Our School wants to finish at 3pm everyday and deliver 6 lessons instead of 8...postives and negatives?

[flowerpot1000000]

How on earth are the teachers expected to teach everything that's required...tough enough now. Im not sure how I feel about this

My kids school does 5 lessons a day 2 before morning break and 2 after and 1 after lunch... They have registration at 8.25am, they finish at 3.05pm and have a late lunch 1-2 pm so after lunch is just registration and p5.... They are a top achievng school. They have weds p5 off timetable for enrichment as well.

We all went to school once, how much time was wasted moving kids between classrooms and changing over lessons. Presumably for 8 lessons currently they don't get more than 50 minutes but will instead get 6 hour long lessons. As per previous poster having less lessons gives more quality time for the teacher surely

Why is the number of lessons an issue rather than what they get to teach. The teachers are there to teach so presumably have fed into the process. It's not about what the parents think would be best

Gosh really, very impressive. Start is 8.30am then lunch is propsed for 11.45am

Lessons are now 45mins they are proposing 55mins

I had 6 periods of 54 minutes each at high school. We started at 8:54 and had 6 minutes of registration each morning. School finished at 3.35. My school really liked odd yet precise timings.

The setup @coldlocation describes above is pretty standard at most of the schools in my area. It's also my preferred model as a teacher. 5 hour-long lessons are better than 8 shorter ones.

Our school has 5 x 1 hr lessons per day..
4 in the morning and 1 in the afternoon.
8.30 - 3.40 - lunch is 1.10 - 2.30 (expected to attend a couple of lunch time activities each week)
Seems to work out. I think 5 hourly lessons per day are better than having 8 different lessons per day - that is a lot of moving around and stop starting.

That's a pretty normal pattern though isn't it? Certainly it is here. Both my children's schools do that and both are In the top 100 non selective schools in the country so it seems to work!

My daughter's school has 5 x 1 hour lessons - 4 before lunch and one after. During GCSE weeks they move lunch to between lessons 3 & 4 to allow for the afternoon exam start. The school day is 8.30 - 2.45 with tutor time, a morning break and lunch.
I agree with the reduction in faffing - it can take a while to move between lessons, all get seated, register taken, find a pen/pencil etc.

Teacher here. Same model at my school as @Iwantacampervan . We start actual lessons at 9am and finish at 3:15. As a teacher I'd hate 8x short lessons. I'm sure your school are making a good decision

We do 5 x 1h lessons.

I completed the GCSE course by christmas y11.
Ks3 we plan to fit the time

We do 3 x 100 minute lessons. As a teacher, I love it. Less movement around the school, a break before/after each lesson, time to really get your teeth into a subject. (Tho for some subjects this isn't as good.)

The only drawback I see is that absence means a student misses a higher proportion of teaching for a subject. Even one day.

DDs school do 5 x 1 hour lessons, plus morning break, afternoon break and lunch. I can't see how much can be taught in 45 minutes, with disruptive kids and sorting out books, stationery etc, her teachers struggle to teach much in an hour.

A school near me does 3 x 100 minute lessons per day. It’s the top performing school in our area.

DD’s school does 5 x 1 hour lessons. Starts at 8:40 - finishes at 3pm. Still performs well.

DCs school starts at 8:50, has two hour long lessons then morning break, then two more and then lunchtime (think it’s between 1:10 and 2:05). Then tutor time until 2:25 and then one more lesson until 3:25.

My dcs had 6 lessons a day all through secondary school. 8 seems very strange to me.

I would however resist any attempt to start the school day any earlier. Research shows that teenagers learn better later in the day.

Dds school recently switched to 9.10 to 3.40 with 5 x 1 hour lessons (plus registration, one break and lunch) on a 2 week rotating timetable.

I was worried initially but it works well- schoolbags are a lot lighter for a start, and less homework subjects each night.

You aren't actually going to loose that much teaching.
Loose 2x45min =90 mins less.
Gain 6x10min = 60 mins more.
So only looking 30 mins teaching less a day, and have less movements round school.

I would prefer 6 1hr lessons than 8 shorter ones, that's what we had and it worked well.

Our LA is trialling new hours when DS starts secondary in August so they will go up to 8 lessons, starting school at 8.40-3.30 Mon-Thu and 8.40-1.15 on Fridays

At my secondary school we did 8.30 until 2.30. We had 6 50 minute lessons, and two 20 minute breaks. So 5 minute registration, 2 lessons, break, 2 lessons, break, 2 lessons, home. It was designed so that no student ever had to walk home in the dark, and you could do afterschool sport etc and still be home by 5ish. We weren't allowed to leave the site at all during breaks, whereas when they had a traditional lunch hour, students would walk into town and not come back!

5 1hr lessons here too. to me that makes much more sense than 8 shorter ones - if you think that a certain proportion of the lesson is spent getting everyone settled down, taking the register, students finding the right books etc ... The lessons are taught in the pattern 2 before break, 2 after break, 1 after lunch, then 30 minutes tutor time/assembly/pshe. That feels like good timings to ensure the students are alert and avoids too much being taught after lunch when everyone is getting lethargic.

The other big advantage for the school is cost saving :)

5 x 1 hour lessons here

Ours are on a 2 week timetable

Our school starts at 9am they have 3 lessons a day. Lesson 1 then break..Lesson 2 then lunch...Lesson 3 then home at 3.40