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Secondary education

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Original poster

Double and triple lessons

18 replies

MoFoFlo · 05/09/2020 20:44

DD is year 9 and not back in school until Tuesday but her timetable has just been sent through and it's not great.

To cut down on movement between classrooms they've been put into a core group for form time, maths, English and science. They'll stay in the same classroom for all these subjects and they are mostly delivered as a 2 hour double lesson.

Their option subjects (they start GCSE content in Y9) are delivered as a triple lesson.

Seems like a long time for kids to concentrate on one subject and I can't see how this makes for a positive learning experience! Anyone had similar on their kid's timetable?

OP posts:
ineedaholidaynow · 05/09/2020 20:46

I think many schools are doing similar.

SpeedofaSloth · 05/09/2020 20:49

DS' school is doing this. They seem to have lots of changes of activity within the lessons and time for drinks/ snacks at their desks so he is coping well so far.

PurpleDaisies · 05/09/2020 20:52

They’ll have an unofficial break built in to those longer lessons. It’s hard for teachers too.

dododotheconga · 05/09/2020 20:52

Well op, you can have them back like that with some vague attempt and keeping them safe or you can have lockdown again. We are not in normal times here.

Hercwasonaroll · 05/09/2020 20:53

I'm teaching them! Makes sense from and infection control pov. Difficult though for us all.

Babyshine2020 · 05/09/2020 20:57

Double lessons are not uncommon. When I was in high school we had all lessons in a double firm (except PE). Triple I agree is a long time, and must take its toll on everybody, but I'd say double lessons are pretty standard.

But, the kids need to go back to work and get some structure. If we/you are finding it hard, they'll be finding it even harder.

Hercwasonaroll · 05/09/2020 21:00

They went out of fashion because they aren't great for retention of knowledge. Little and often is better. We're hoping to keep the retention with homework etc.

Original poster
MoFoFlo · 05/09/2020 21:24

Must be so hard for teachers trying to plan for these long lessons and not being in their usual classrooms.

DD is very much looking forward to going back to school (although there's been no end of moaning about double maths followed by triple Spanish with her least favourite teacherHmm). I hope this helps to keep everyone safe and in school, as she didn't enjoy online lessons much.

OP posts:
lljkk · 05/09/2020 22:02

DC school had lots of double before covid, so normal for us. DC seem to cope fine.

Meredusoleil · 05/09/2020 22:04

My dd1 is having lots of double lessons, not just Art, DT or PE which are the most common ones. But each period is only 45-50 minutes long so overall not so bad imho.

SE13Mummy · 05/09/2020 22:40

At my DCs' secondary, all lessons are doubles and have been like that for at least a decade. It's because the school is split across two sites so minimising the movement between them saves time. Another advantage is that students have to carry fewer books in their bag each day which makes them lighter!

reluctantbrit · 05/09/2020 23:47

DD has double lessons in most subjects and I think it is not a bad idea.

At her age, she is Y9 as well, I had double lessons and enjoyed it a lot more than single ones as you could actual do some decent work instead of spending10 minutes out of 45-50 doing admin stuff with a teacher.

Triple is a bit much so it depends if there is a break in between.

@Hercwasonaroll interesting, in my opinion a good teacher manages to keep the attention span going and it can produce better results as a subject can be taught more in depth than always in just more than 1/2 hour (after registrar, check on homework, getting books out etc).

WeAllHaveWings · 06/09/2020 00:02

Ds had double lessons, but the teacher splits them. For example in English they do some RUAE first, then have a break and work on their essays.

Hercwasonaroll · 06/09/2020 00:36

interesting, in my opinion a good teacher manages to keep the attention span going and it can produce better results as a subject can be taught more in depth

I'll go and tell all those educational researchers they're wrong about how the human brain stores and retrieves knowledge as they're obviously wrong Hmm

Staying interested and engaged during the lesson is only one part of learning. You need to regularly revisit what you have learnt, otherwise it'll be forgotten. I see some classes once every 4 weeks with our new timetable. That's not good for learning at all.

HandfulofDust · 06/09/2020 07:41

Like others have said the teachers will likely work in break times of sorts and lots of activity changes (Eg group discussions, independent reading, whole class activities, research time) so I doubt it will look like just a huge long lesson.

monkeytennis97 · 06/09/2020 07:55

@MoFoFlo

DD is year 9 and not back in school until Tuesday but her timetable has just been sent through and it's not great.

To cut down on movement between classrooms they've been put into a core group for form time, maths, English and science. They'll stay in the same classroom for all these subjects and they are mostly delivered as a 2 hour double lesson.

Their option subjects (they start GCSE content in Y9) are delivered as a triple lesson.

Seems like a long time for kids to concentrate on one subject and I can't see how this makes for a positive learning experience! Anyone had similar on their kid's timetable?

Yup. It's going to be very different. Very very hard for us as teachers too. I can see pupils not coming into schools as they are not going to be the mental health idylls they have been portrayed as.
Witchend · 06/09/2020 13:34

How long are the lessons?
Our lessons were 35/40minutes. A double lesson was then only 70/80 minutes, and a triple (which was always 40 minutes/lesson) so 2 hours.

My dc have lessons that are an hour, so a double lesson is only 2 hours.

Now I think that sounds terribly boring, but my dc say they far prefer the hour lessons as they can actually settle down and concentrate far better.
They love doubles for the same reason.
In face ds' year has a couple of broken lessons (to stagger breaktimes) where they have the break in the middle and although his concentration is generally not good, so I thought he'd be pleased, he's not, he says an hour is far better.

SansaSnark · 06/09/2020 14:13

Depending on how long lessons are, triple lessons are likely to be a struggle, but I am sure the teachers will build in some kind of break- after all, no time will be lost moving between lessons.

It is not perfect, but at the moment what is? This is the compromise the school have come up with to try and make things work. If it is really not working after a couple of weeks, that might be the time to raise it with the school, but I think you and she need to give it a good trial before doing this.

I am sure it will be manageable, even if not what she is used to.

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