Sixth Form Teaching Hours

[BDonna]

How many face-to-face teaching hours does your DC's sixth form provide?

At DD's school (Academy) each lesson is 1 hour.

She is doing 3 A levels and gets 3 hours teaching a day on Mon to Thurs and 2 hours on Fri, so 14 hours a week.

The rest of the time is self-study.

It seems that teachers are often absent too, so actual hours with a teacher are less than this.

I'm worried that this isn't enough.

Ours get 4h per week per A level.

Ours get 9 per fortnight per subject so about the same as your DD.

I think dd has 11 hours per fortnight per subject. (She's at school so I can't check) She's expected to self study/do homework the same amount that she's in school so this is also 11 hours per subject per fortnight.

Sorry each period is 50 mins and it's 11 periods not 11 hours.

She's at a comp

4 or 5 hours per A level per week is typical.

IB is 5 hours/week for three Higher subjects. 3 hours/week for 3 Standard subjects. 2 hours/week ToK. Plus compulsory CAS hours!

We do 5 hours a week per block, but we aren't covered if we are not in as it's not a legal requirement however we are expected to send through work for students to complete if we are able

5 Hours a week per subject here (so 15 hours per week) and it is recommended to replicate this in self-study

Sounds normal to me too.

Both of mine - 2 different schools - are / were 9 hours per fortnight.

However, both schools started everyone with 4 A levels, so 36 hours per fortnight, plus an hour of games / PE per week, then 1 or 2 of EPQ-type stuff / speakers and 1 or so of stuff that looks forward t(UCAS, Unifrog, apprenticeship speakers etc) per fortnight.

in Y13, both schools drop down to 3 subjects, in general, which ups the amount of self study.

DD is in Y13 now but its similar to when she was in Y12.

3 subjects

• each subject has 4-5 hours a week. Some are doubles, some singles. The idea is that in one year the subject gets 4 hours, the next year 5 hours. However, this hasn't been the case for two of her subjects - they still only get 4.

They are then supposed to commit an extra hour per subject to be in a classroom for independent work - on coursework or practical elements mainly. Nobody ever checks up on this though and there is no supervising teacher. It's left to trust. Rest is recommended to work independently on each subject but they can do this as and when, wherever they want, and it isn't checked up on. If a teacher is absent it isn't usually covered, unless its mid-long term absence. They are supposed to leave cover work, sent by email to the students. To be fair, most do. But they can then do thes work at home or school.

Form time

• compulsory once a week, about 20 min.

EPQ

• think they had some teaching sessions in Y12, but not weekly. Was the odd hour every so often. Then adhoc meetings 1:1 with a tutor, as required.

Assembly

• the odd compulsory one every so often, bit probably no more than once per half term.

Rest of the time she is free to come and go as she likes. DD is pretty organised and works well at home in her study, both during the day (if not in school til later, or finishes early, and after school into the evening. She still has plenty of free time between lessons where she and friends sit in the local coffee shops chatting and playing cards though! She doesn't really do any of her extra independent study at school as she feels it isn't a great work environment and prefers to put the hours at other times at home.

She has also committed one afternoon a week to relevant work experience, with some extra sessions where she can.

Sounds quite good actually - almost 5 hours per subject. She'll be expected to put that much self study in on top.

Ours have 6 periods a week for each A Level subject, so 18 lessons a week for those studying three subjects. EPQ for those who do it/enrichment/form time on top, and then one afternoon per week of sport.

TheOnly,

How long is a period?

DD and DS had 5 1-hour lessons per day, and started with 4 A-levels - so with your structure would have had 24 hours per week taught out of 25 at school!

Do you have e.g. 6 shorter periods per day, or just no study periods at school?

Our students get 9 hours per fortnight in each of three subjects. This is standard. I'd be surprised if teachers are 'often' absent. The pressure for A level grades is high, and most teachers drag themselves in when sick.

DD has just told me she has 6x50 minute periods per week per A-Level, so 5 hours.

Also, one of her teachers is giving each student a 121 in one of their free periods. There are only four kids in the class.

Comprehensive school.

TheOnly,

How long is a period?

55 mins, 6 periods a day.

4 hours per week per subject.
So 12 hours.
He will get 3 extra for further maths after Christmas.
It's a minimum of 1.5 hours travelling each way and he has lessons every day.
So his travel time is more than his contact time.

5 hours a week is the norm everywhere I've worked. There is an expectation of independent study on top of that that's a mix of self directed and homework.

If staff are absent then they wouldn't get covered but would send work in. If 6th form can't cope with a couple of hours self directed study through materials given by the teacher then there's something wrong.

My sixth form students get 5 hours a week per ALevel. Except the further maths students who get 9 hours for maths and further maths together.

I am currently trying to train my new year 12 that those "study periods" on their timetables are actually for studying rather than hanging around the common room. Some are more receptive to this advice than others.

MsAwesome
Do we have the same students?

It's when I go through the long term course plan for 2 years and they say "but what about revision if we are doing things til Easter". I point out that I'm teaching things properly in detail and all those study periods from y12-13 outside of the 5 hours a week per subject are for THEM to be receiving content, making notes, doing mock questions and so on.

Similar in its 4/5 hours a week BUT....We are expected to set 1hr non contact work for every hour we see them plus also reading and homework on top of this. This is basic requirements, not going above and beyond.

So 3 A levels should therefore be about 35-40 hours a week minimum.

You're expected to set it for them? So you plan twice as much work as you do teaching?
Bloody hell.

We teach study skills, self quizzing, revision strategies, have some extension work from class but then it's on them to grow up a bit.

I know!!

They're hard work as they're still very much used to bring spoon fed.

We set lots of research or (hate this term) "flipped learning" ready to add detail and depth next lesson. It's a gradual process of getting them to be more independent.

Flipped learning 🙄
Fine if you have a group who are mature and independent (my y11s one year were ace at it and my y7s last year were fabuyat prereading before class). Not fine if it means half don't bother to do it and then you're stuck. I agree it's like spoon feeding at times.

We only have small groups so there's no escape if you haven't done the work. Current yr12 are great though. Really taken to 6th form style well, doing the extra reading and non contact work well so far.