Can anyone explain to me how lessons work in sixth form?

I’m in year 11 and hoping to go to sixth form next year to study a levels in Maths, Physics, Biology and Further Maths.
I know it will be different for different schools but I wondered if anyone could give me an idea of what a typical week would look like? How many lessons are typical? Is this different for maths and further maths, are they likely to have more or less time or be combined? How many frees do people usually have? How many hours of an EPQ is in school and timetabled as a lesson?
For context the sixth form I hope to go to is part of a secondary school and has 15 100 minute lesson slots per week.
Thanks in advance for any help and responses.

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 1

cyberhex

11

So, the way my sixth form did it (was also part of a secondary, 30 1-hr lesson slots a week though the last one on Wednesday was always a free as for some strange reason school finished earlier that day) was an alternating A/B week structure where you had 10 classes of each subject a fortnight, split 4/6 across the two weeks - the exception was my EPQ which had 1 class a week, and CEP (do not remember what that stands for but basically PSHE) once a fortnight. All the rest of my slots were either what they called "supervised study" where you had to be registered in a classroom with a teacher to study, or straight up frees where you could do whatever.

In terms of the lessons themselves, how it worked across all of my subjects except EPQ (Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Geography) is that you had 2-3 teachers for each subject who would share the lessons and teach different units - for instance, one teacher would teach me Physical Chemistry for 2-3 of my lessons that week and one teacher would teach me Organic Chemistry the rest of the time. The only other thing is that classes can be smaller than at GCSE depending on your subject - Biology was quite a full class but then there were only around 8 of us in my Computer Science class. You also generally have folders instead of books to keep all your work in (I don't know if your school did it but if so, it's the same as how my other school did it for languages at GCSE) that they'll check occasionally to make sure it's organised.

Hope this helps! :smile:

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 2

DerDracologe

OP

Study Forum Helper

20

Thanks so much

Reply 3

study23!

Study Forum Helper

16

Original post by DerDracologe

I’m in year 11 and hoping to go to sixth form next year to study a levels in Maths, Physics, Biology and Further Maths.
I know it will be different for different schools but I wondered if anyone could give me an idea of what a typical week would look like? How many lessons are typical? Is this different for maths and further maths, are they likely to have more or less time or be combined? How many frees do people usually have? How many hours of an EPQ is in school and timetabled as a lesson?
For context the sixth form I hope to go to is part of a secondary school and has 15 100 minute lesson slots per week.
Thanks in advance for any help and responses.

My sixth form has a 25 hour week (5 hour long lessons per day). I take four subjects (maths biology chemistry and further maths). I have a 3 week timetable, so for example one week I may have 6 frees overall, but then the next week I have like 2 lessons per day. I always have a Thursday as a full day but that's just how my subjects have worked out to. I'd say it averages out to 4 hours per subject per week, so an average 16 hour lessons week.

Maths and further maths have the same amount of time for me (i take both side by side). If you do maths year 1 and further year 2 I'm guessing you may have double the maths lessons compared to phys and bio in year 1 and then the same with fm in year 2.

With the 16 hour week average, that comes out to about 9 frees per week for me. I'd say most days I have 3 lessons - personally I always have a double lesson every morning, whilst some of my friends can have lie ins (jealous). I'd make use of your frees for studying but do relax too, go for a walk, play games with friends etc. Don't be a study machine.

In Wales we have welsh bacc (like epq but more i guess), but for those taking it they have the same amount of lessons as a normal subject. I don't know if this is true for an EPQ though.

With your 15 100 mins lessons I'm guessing you'd have at least 5 frees per week, depends if you have the same timetable every week or if it alternates.

Reply 4

eedygeorge2

1

Original post by DerDracologe

I’m in year 11 and hoping to go to sixth form next year to study a levels in Maths, Physics, Biology and Further Maths.
I know it will be different for different schools but I wondered if anyone could give me an idea of what a typical week would look like? How many lessons are typical? Is this different for maths and further maths, are they likely to have more or less time or be combined? How many frees do people usually have? How many hours of an EPQ is in school and timetabled as a lesson?
For context the sixth form I hope to go to is part of a secondary school and has 15 100 minute lesson slots per week.
Thanks in advance for any help and responses.

Im in year 12 now and I study chemistry, biology and maths. My school is in Wales so we also do welshbacc. I never have more than 4 lessons a day and normally 3 days a week I only have two, the frees can be spent however but i reccomend catching up with any homework or going over topics you dont understand as this will help you for exam season.

Reply 5

DerDracologe

OP

Study Forum Helper

20

Original post by eedygeorge2

Im in year 12 now and I study chemistry, biology and maths. My school is in Wales so we also do welshbacc. I never have more than 4 lessons a day and normally 3 days a week I only have two, the frees can be spent however but i reccomend catching up with any homework or going over topics you dont understand as this will help you for exam season.

Original post by study23!

My sixth form has a 25 hour week (5 hour long lessons per day). I take four subjects (maths biology chemistry and further maths). I have a 3 week timetable, so for example one week I may have 6 frees overall, but then the next week I have like 2 lessons per day. I always have a Thursday as a full day but that's just how my subjects have worked out to. I'd say it averages out to 4 hours per subject per week, so an average 16 hour lessons week.
Maths and further maths have the same amount of time for me (i take both side by side). If you do maths year 1 and further year 2 I'm guessing you may have double the maths lessons compared to phys and bio in year 1 and then the same with fm in year 2.
With the 16 hour week average, that comes out to about 9 frees per week for me. I'd say most days I have 3 lessons - personally I always have a double lesson every morning, whilst some of my friends can have lie ins (jealous). I'd make use of your frees for studying but do relax too, go for a walk, play games with friends etc. Don't be a study machine.
In Wales we have welsh bacc (like epq but more i guess), but for those taking it they have the same amount of lessons as a normal subject. I don't know if this is true for an EPQ though.
With your 15 100 mins lessons I'm guessing you'd have at least 5 frees per week, depends if you have the same timetable every week or if it alternates.

Thank you both for your answers that is really helpful to know

Can anyone explain to me how lessons work in sixth form?

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