Secondary school closing-time on Fridays.

Airyfairy12

Schools that finish early have to complete the same amount of hours each week as schools that dont finish early, so they have a slightly earlier starting time in the mornings, classes that used to start at 9am, now start between 8.30 and 8.45 and they have shorter lunch break, it used to be 1 hour, its now between half an hour and 45 minutes depending on the school. So all that schools have done is rejig the hours during the week so they can finish at an earlier time. It works much better for everyone and schools that have the 9am start, hour lunch and 4pm finish would be considered to be quite a bit behind the times as far as education is concerned.

Airyfairy12

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415917#Comment_121415917

The department would never fund this for the amount of staff that would be required to run an after school! Schools dont even have enough staff as it is because the department wont pay for much needed sna's, resource & the amount of teachers on unqualified rates or part time hours makes the job not worth the petrol it takes to get there sometimes.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121417490#Comment_121417490

Fair enough.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121418884#Comment_121418884

Well, yes.

If everyone had the same mindset as teachers, we'd all be teachers in it for the time off and holidays.

But we're not. Most of us choose careers with less time off. So by that logic, most of the workforce don't put that much emphasis on how much time off we get.

There are posts in the Teaching and Lecturing Forum bemoaning having to work an extra 6 minutes per day because of how the classes were timetabled.

GerardKeating

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415770#Comment_121415770

My school (long closed) was 8:30hrs to 14:20hrs, with a short lunch break.

But i remember a lot of schools (this was the 70/80's in Dublin) had the half day on wednsday, and that's when matches etc. would happen.

ceadaoin.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121414857#Comment_121414857

Same. I would go straight home and get into bed for a nap. Highlight of my school week 😄

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121416607#Comment_121416607

I only thought of asking this question recently (My apologies for the delay):

If the hours worked by secondary teachers in my area are the same now as they were before the schools started closing at around 1 o'clock on Friday then how would the new closing time on Friday have made any difference in terms of recruitment of teachers?

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121590160#Comment_121590160

Because differences in the timetables operated by two schools, not involving fewer hours in either school, can still make a position in one school more attractive than a position in the other school.

cj maxx

My school hours were always 9-4 . When I wasn’t mitching of course

boardlady

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121419129#Comment_121419129

Or they can give themselves a day or so less of holidays. That's another way of dealing with it. I live rurally now and the local schools discuss amongst themselves to work out start/finish times so the same buses can drop/collect from each school. I grew up in Dublin and finished school in 1991. Half day every Wednesday as far as I remember - started in 1985.

spurious

I know in the City of Dublin VEC (now ETB) the half day Wednesday was set aside for sports back as far back as the 30s, maybe even before that. The inter-school competitions were a big thing at their two grounds in Whitehall and Terenure.

mariaalice

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121637585#Comment_121637585

Another random conversation I had with someone, the VEC they worked for had boxing, handball, and showjumping as sports in rural Ireland in the 1970s

chacha11

Why did I never get a half day. It was full 9-4 for me every day.