UK Conservatives draw up plan for 9 hour school days - Polidicks

[quote]A move towards nine-hour school days and longer terms could leave many children exhausted and too tired to learn, it has been suggested. Under plans reportedly being examined by the Conservatives, school hours would be extended, with pupils staying until around 6pm, while school holidays would be cut almost in half, to around seven weeks a year. But teachers' leaders warned that many children are already tired at the end of the school day, and need regular breaks to help them process what they have learnt in the classroom [/quote] [URL="http://www.burnleyexpress.net/news/national/fatigue-fear-over-longer-school-day-1-6405586"]http://www.burnleyexpress.net/news/national/fatigue-fear-over-longer-school-day-1-6405586[/URL] Other Sources: [URL="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10606439/Children-face-nine-hour-school-days-and-shorter-holidays.html"]Telegraph[/URL] [URL="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/politics/5410133/tories-looking-at-plans-to-keep-kids-in-school-nine-hours-a-day-45-weeks-a-year.html"]The Sun[/URL]

I for one love the idea since I left school a long time ago, haha I'm an asshole.

So, where's the money for funding teachers and extra lessons gonna come from, education minister? Because (good) teachers currently do a lot of stuff in their own fucking time, with the way lessons all have to be planned thesedays, unless you want to be absolutely sledgehammered by Ofsted. Have we any proven reports on the efficacy of longer school days and terms? I don't really think we need to force ourself into the problem where kids have so little time to do anything that they obsess over schoolwork to nothing else, costing them their childhoods and huge parts of their social lives. Currently we're already forcing them through GCSEs and A levels as if it is the end of the world, each of which basically becomes useless once you've got the next, with the sole purpose of getting into college or uni because an A level ends up ultimately being worth fuck all after a college degree. You make a decision that affects your life massively at 17 or 18. Fuck up there, and it can potentially be gg no re.

oh fuck no

i'm pretty sure most decent teachers work like 10-12 hour days anyway. i know my mum gets to school at least an hour early and usually comes home an hour late, and then sometimes spends the whole evening prepping for stuff the next day... and she's not even a teacher, she's a teaching assistant at a really small primary school where the fuck are they gonna find the time to do all the planning and marking if you keep them in a teaching environment for an extra 3 hours a day?

They should be there no longer than the teachers are there for - and I'm pretty sure teachers aren't going to like that idea. But the kids would especially have it bad because of the mental workout. Really glad that my uni is flexible with timetables, I go to uni four times per week but I'm never there for anymore than four hours each day to retain focus and prevent mental exhaustion. Kids will suffer if they have to do nine hour days. I do 9 hour shifts packing shelves but I don't mind that because I get a fair wage, I get a workout (moving roughly 110, 15kg boxes per hour), and it's a relatively menial job. A mental workout for nine hours just wouldn't work though.

nope [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25961514[/url] [quote]Sources close to Education Secretary Michael Gove say the government is not planning blanket changes to bring in a longer school day and year in England. A former adviser to David Cameron has told the Sun the Tories are considering a plan to cut school holidays. Legal changes are already under way that will make it easier for more schools to vary their days and terms. They are due to be discussed by MPs next week. But sources say there is no plan to impose such changes.[/quote]

and the tory government once again showing how incredibly out of touch with reality they are.

[video=youtube;cw4Ot3ryjxY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cw4Ot3ryjxY[/video]

I personally believe 4-6 hours a day with alternating schedules of classes has the best effect.

[QUOTE=smurfy;43724309]nope [url]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-25961514[/url][/QUOTE] well, thank goodness for that.

[QUOTE=Kite_shugo;43724322]I personally believe 4-6 hours a day with alternating schedules of classes has the best effect.[/QUOTE] If they wanted to improve teaching, what they would do is move the start of the school day forwards by one hour, provide breakfast clubs in every school and ensure that all teachers are up to standard. Tiredness and not eating breakfast are both pretty strongly linked to poorer academic performance, especially amongst the poorer students, whose parents might struggle to ensure they always get a proper meal. Sure correlation isn't always causation, but it is pretty likely that it is causative in this case. This is coming from one of those smug cunts who happens to be pretty good at waking up early, not a bedbug by any means.

Man school is taxing enough on kids these days. You go from subject to subject being hammered with information, usually having subjects which require very different approaches right next to each other, and you barely get a break. And then you have fucking pointless tests which only serve to add to the stress kids have to deal with. Not to mention the homework sucking away all their free time. All this will do is make kids less interested in school and destroy their social lives. When I was in school the days were 8 to 8 and a half hours long and we were often given 3 hours worth of homework every night. By the time we got around to the Leaving Cert. (Like the A levels) people were so stressed out they were either having mental breakdowns or were becoming physically sick. Terrible idea. It'll do exactly the opposite of what they want.

What the f*ck do they want to teach the children for so long ? Are the humans such idiots that they need to spend 9 hours a day for 12-17 years just to be a functional member of society ? Give the children a break. I dare to say hobbies and out-of school activities benefit more to children than the whole school system and doing this will take away that from them.

3 extra hours of sitting through a crap education system won't fix it

Pfft, I'd take my kids out at the usual time, learnt more out of school than I did in school. Maybe they should fix the broken education system before extending the amount of time for people to be stuck in it...

What about moving the current school hours to later in the day so it actually syncs up with children's biological clocks?

[QUOTE=Kite_shugo;43724322]I personally believe 4-6 hours a day with alternating schedules of classes has the best effect.[/QUOTE] IMO it should be that classes go for an hour each, and so the day works out to be something like a 15 minute roll call, class 1, class 2, 45 minute lunch, class 3 and finally class 4. 10AM to 3PM - early enough in the day so that when school finishes the sun will still be up for a while longer, but late enough that kids, especially those who catch public transport (before I got my driver's license when I still went to school I had to catch both a bus and train) get a good sleep each night. Haha every second Tuesday back in year 12 for me was fucked. I had a 'period 0' (before school class) for Advanced English, and a period 6 (regular school day was 5 periods) for two-unit Mathematics, so an after school period. Wake up at 6AM, get bus at 7:15AM, train at 7:45AM, just make it in time for an 8AM start, finally finish at 4:30PM, catch 4:50PM train but just miss the 5PM bus, so I'd have to wait for the 6PM one. Getting my drivers license and a car really helped manage those days.

I think every school ever should think about improving the education programs rather than simply increasing hours. Good teaching in a short time is better than long hours of average teaching.

Reminds me of Japan's school system but their entire culture revolves around hard work so it just naturally works there

[QUOTE=Antdawg;43724422]IMO it should be that classes go for an hour each, and so the day works out to be something like a 15 minute roll call, class 1, class 2, 45 minute lunch, class 3 and finally class 4. 10AM to 3PM - early enough in the day so that when school finishes the sun will still be up for a while longer, but late enough that kids, especially those who catch public transport (before I got my driver's license when I still went to school I had to catch both a bus and train) get a good sleep each night. Haha every second Tuesday back in year 12 for me was fucked. I had a 'period 0' (before school class) for Advanced English, and a period 6 (regular school day was 5 periods) for two-unit Mathematics, so an after school period. Wake up at 6AM, get bus at 7:15AM, train at 7:45AM, just make it in time for an 8AM start, finally finish at 4:30PM, catch 4:50PM train but just miss the 5PM bus, so I'd have to wait for the 6PM one. Getting my drivers license and a car really helped manage those days.[/QUOTE] Man 4 classes a day sounds great. I had 9 classes on Mondays and Tuesdays and 8 classes the rest of the week. Each class was 40 minutes long so by the time you started to get into the flow of a subject you were booted out to another class. Going from English to maths to biology in 2 hours is a pretty shitty way of learning anything.

Fucking hell by the end of the six hours I usually couldn't learn any more, 9 hours sounds like hell.

[QUOTE=Jmir 54;43724462]Reminds me of Japan's school system but their entire culture revolves around hard work so it just naturally works there[/QUOTE] It doesn't work there at all. They have some of the most stressed out students you can find, a lot of kids who can't meet the unreasonable expectations just give up instead, because doing okay and doing shit may as well be the same thing.

[QUOTE=Jmir 54;43724462]Reminds me of Japan's school system but their entire culture revolves around hard work so it just naturally works there[/QUOTE] More like China to be honest. That's where the real competition for jobs and education is.

[QUOTE=Jmir 54;43724462]Reminds me of Japan's school system but their entire culture revolves around hard work so it just naturally works there[/QUOTE] works so well, that a sizable part of their population is outright uninterested in relationships(this includes teenagers), due to essentially lack of time and having to focus about their (future in the case of teens) careers/whatever.

[QUOTE=Wizards Court;43724550]works so well, that a sizable part of their population is outright uninterested in relationships(this includes teenagers), due to essentially lack of time and having to focus about their (future in the case of teens) careers/whatever.[/QUOTE] Doesn't really sound like a fun way of living to me.

Teach harder, not smarter.

They should work on improving the education quality instead of increasing the number of hours. What's the point of sitting in school for 9 hours if half of it is badly taught useless bullshit?

[QUOTE=Janus Vesta;43724466]Man 4 classes a day sounds great. I had 9 classes on Mondays and Tuesdays and 8 classes the rest of the week. Each class was 40 minutes long so by the time you started to get into the flow of a subject you were booted out to another class. Going from English to maths to biology in 2 hours is a pretty shitty way of learning anything.[/QUOTE] Back when I was in junior high (middle school to most people) and high school, the district kept switching back and forth between block scheduling and straight schedules every year, it was annoying as fuck. Block scheduling was so much better because there were 4 classes a day and the days alternated. Each class was 90 minutes and there was an hour lunch. Straight schedule was 7 classes crammed in a day and it was much more demanding since there was less class time, more homework and less time to do homework. I worked as a deskside tech at a local school late last year and was shocked to see how much worse it had gotten. It was just a middle school but they had alternate scheduling split between 3 days and it was something like 9 classes, 8 classes and 8 classes with each day being almost completely different. The kids also only had 20-25 minutes for lunch and no breaks. It was basically GRIND GRIND GRIND from the second they got in the door until the second they left. I don't see how they put up with it, I'd literally go insane and probably break down.

[QUOTE=Janus Vesta;43724466]Man 4 classes a day sounds great. I had 9 classes on Mondays and Tuesdays and 8 classes the rest of the week. Each class was 40 minutes long so by the time you started to get into the flow of a subject you were booted out to another class. Going from English to maths to biology in 2 hours is a pretty shitty way of learning anything.[/QUOTE] ours had 90 minute classes. Just long enough for you to [I]start[/I] to get sick of the shit. Perfect length.