Free periods in sixth form.

17

Those of you who go to sixth form in a school rather than college, do you have to stay at school when you don't have a lesson or can you go home? At my school we're allowed to go out at lunchtime as long as we sign out, but for the rest of the day we have to be on site. They say we should spend our free periods doing work so we have more free time outside of school, which is fair enough, but today was the first day of lessons. My school has a 3-period day; first lesson was English with no homework and second was history with one tiny piece of homework that will take me about 15 minutes to do. So I faced sitting at school for 1 hour 45 minutes (which is how long our lessons are) with absolutely nothing to do. Once I was out of school, it was so tempting to just go home instead of going back to school that I did. No one would have known except that my friend told me we had a damn fire drill, and of course they take the register. So I'm gonna have to lie and say I went to the dentist. But the point here is, why? Why can't we just go home? Personally I know that if I did have some work to do, I'd get it done much better at home without all my mates around! And we don't have to be at school at all, so surely if some people didn't work and wasted their free time, they'd only have themselves to blame when they failed their exams! They say they're trying to make us more independent learners, but they're still restricting us and telling us when we have to work.

P.S. I had my first English lesson today (literature) and we had a test!!! The other teacher is giving us a test in our first lesson with her next week too! Mean or what?

Reply 1

glance

17

kellywood_5

Those of you who go to sixth form in a school rather than college, do you have to stay at school when you don't have a lesson or can you go home? At my school we're allowed to go out at lunchtime as long as we sign out, but for the rest of the day we have to be on site. They say we should spend our free periods doing work so we have more free time outside of school, which is fair enough, but today was the first day of lessons. My school has a 3-period day; first lesson was English with no homework and second was history with one tiny piece of homework that will take me about 15 minutes to do. So I faced sitting at school for 1 hour 45 minutes (which is how long our lessons are) with absolutely nothing to do. Once I was out of school, it was so tempting to just go home instead of going back to school that I did. No one would have known except that my friend told me we had a damn fire drill, and of course they take the register. So I'm gonna have to lie and say I went to the dentist. But the point here is, why? Why can't we just go home? Personally I know that if I did have some work to do, I'd get it done much better at home without all my mates around! And we don't have to be at school at all, so surely if some people didn't work and wasted their free time, they'd only have themselves to blame when they failed their exams! They say they're trying to make us more independent learners, but they're still restricting us and telling us when we have to work.

P.S. I had my first English lesson today (literature) and we had a test!!! The other teacher is giving us a test in our first lesson with her next week too! Mean or what?

That large slab of text is quite hard to read. At my school, we're allowed to go home on Friday period 7 and 8 if we have that free (obviously, of course I don't). Other than that, we're not. But on a plus note, no more threats of detentions :smile:

Reply 2

James.R

2

we can sign out and go home/into town but have to be back for both registrations

but it is recommended we use the lessons for studying :biggrin:

Reply 3

MattG

1

in my experience they always say "you must stay in and do work" to start with but tend to ease down on the restrictions once the terms get into fall flow. wait a bit and see what other people end up doing. ill think you will be fine just going home,

you'll find that when work picks up the free time will be a godsend so if you cant as well at home stay in...i should of lol

Reply 4

LS.

8

We're allowed out of school in our free periods if we have a signed not from our parents - we have to go to registration in the morning/afternoon if we have a lesson dirrectly after it. Other than that, we can go where we want during our free's.

Reply 5

m:)ckel

14

we're basically allowed to leave any time we want :smile:

this worked well during the last weeks of term (ie after the exams) cos we ended up having a lot of lessons cancelled, e.g. one week i only had about 4 hrs of lessons :biggrin:

Reply 6

Ramaya

2

kellywood_5

Those of you who go to sixth form in a school rather than college, do you have to stay at school when you don't have a lesson or can you go home? At my school we're allowed to go out at lunchtime as long as we sign out, but for the rest of the day we have to be on site. They say we should spend our free periods doing work so we have more free time outside of school, which is fair enough, but today was the first day of lessons. My school has a 3-period day; first lesson was English with no homework and second was history with one tiny piece of homework that will take me about 15 minutes to do. So I faced sitting at school for 1 hour 45 minutes (which is how long our lessons are) with absolutely nothing to do. Once I was out of school, it was so tempting to just go home instead of going back to school that I did. No one would have known except that my friend told me we had a damn fire drill, and of course they take the register. So I'm gonna have to lie and say I went to the dentist. But the point here is, why? Why can't we just go home? Personally I know that if I did have some work to do, I'd get it done much better at home without all my mates around! And we don't have to be at school at all, so surely if some people didn't work and wasted their free time, they'd only have themselves to blame when they failed their exams! They say they're trying to make us more independent learners, but they're still restricting us and telling us when we have to work.

P.S. I had my first English lesson today (literature) and we had a test!!! The other teacher is giving us a test in our first lesson with her next week too! Mean or what?

We have to stay too, until registration which is just after lunch, and if we have a free 5th period we can go home then. I agree its silly just to stay for the point of things, but I think many of the people wouldnt come back or would end up skipping more lessons if they had more freedom.
I also had a fire drill once when I went home and 'forgot' to sign out. I was quite a distance away from the school when I heard the fire bell so I had to go back which was annoying.
My first day was horrible too. I had a test in chemistry and i finished at 4.10!

Reply 7

Juno

20

In L6, we were allowed to go home one afternoon each week if we were free. But nobody told me this until U6, so I went home early twice a week. We could do what we liked in our other frees.

In U6, we could do whatever we wanted.

Reply 8

m:)ckel

14

wow, most people seem to have way stingier sixth forms than us

Reply 9

MC REN

14

bah you lot all have it easy, i have to wear shirts/ties and my neck is all sore now after rubbing against the damn collar all day :frown:

Reply 10

Evolin

13

glance

That large slab of text is quite hard to read. At my school, we're allowed to go home on Friday period 7 and 8 if we have that free (obviously, of course I don't). Other than that, we're not. But on a plus note, no more threats of detentions :smile:

omg...how many lessons do you have aday...how long are they!!

Reply 11

~Sam~

15

We had to stay in school in year 12 but this year we get to go home (but we have to be in monday and wednesday mornings for assembly). In year 12 we had private study rooms that we were meant to go to, but most the time we just skived them and sat around in the common room. And I went home a lot towards the end of the year because the teachers didnt seem to care as much then. I've got so many frees this year (cos I dropped history) but I'll probably have to stay in school for most of them as I have no way of getting home

Reply 12

pedy1986

13

Most people get 10 out of 40 free periods a week free, during which we can do anything we want (and town is only 5minutes walk away).

Sadly, doing AS Maths/Further Maths means I only get 1 free period this year *cries*

Reply 13

Zapsta

corey

Sadly, doing AS Maths/Further Maths means I only get 1 free period this year *cries*

Me too

*joins in with crying*

Reply 14

RachelBabyfrog

14

A lot of schools don't like students in year 12 to leave during their free lessons. Our school let us, though. The only times I ever stayed in school where when I did actually have work I needed to do, and when I had session 3 off... from 10.30-1.30! This year I have even more time off. My timetable is fab... I finish at 12.30 on Mondays and Fridays, 10.30 on Wednesdays and start at 11 on Tuesdays. I'll probably end up spending some of my frees in school because I have to help with after school clubs!!

Reply 15

presebjenada

2

because someday you will have work to do.. and it will often be work that does not have a set limit of time in which to complete it (crap grammar there!) .. and you are far more likely to do stuff if you are stuck in school -BELIEVE ME! free periods are a blessing! advice - work in them!

Reply 16

ricroc

hey! at least all your schools dont lock the common room doors outside break and lunchtime, so we're forced to sit in the bleeding library for hours on end! grrrr.....

Reply 17

Syntax

13

We're supposed to stay in school all day regardless of free periods.. which is gay :frown:

I don't have many free periods, and I just spend mine lounging on the field or in the common room with friends. Some people just go home though.. its not like the teachers are really going to notice a few less people spread out over the field..

Apparently in Year 13 we're allowed to go home in the afternoon if we have no lessons.. but not in year 12.

Reply 18

Syntax

13

Just read RicRoc's post.. that is awful!

I don't know what I'd do without venders, pool tables and music during free periods

The library.. ugh.

:biggrin:

I'm not going to become a vet with this attitude, I know :frown:

Reply 19

F. Poste

I got loads of frees last year as I took one of my a-levels in the evening at college. I skived off almost all of them, provided it wasn't just easier to stay in school :biggrin:

We were supposed to stay for all of the school day, but no-one was strict on it. I didn't see the point of hanging around twiddling my thumbs when i could be spending my time more productively shopping/at home/at the library!

Free periods in sixth form.

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