s we used to call them 'Free Periods'

Same here but there were only a couple per day, maximum and they were proper timetabled free periods, not just lessons where the teacher wasn't going to be there. They only occurred where your subjects weren't being taught.

To me, the current set up described seems utterly crap!