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

Another 5 x 1 hour lessons here, with a fortnightly timetable. They get a 20mins break mid-morning and a 45 mins lunch.

DS school starts lessons at 8:35 and finishes at 3. Six periods in a day. Seems to work ok - tutor time at end of day

When I was at secondary we had eight 35min lessons. The single lessons were pretty crap, double lessons of 70mins much more effective.

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.

My school did exactly this back in the 1980s.

DDs' school has 6 x 55mins/1 hour lessons. No double periods - not sure if this changes in yrs 10 & 11.

One local very high performing school finishes at 3.30 Mon & Tuesday and 2.45 Weds, Thurs, Friday. 25 mins for lunch. Morning break (when most grab some food i hear)

5 one hour lessons at my son's school. Start at 8.30, 25 minutes 'form time' then 2 lessons, 20 minutes break, 2 lessons, 35 minutes lunch, 1 lesson then finish at 2.50. After school activities until 4

We also have 5 lessons per day of roughly an hour each, with only 40 minutes for lunch (1:15-1:55). 2 week timetable. Seems to work fine as far as I can see as a parent.

My son's school starts at 8.50-9.00 arrivals, tutor time/assembly until 9.20. 5 subjects through the day. School ends at 3.20, it used to end at 3.30 with 10 mins more tutor time.

Many of the other local secondaries finish their school day at 2.45 or 3.00. As a parent I consider this unsatisfactory. Even working part time, I would struggle to be home in time for my child if he was finishing at 2.45. As a child in Yr7 I don't want him to be a latchkey at the moment. It's probably not even legal, in fact.

Growing up and going to school in the 1970s/80s my secondary school started at 8.45 and finished at 3.45. There was tutor time and assembly time, plus a lot more non-homework lessons in the first 2 years of secondary school. As a model it worked for kids and parents.

Id ask about lunch arrangements if I were you. Our local school does 8.30am -3pm with 30 min for lunch. As a result lots of the children don't get lunch as the queues are too long and there aren't enough tables (eating is only allowed in the dining hall or outside- not grest in winter). So there is a lot of crisp eating at morning break and the chicken shop down the road does a roaring trade after school.

I’d say the new system sounds pretty standard - my DCs school does 5 x 1 hour lessons, and the school my nieces go to (one of the top schools in the country) actually does 4 x 1hr 15 minute lessons! I think it just means less time is wasted shifting between lessons. It takes teens about 15 minutes to settle into their lessons anyway.

How on earth are the teachers expected to teach everything that's required

They’ll still be getting half an hour more teaching per day than most schools.

8 lessons a day sounds totally ridiculous. The kids would barely be in the room before they’d be packing up to go again.
My school went from 6 50 minute lessons to 5 1 hour lessons and it’s much better. Less time lost to changeovers, more time in lessons to actually get to grips with a topic, and planning is easier as a teacher.

The last school I worked at they had 4 x 1hour 25 min lessons, starting at 8.30 with the first lesson, no morning registration just 20 mins tutor time at the end of the day.

Much better to give notices at the end of the day.

DDs school changed their working day to 9am - 3pm last September. Theyre now considering moving back to the old times of 8.45 - 3.35pm.

It was supposed to make the day run smoother and give staff more time to do planning etc but they've found no increase in the amount of paperwork the staff do and the students aren't learning any better and in some cases the students are doing worse with bad behaviour increasing.

However, DD really likes the shorter day. She feels she is more productive towards the end of the week compared with previously because she is feeling less drained at the end of the school day. She does miss the extra curricular clubs that used to run at lunch time. They were cancelled because of a shorter lunch break. They cant run them after school because the school buses had their pick up time changed to reflect the change in school hours. Most students just get on their bus and go home and many of the rural villages don't have an alternative bus to catch if they stayed behind for clubs.

It can be done well and really benefit the children but when it hasn't quite been thought through properly, like cancelling the sport/arts/ and football clubs so students don't get that chance to go bonkers outside of the classroom so bottle it up then go off during class, it can be difficult to see any benefits.

20 mins tutor time at the end of the day.

Nooo, I worked in a school with this and it was awful. Kids sat with their coats on just waiting to go home. Any notices for the next day instantly forgotten.

My DCs' school has 5 lessons on 2 days of the week, 4 on the other 3 days. They finish early and have 2 half hour breaks during the day. Works well.

This is the proposal and I really only have 2 concerns:
dont think tutor time is enough and there arent any double lessons for things like cookery and D&T and sciences

8.30am - tutor time 15 mins
8.45am Lesson 1 - 55mins
9.40am - break 15mins
9.55m - Lesson 2
10.50 - Lesson 3
11.45am - Lunch
12.30pm - Lesson 4
1.15pm - Lesson 5
2.10-3pm - Lesson 6

Tutor time isn’t enough for what?

And why can’t there be double lessons if needed?

Tutor time is important - bulletins are read out everyday and time to bond with kids they dont necessarily see in lessons. My DS like this time before the school day starts.

Bulletins and register take 5 minutes. Anything beyond 15 minutes is probably time wasted.

my dd has registration at 8.40 then first lesson from 9am onwards - 5 x 65 minute lessons with 20 min break in the morning and then an hour for lunch. They finish at 4pm. It is an independent school so I think the slightly longer day/smaller year groups means they get slightly longer holidays.

8:30-3:00 is standard around my area. 6 periods a day but they are often doubles so 3*100 minute lessons and it works really well.

8 lessons sounds like a nightmare with a lot of wastage. How many books do they carry in their bags?

flowerpot I wouldn't be bothered about the number of lessons but schedualling 3 after lunch sounds silly. I bet the last one will be dogged by distracted children. Makes much more sense to have 2 before break, 2 before lunch and 2 after lunch. Why cant their be any doubles?

As a pupil I'd prefer what I had-8 lessons of 35/40 minutes.

As a parent I think the 5x 1hour are better. They get used to it very quickly.
Dd1 is now in the 6th form and they have 90 minute lessons and she loves that as she says they can really get down to concentrate properly.

WAy back when I was at school we had 5 lessons a day. Registration was 8.20, lessons started at 8.40 and finished at 3.

One lesson then break, then two, then lunch, then two.

made way more sense imo than my friends who were having double and triple lessons of 30 or 40 minutes.

I think 1145 is very early for lunch!

The number of actual teaching ours will not change - as that is pretty constant across all school types, across most developed countries and across the decades

all that will be changing is the length of breaks

Having tutor time first thing of the day might encourage lateness. Children can drag their heels when its just 'tutor time' and only make sure they get into school in time for their first lesson.