Frequency of Maths in year 7

[Westcoastlover]

Hi, ds has just started Secondary today and has returned home with his fortnightly timetable. In week 1 there are only two maths lessons and he has four maths lessons (2 in 1 day) in week 2. How does this compare to your children in year 7 please? My concern is that ds is weaker in maths and 2 lessons in week 1 seems inadequate. The lessons are 45 mins long, mixed ability. Many thanks.

I think if your ds is weak in maths, I think 2 lessons in a week is actually a good thing. He can always have time to catch up and revise, rather than struggling at each lesson and falling behind.

DD has 4 lessons a week, for an hour. I think they are in sets.

DD2 has a fortnightly timetable. Her lessons are 1 hour each. Streamed for Maths and English from the start, and restreamed reach year. In year 7 she had 7 lessons per fortnight. She's in year 8 this year, and so far she has 6 lessons per fortnight, but we don't have week 1's Tuesday timetable yet (it rolls out gradually), so it could be 7 again.

DD was year 7 last year, she had 4 hours a week of maths, the 5th day she had a technology lesson instead.
It’s the same this year as well. In year 9 she has maths (and English) every day.

Last year in y9 DD had 6hrs of maths / fortnight.

Partly on this kind of thing, you have to trust the school. Do they get good pass rates for GCSE maths? If so then try not to worry. If he is weaker, then doing some extra practice at home will always help if the homework load is light enough.

In my school the year 7s get 3 lessons a week of maths, we have a one week timetable and our lessons are an hour long. They also have an hour a week of numeracy (where they work on developing their number skills).

So my year 7 kids get significantly more maths than your ds.

We also set them right from the start (the sets are very flexible and we move up/down as necessary) so weaker kids get the time they need to practice and consolidate basic skills while stronger/more mathematical kids move onto more complex problems.

Thank you for your replies. Schools are very different aren't they! I think I will need to support him lots at home.

My year 7 had x4 hour long lessons per week. Also there is a lunchtime maths club, is there anything like that?

Another one saying 4 periods a week, each period 1 hour long. There are lots of online maths resources, school are best placed to tell you which ones to use, they usually have their own that the students can log into.

Don't see his weakness in maths as an issue, he has only just left primary school. But see it as a strength that you know this is an area he needs to work at. He could genuinely do a small amount of maths a day and it will massively pay off.

I've got DD's timetable for Tuesday now. She has 7 lessons per fortnight again.

My DD has 3 Maths lessons per week, 1 hour each. The school operates on a 2-week timetable. Maths is the only subject where they have ability groups.