On Oct 21, 9:56*pm, Nick wrote:
On Oct 21, 9:51*pm, Dawlish wrote:





On Oct 20, 7:52*pm, "Anne Burgess"
wrote:

Wouldn't it be difficult to time the school day so that its
start/end
wouldn't coincide with the start/end of the office day?

When I stayed in Germany, some schools started at 08.00 and some
even earlier. I was staying with a family of seven and all the
children's schools started well before shops and offices did.
Then they all came home early enough to get some daylight after
school, long before the evening rush hour.

Anne B

When I lived in La Republica Dominicana, my school started at 7.15 and
finished at 1.30. mainly because it was physically impossible to teach
in classrooms that were 90F by 12.30!pm All you could do was lecture
from a sitting position, or even better, get the kids to do the work
themselves. I never found the early start a worry and neither did the
students. I'd see nothing wrong with starting school at 7.00/7.30 am
in the UK in the summer. Only social and work mores prevents us from
doing that. Why have the same start and finish times in the winter, as
in the summer? Yet almost every single school does.

I suppose the main reason is that a 7am start would mean the kids
having to get up at some hideous, pre-6am hour if there was a
significant commute to school (e.g. when I was at school, registration
was 8.45am and I needed to get up at 7am.... quite early enough for me
lol!)

Nick- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

A "hideous pre-6am hour" in summer would be to experience, often, a
fantastic, warm, brilliant, shining, wonderful early morning. Most
young kids would love it if they were allowed to get used to it. I'm
not sure their parents would though - hence the work and social mores
bit! We cause our kids to miss out on what is often the best part of
the day in summer y encouraging them to sleep. 9.30 to bed and
6.00/6.30 to rise for a 7.00/7.15 school start wouldn't do any under
11 any harm at all (after the age of 12-14, things get different and
secondary schools could do with starting later to fit with the best
learning times for an adolescent). They could then play to their
heart's content through the most of afternoon (instead of being in,
often, stiflingly hot clasrooms until 3.30) and into the evening. In
winter, of course, it is dark and no-one wants to get up at that time,
so let them sleep until 8.30/9.00 when it is light, for a 9.30/9.45
school (and office) start, with a 2.30/3.00 finish to the school day,
well before it gets dark again. We could still inflict the 5 hours per
day on them, but vary the infliction throughout the year as to when
there is more daylight, or less. Learning could take place in lots of
other contexts to facilitate them getting their hours in during winter
months. We even have the Internet and home access these days you know!