what does your school's timetable look like?

tricolore

Hi,
Random question but does anyone teach in a school of approx 500 students that has a half day? Our school is at negotiation stage of changing school timetable.

Just wondering if anyone has sample timetables of their school day to show as a suggestion ie. start time, how many classes a day, class duration, lunch and break start and finish times.

Thanks:-)

(Apologies if apostrophe in the title is not needed)

seavill

Sent you a PM

spurious

PM sent from me too.

solerina

ours is 8.50-9.30, 9.30-10.10, 10.10-10.50 ten minute break. 11.00-11.40, 11.40-12.20, 12.20-1.00, 30 mins break. 1.30-2.10, 2.10-2.50, 2.50-3.30.
We have a half day on a wed at 1.00 (the best day for students as a lot of schools in this area have sports that afternooon, plays etc are often held too so kids miss less classes for extra curricular etc). I think its great as you prepare for Mon-Wed, then have a long afternoon to rejuvinate (catch up on corrections, prepare for next 2 days)...def better than a Friday half day like my friend has (kids not coming in, your too tired to do anything after a hectic 4.5 days with everything squashed in)...so if you have a choice of a half day dont pick Friday !!!

tricolore

thanks for the feedback solerina. Thanks for taking the time

solerina

No prob..I know when it was first suggested in my school I was all for a Friday half day...but now that we have it on Wednesday I find it great and I am glad its not Friday as I find I can prepare more efficiently for 2.5 days then reassess and prepare for Thurs and Fri (instead of getting a plan for the entire week on a sunday)...allows me to get out into the fresh air mod week too which is difficult in winter when its dark before I get home.

Fizzical

We have 9 classes Mon and Tues, 40 mins each, 10 mins break at 11am, 50 min break for lunch at 1.10.
Wed, Thurs and Fri - same timetable but only 8 classes so finish at 3.20 pm.
There was an attempt at one stage to add an extra class onto Wed but it was resisted for the time being.

Ten mins for small break is useless. I'm often only in the staffroom when the bell is going for next class. And I hate the shorter lunchtime. It means you can't leave the school, and usually end up doing extra work while you're there so the whole day is inside the overcrowded pressurised school.

If possible, I'd take back the lunchtime above anything else.

Inspector Coptoor

Mon, Tues, Thurs & Fri.

Roll call - 08:45 - 08:55
Period 1 - 08:55 - 09:25
Period 2 - 09:25 - 10:05
Period 3 - 10:05 - 10:45
Break - 10:45 - 11:00
Period 4 - 11:00 - 11:45
Period 5 - 11:45 - 12:30
Period 6a 12:30 - 13:00(lunch for 1,5,6)
Period 6b 13:00 - 13:30(lunch for 2,3,4)
Period 7 - 13:30 - 14:10
Period 8 - 14:10 - 14:50
Period 9 - 14:50 - 15:30

Wednesday (1/2 day)
Roll call - 08:45 - 08:50
Period 1 - 08:50 - 09:20
Period 2 - 09:20 - 09:55
Period 3 - 09:55 - 10:30
Break - 10:30 - 10:45
Period 4 - 10:45 - 11:20
Period 5 - 11:20 - 11:55
Period 6 - 11:55 - 12:30
Period 7 - 12:30 - 13:05
Classes end

I like the set up except for how short the lunches are.
30 mins are too short.

Moody_mona

Are the classes evenly spread out? I notice you have varying class times, are some classes stuck with half hour classes every day? Any one class group (3rd year maths for examole) can only have a max of one 35 min class a week in our school.

spurious

Fizzical wrote: »

Ten mins for small break is useless. I'm often only in the staffroom when the bell is going for next class. And I hate the shorter lunchtime. It means you can't leave the school, and usually end up doing extra work while you're there so the whole day is inside the overcrowded pressurised school.

If possible, I'd take back the lunchtime above anything else.

We have a forty minute lunchtime and hour long classes.
I find the short lunch hugely stressful and quite bad for my health. If you are delayed at all coming down from class it's push and shove to get a free microwave or room to get something to eat, then gobble gobble as quick as you can, giving yourself indigestion or heartburn going back up to face another couple of hours on the trot. I would love to do an extra twenty minutes later on to get a proper lunch hour.

tricolore

Thank you to fizzical and inspector coptoor. Really appreciate the feedback and comments on how staff are finding it.

Thanks to all for their help

seriouslysweet

My school went on until 4.30pm for Seniors and then finished early on Thurs and Fri too.

Miss Lockhart

We would love a half day. It was discussed and looked into but we were told it put too much pressure on the timetable. We even had somebody in from the timetabling software company to tell us it couldn't be done. Everyone else seems to manage it though so I'm sceptical.

Inspector Coptoor

Moody_mona wrote: »

Are the classes evenly spread out? I notice you have varying class times, are some classes stuck with half hour classes every day? Any one class group (3rd year maths for examole) can only have a max of one 35 min class a week in our school.

They are as evenly spread as possible but sometimes there's a disparity between classes in a year group.
The timetable is tight

unknowngirl!!

We finish at 1.30 pm on a Friday - It's really great, makes the week short and the weekend much longer. I stay and get work done for an hour or two and it eases the pressure of the weekend.

During the week our timetable is:

Roll: 9.00 - 9.05
Period 1: 9.05 - 9.45
Period 2: 9.45 - 10.20
Period 3: 10.20 - 11.00
Break 11.00 - 11.15
Period 4: 11.15 - 11.55
Period 5: 11.55 - 12.30
Period 6: 12.30 - 1.10
Lunch: 1.10 - 1.50
Period 7: 1.50 - 2.30
Period 8: 2.30 - 3.10
Period 9: 3.10 - 3.51

tricolore

thanks for taking the time to reply unknown girl!!

rainbowtrout

Mon, Tues, Wed : 10 x 35 min classes, 9.00 -3.45, 15 min break, 40 min lunch

9.00 - 9.35
9.35 - 10.10
10.10 - 10.45

10.45 - 11.00 Break

11.00 - 11.35
11.35 - 12.10
12.10 - 12.45
12.45 - 1.20

1.20 - 2.00 Lunch

2.00 - 2.35
2.35 - 3.10
3.10 - 3.45


Thurs, Fri : 9 x 35 min classes, 9.15 - 3.30, 15 min break, 45 min lunch

9.15 - 9.50
9.50 - 10.25
10.25 - 11.00

11.00 - 11.15 Break

11.15 - 11.50
11.50 - 12.25
12.25 - 1.00

1.00 - 1.45 Lunch

1.45 - 2.20
2.20 - 2.55
2.55 - 3.30


Everyone is happy enough with the 40 minute lunch. Have never heard anyone complain about it. We changed our timetable a couple of years ago and the 45 minute lunch on Thurs/Fri feels a lot longer in comparison.

tricolore

Thanks spurious -Yeah, personally I really think that the times that we are in schools and all the extras being expected schools have to prioritise a proper lunchtime for all staff aswell as students to get a proper break - you can't work at that pace forever. Your health is your wealth and this is being overlooked far too much

tricolore

Thanks for the reply rainbowtrout - how do you find preparing all those classes - does anyone have 10 straight classes in a day? would there be many doubles?

rainbowtrout

tricolore wrote: »

Thanks for the reply rainbowtrout - how do you find preparing all those classes - does anyone have 10 straight classes in a day? would there be many doubles?

Doubles depend on your subject. I teach science and PLC so I have a fair few doubles in the week. Usually at least 1 per day, sometimes more. I don't have any day where I'm on 10 classes that's just the way the timetable worked out this year, but i did last year - a nightmare I affectionately called 'Ten class Tuesday', which was tough going.

In terms of preparation, well I teach a full 22 hours and always have done so I'm used to teaching that much, however we used to have 40 minute classes on our timetable, and when we went to 35 minute classes it meant most people got an extra class group so I do have more work. Some subjects take less preparation than others, I have a post in my school and I find that takes up a lot of my free time.

evolving_doors

Forty mins all the way.... finish at one ten on wednesday..can't really complain

Spurious.. Hour long classes = insanity
With forty minutes lunch!!..it's a recipe for disaster...

RH149

Funny how you think you have it bad until you see someone else's timetable!
We don't have any half day -which means sports teachers have to often miss classes-supervised by the rest of the staff who do S&S and you regularly have students missing classes as they are away at a match, especially on a Wed. Would love a half day but we have also been told its not workable.
We have 45 min lunch breaks which most of us think is too short as we used to have an hour. It means staying in unless you happen to be free either side of lunch-might happen once a week, and that in turn means a constant stream of students at the staffroom door looking for teachers for various reasons.
10 mins for break!....we have 15 and you're lucky to get to the staffroom and a cup of tea in your hand before the first 10 min 'warning' bell rings.

tricolore

very true rh149. My thoughts behind it as the timetable is up for negotiation is to aim to cut number of classes we teach a day - personally i like the idea of 7 classes a day however i expect that it would be a nightmare of a job for principal to sort out the timetable - maybe even impossible - but we'll see how it goes

tricolore

hi spurious another quick ? how long is class registration in the morning? ours is currently 7 mins. Thanks

Fizzical

Sorry if this is a silly question but what exactly is class registration? Is it just roll call, and who does it? Is it class by class, or by year? Does it happen again after lunch?

spurious

tricolore wrote: »

hi spurious another quick ? how long is class registration in the morning? ours is currently 7 mins. Thanks

We don't have any official registration time. We take the register at the start of each class, using e-portal if it's working.

RH149

We don't have a scheduled roll call-we're supposed to do it at the start of every class on Facility/E-Portal but the 9am class roll is the one where the absences for the day are recorded on the main system. It probably takes 3-5 mins of the first class but doesn't appear on the timetable as such.

tricolore

oh rite okay thank you for the posts- by class registration we mean roll call - class teacher is responsible for checking journals, dealing with lates and any issues reported from subject teachers that can't be dealt with within the class

tricolore

oh and forgot to say in our school the roll call is done class by class in the morning only.

seavill

For those with a half day on Wednesdays for sports - what happens if the other school you are playing can't play on Wed. afternoons can you use other times during the week?
How does it work with a kid that will play all sports like I would have a few that play soccer, Gaelic, Hurling and basketball for the school, how does that work if everything is on the same day

Inspector Coptoor

seavill wrote: »

For those with a half day on Wednesdays for sports - what happens if the other school you are playing can't play on Wed. afternoons can you use other times during the week?
How does it work with a kid that will play all sports like I would have a few that play soccer, Gaelic, Hurling and basketball for the school, how does that work if everything is on the same day

A lot of schools with 1/2 days on Wednesdays are rugby schools.
The schools wouldn't have many teams operational during rugby season so yeah, it does work.

The fixtures are done well in advance.
Games are also played on Saturday mornings

When the rugby season is over, cricket, athletics & other sports take over, usually around March

seavill

I know where we are no schools have a half day but in a neighboruing county most do, however we would have soccer, gaa and basketball all running at the same time just can't picture in my head how it would work,

Inspector Coptoor

seavill wrote: »

I know where we are no schools have a half day but in a neighboruing county most do, however we would have soccer, gaa and basketball all running at the same time just can't picture in my head how it would work,

Yeah, I'd agree with you, it's a pain in the arse.
Less popular sports in our school like basketball & soccer have matches on Wednesdats too but there's little overlap as a lot of the boys pick a sport to do in school & might play GAA with their clubs etc.

2011abc

Inspector Coptoor wrote: »

When the rugby season is over, cricket, athletics & other sports take over, usually around March

Cricket?Youre in UK?

Inspector Coptoor

2011abc wrote: »

Cricket?Youre in UK?

I'm in Dublin.
And yes, cricket.
It's officially cricket & tennis season in a lot of Dublin schools now.

I'd point out I have no interest in either.

seavill

Cricket in other parts of the country too (sorry I've dragged this completely off topic)