Proposed longer days

[BeingATwatItsABingThing]

Can I preface this by requesting that this does not turn into a teacher bashing thread please!

www.tes.com/news/exclusive-8am-6pm-extended-school-day-table?fbclid=IwAR38Yzx74z2xuATlA8L9XmWFWzyiq1K47j3UaFCYHGyLb79rjeG9kWgXUeA

I’ve just seen this this morning. If this comes into fruition, I will be leaving teaching. I can only just cope with my workload with our school day as it is (8:35 - 3:15). I spend hours every night marking and prepping for the next day and I spend at least one weekend day catching up with planning and marking before I even think about catching up on housework and life admin. My children get a really raw deal from me being a teacher and I don’t have any more time I’m willing to take from them.

They’re suggesting making the days 30 minutes longer and optional 8am - 6pm days. We have an early finish on a Friday to recoup some costs from our ridiculous budget cuts and the article says they would want to get rid of those.

Even if I think about this from a parenting perspective, I don’t want my DDs in school any longer than they already are.

What are other teacher’s thoughts?

I hadn’t thought about childcare providers-8-6pm schooling would leave huge swathes of childminders out of work?!

Having just found out my year group for next year, I will 100% not be supporting any increase in the day length. I’m not sure how I’m going to cope as it is...

@BeingATwatItsABingThing

Having just found out my year group for next year, I will 100% not be supporting any increase in the day length. I’m not sure how I’m going to cope as it is...

Year 6?!

Having just found out my year group for next year, I will 100% not be supporting any increase in the day length. I’m not sure how I’m going to cope as it is...

Reception? Year 1?

Ha! No not Y6. I’d have been ok with that. UKS2 is my comfort zone.

If it had been EYFS or Y1, I’d have handed in my notice via reply email.

It’s funny, isn’t it-I love EYFS but Y5/6 would be my worst nightmare!

@Appuskidu

It’s funny, isn’t it-I love EYFS but Y5/6 would be my worst nightmare!

It’s a good thing we don’t all love the same year groups.

@Babymeanswashing

Hmm .... most secondaries are now academies and it isn’t all bad, although some are awful and some aren’t.

I doubt this will happen. I think it’s literally just a way to force primary schools not to close early.

I've only worked in one school so far and don't have children. What do you mean by early? Do some close earlier than mine? (From what I can tell our hours are pretty standard)

I've only worked in one school so far and don't have children. What do you mean by early? Do some close earlier than mine? (From what I can tell our hours are pretty standard)

Some have been closing at lunchtimes on a Friday to cover PPA.

I've only worked in one school so far and don't have children. What do you mean by early? Do some close earlier than mine? (From what I can tell our hours are pretty standard)

My school closes at 1:30 on a Friday. We still teach the same amount as every other school that’s open 8:45 - 3:15 but we start at 8:35 every day and only have 45 minutes for lunch. It’s not for PPA though.

Oh I see! I haven't encountered a school who does that. Thanks!

@Beachhuts90

Oh I see! I haven't encountered a school who does that. Thanks!

My school does it to save money to avoid having to make yet more people redundant.

I’m just trying to picture my Reception class doing these extra long days....

It just annoys me so much that, like everything, the concept is being thought up by people who have no clue on reality.

My day of teaching is basically done by 2:15. - 2;30 because they’ve just had it by then. Their concentration has gone and anything done afterwards just won’t be the standard they are capable of. If I do reading with any of them past 2pm it’s never as good as they are capable of. They would never keep enough focus for another half an hour, let alone till 6. They’re shattered.

I left school today at half 5 and stuck my head in Wrap Around - twoYear 2 children had fallen asleep in the book corner and a reception boy was trying hard to keep his eyes open.

So if government propose optional school day till 6, do they mean planned activities till six? Our wrap around is very chilled. Clubs are over by 5 (and most don’t go on that long) so the actual wrap around care is very much free play, computers and iPads for older ones, I know a lot of older ones just get their homework done in there and there’s always a drawing table and it’s just relaxed time. No way are they up for lessons then and if there are no lessons, then what’s the point? All the government will do is cost schools and child minders and wrap around companies their business- because schools will be running for free!

Idiots. Absolute idiots.

I was talking about this with my mum. She said 'Well, in my day (in the late 50s/early 60s) we were at primary from 8:45 - 4pm every day. Secondary day until 4:15.'

I pointed out that she also had over an hour for lunch!!! Most children went home for their lunch back then whereas my own secondary kids are lucky to have 20 mins to throw a baguette down their throats!!

It's that old adage that just weighing a pig doesn't make it fatter...just throwing more hours at kids won't make them learn more. If anything, it'll be detrimental as the poor buggers will be so tired & stressed 😩

You don't even need to go that far back. When I was at primary in the late 70s, I walked home (approx. 2 miles) for lunch, my friend's mum fed us and read us a chapter from LOTR and we walked back again! No idea what time we started but we finished at 3.45. I reckon lunch must have been easily 1 1/2 hours. We also had morning and afternoon break. So much lovely playing.

If it had been EYFS or Y1, I’d have handed in my notice via reply email

Ditto

Is this just additional information, or something new:

www.theguardian.com/education/2021/jun/01/school-day-in-england-could-be-extended-in-covid-catch-up-proposals

Sen can't cope with longer days. I'm not sure any child can unless it's doing something really fun.

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/school-day-to-be-extended-under-15bn-covid-rescue-plan-to-help-children-catch-up-bnsb5d6ll

Oh goodie-we are back to releasing changes to schools via newspapers which you have to pay (who owns the Times?) to read!

An extra half hour per day-how would that fit in with 1265? And pay?

My eldest doesn’t get home from school until 4.30 as it is-this would be a miserable nightmare bus journey which would end up hitting work traffic. The little ones would be exhausted, SEN won’t cope and I would imagine behaviour everywhere will be dreadful. The impact on things like brownies/Cubs/sports clubs and training/dancing wouldn’t be good either.

Seems to new leakage. The workforce is already predominantly female. This will lead to even more requests for part time working, I reckon , fewer women seeking promotion, therefore, and more drop out of, especially women, form teaching after about six years,which is already a huge problem. I think they will create problems to 'solve' problems. Tying so much of it up with economic recovery also really rankles.

I would like to see the evidence that English schoolkids missed more actual teaching time than the rest of Europe, especially countries with similar covid levels.

The article I read about it today said that there was a possibility of a pay increase if the extra half an hour goes ahead. I will not be doing it if I am not going to be paid for that time.

Interesting stuff here

schoolsweek.co.uk/warning-over-dfe-evidence-backing-extra-school-time/

The DfE also cited a 2012 study by Victor Lavy, which concluded that evidence from a sample of 15-year-old pupils from more than 50 countries consistently showed that “additional instructional time has a positive and significant effect on test scores”.

And what about those students’ mental health? What about the mental health of their teachers and school staff? Not everything should be about test scores!

Yes but did you notice that our time is already ahead of everywhere else's?

@Piggywaspushed

Yes but did you notice that our time is already ahead of everywhere else's?

Yeah, I did read that too. Maybe if the government didn’t set such ridiculous expectations, we wouldn’t need to ‘catch up’.