Should the school day be extended?

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Should the school day be extended?

The other day the new Education Secretary Nadhim Zahawi said he'd 'look at' extending the school day (source).

This is a suggestion that was made earlier in the pandemic as well, with some believing it could help with covid 'catch up' for students. But others think it could negatively impact things like mental health.

It's worth saying - this is only a suggestion at the moment, and Zahawi has only said he'll look into it, so don't worry about rescheduling all your afterschool clubs just yet.

But what do you think of the idea?

Absolutely not 😂

Academies already have flexibility when it comes to the length of the school day. There are some excellent primary school academies that don't finish until 4pm, for example. But that extra time is not used to just put an extra lesson on the end of the day. The extra time is used throughout the day to enable teaching in the lessons that are already there to be delivered more effectively. My concern with this proposal is that it may well be simplified into "they're in school longer, so they'll learn more" when that is almost certainly not going to be the case. If it was to be implemented, to my mind the extra time would need to be used to enhance the teaching that is already there, particularly for disadvantaged students, those who have fallen behind, and for those with additional needs, rather than just using it to stick an extra period of English on the end of the school day.

On a side note, whilst this is not something that is in the mainstream conversation yet, one major issue for high school students is not the length of the school day, but the time of the school day. Teenagers' body clocks are naturally set a number of hours later than adults, with the end result being that they simply aren't biologically ready to learn when the school day starts. There have even studies done that demonstrate pretty definitively that moving the high school day back so it starts and ends later but is the same length would have a significant positive impact on the ability of students to learn. I'm very much hoping that that because part of the conversation on education sooner rather than later.

Reply 3

IhaveNothingToDo

10

Think about those students who struggle with sitting in a classroom for 6ish hours they would suffer .

Reply 4

BurstingBubbles

Life & Style Forum Helper

20

No, I don't think students would be able to concentrate for that long. They need their down time and time for other activities too. As a side note, I think they should shorten the working day (to support attention etc.), but that's another issue :mmm:

Reply 5

Muttley79

20

Original post by IhaveNothingToDo

Think about those students who struggle with sitting in a classroom for 6ish hours they would suffer .

6Hours? There are only 5 hours of teaching in a day ...

Reply 6

username5637224

20

My children had lessons from 8a.m through to 6p.m. ( The occasionally got 2 hours for lunch) It was hell!! Would most definitely NOT recommend it. The summer holidays had to be almost twice as long as in the U.K just so kids could recharge their batteries, but parents don't have 3 months holiday, so the schools stay open as summer camps and hay ho, everyone is back at school at 8a.m!! Stay the way we are. It's best for children, parents and teachers!

Reply 7

1secondsofvamps

22

Who's gonna teach them?
Teacher workload is already high as it is. Not forgetting, many (new) teachers are quiting the profession because of this.

Reply 8

Rufus The Red

20

No.
If the motive behind this were to help students learn more I believe that could be better accomplished at a lower cost by providing extra remedial training for teachers (not that all require it, but some certainly do) or greater spending on resources.
And that's without considering student mental health and free time, which I believe would be very detrimentally affected.

However, in terms of what I think will happen, as this would be a logistically difficult and expensive thing to implement, I doubt it'll get anywhere beyond empty words. Maybe the introduction of an optional nationwide after-school 'homework club' initiative could arise, but that's the most I see coming of it.

(edited 2 years ago)

Reply 9

rosy_posy

18

No way. I'll happily attend a protest if the plans are considered by parliament.

Reply 10

username5637224

20

The best thing imo would be for infants and primary school children to have an after school homework club where teachers actively give tutorials to small groups of children requiring help. If everyone leaves primary school with the basics firmly understood then the number of children leaving the secondary schools and sixth forms etc without qualifications could be drastically reduced.

Hell to the no

Original post by BurstingBubbles

No, I don't think students would be able to concentrate for that long. They need their down time and time for other activities too. As a side note, I think they should shorten the working day (to support attention etc.), but that's another issue :mmm:

Very true. Even now as someone in year 13 I have very little time to do waht I enjoy imagine having a longer day, I wouldn’t be able to cope

Reply 13

Pika132

6

Um no if they make the day longer there will be no time for those student to revise therefore low exam results so I don't think schools will agree to that

Reply 14

BurstingBubbles

Life & Style Forum Helper

20

Original post by Thestudent107SWC

Very true. Even now as someone in year 13 I have very little time to do waht I enjoy imagine having a longer day, I wouldn’t be able to cope

Exactly! Also time for rest and the brain to process all the information! I remember just feeling completely drained and my head being full when I did my A Levels, would have been even worse with a longer school day :tongue:

Reply 15

username4933106

18

Original post by BurstingBubbles

Exactly! Also time for rest and the brain to process all the information! I remember just feeling completely drained and my head being full when I did my A Levels, would have been even worse with a longer school day :tongue:

Yep, For sure

Reply 16

username5637224

20

Original post by Thestudent107SWC

Hell to the no

It would mean no homework at home, 5 year olds with working parents who have little time for bed time stories etc could be read to and would not need after school babysitters. 7 and 8 year olds who don't have parents to help with basic maths and language exercises would not be at a disadvantage compared to those that do. As it wouldn't be compulsory to attend I can't see why students would be against it. I can imagine that teaxh8would be though!

Reply 17

rosy_posy

18

Original post by BurstingBubbles

Exactly! Also time for rest and the brain to process all the information! I remember just feeling completely drained and my head being full when I did my A Levels, would have been even worse with a longer school day :tongue:

My head is even more 'full' at A-level than it was at GCSE because of the wider reading :sigh:

Reply 18

BurstingBubbles

Life & Style Forum Helper

20

Original post by rosy_posy

My head is even more 'full' at A-level than it was at GCSE because of the wider reading :sigh:

Yeah I found that. Even though there were more subjects for GCSEs, the depth of information is more for A Levels but still for multiple subjects. At uni I found my degree was stressful but at least I was focusing on one particular area (still different modules, but all related to one thing) :smile:

Reply 19

rosy_posy

18

Original post by BurstingBubbles

Yeah I found that. Even though there were more subjects for GCSEs, the depth of information is more for A Levels but still for multiple subjects. At uni I found my degree was stressful but at least I was focusing on one particular area (still different modules, but all related to one thing) :smile:

What did you study at university? :redface:

Should the school day be extended?

Should the school day be extended?

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