Off Topic School times & Summer Break

[Rapunzel]

As a slight side line to the question - what age do they start? In the UK it's the September before they turn 5; so if they were born on 31st August 2010 or 2nd Septmeber 2009, they'd start school this September.
Don't think I've explained that well! So child A, 31st August would be 4yrs 1 day and child B 2nd sept would be 4yrs 364 days on the 1st September - which is what is meant by "the September before they turn 5".

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Rising 5's as they call it, we had this issue with Big Boy as he was 4 and 2 weeks when he started school, but P&F was 4 and 10 months

 

[COz]

Generally in Australia it's "turning 5 by end of June/July of that year" depending on the state. I wish they'd just say 4.5 at the beginning of the year. Seems easier to me.
Kids have to be enrolled in school by the time they have turned 6.
You can apply for early entry before they are 4.5 but this is rare and up to the school to approve.

In Sydney it is quite common for people to delay the school start as long as possible with the idea that the kids will do better academically with the extra maturity. Children with March birthdays or later are frequently kept at pre-school/day care for another year so they are over 5 before starting.
I've also heard recently, and I hate this, that some parents enrol their child into the local school for the first year then transfer them to a non-government school the following year, starting them again in the first year of school to "give them an advantage".

Also, some states have an extra year in there, in some states the first year of school (Kindergarten) only has half days (or 3 days a week sometimes I think) then there's another year before grade 1. In other states Kindergarten starts with full days and then year 1 is directly after it.
I have friends in a different state with a child the same age and it eventually clicked that they wouldn't finish at the same time.

 

[COz]

@Redford : Missing teachers? As in sick? Does the school not then hire a substitute teacher for the day?

@SuperGirlmlm : 7:30 start for teenagers? That's just cruel!

 

[COz]

In city areas of Sydney it's only the non-government schools that have school buses. Public school students receive free travel on ordinary public transport to and from school.

Where we live we have 4 government and 1 non-government school within about a 20 minute walk (elementary schools). 1 local high school, 1 non-government high school in the same area. It is common to travel out of area for a high school.
If you live within the school's intake area they must accept you, but in practice many schools will take out of area applicants for elementary school. High school is more difficult. Private high schools often take applications from children many many years in advance and charge $20k-$30k a year!

 

[OzZee]

France: primary school (6-11) day goes from 08:30 to 4:15 at my kids school - some schools don't have wednesday classes, and none have any classes on wednesday afternoons.
School ends for summer on around the 3rd July and goes back on the 4th September
There are 4 holidays each of 2 weeks:
end Oct
Christmas
end Feb
end April
So there are 36 weeks of school.

Ok I'm moving to France - you get proper meals at school and lots of holidays!

 

[Faolmor]

Has Tasmania moved over to 4 terms?

NSW So yep we are the same term and holiday wise.
Public school days - primary - 9-3 and high school 8.40-3ish. (dependant on school and most seem to have 1 early finish day. )

Private schools around here (sydney) have extra holidays, generally a week at most holidays bar the first ones. But they have longer days to compensate.

Yep, four terms here now in Tas.

ETA: I couldn't imagine getting a little kid to school by 7.20am!! That's hardcore lol.

Also wanted to add - here in Tasmania, school age is the year they turn 6. Kinder is the year they turn 5, but kinder isn't a compulsory school year. The overwhelming majority of high schools also finish at year 10. There are only 2 high schools (colleges) that go to year 12, and both require students to travel to Hobart to attend.

 

[COz]

Bit of extra information to Faolmar's post, Tasmania (the little island at the bottom of Australia) is also one of the states where there is year in between Kindergarten and grade 1.
Most high schools do end at year 10, same as in Canberra, but then there is "College" which is 2000-4000 year 11 and 12 students in the one school run in a more university style environment. The are 3 (unless one has closed) public colleges in southern Tasmania's Hobart region. There are more in the north of the state.
Private (non-government) schools generally have year 11 and 12 as part of the same school.

I love this system. It means that you meet more people in your late teenage years rather than just the people you've been at school with for the last however many years. It's also a great introduction to the freedom and extra responsibility of university, but in a smaller environment (colleges) where most teachers are addressed by first name and there is no uniform.
Running it this way means that colleges can offer a huge range of subject choices that a normal high school could not.

 

[hawaii_gymnast]

In my province in Canada although I
am sure it varies:
8:00-9:00- start time, usually earlier for elementary (K-6) and later for Junior high (7-9) and high school (10-12). Lunch is normally between 45 minutes to 60 minutes.
2:30-3:30 is the end of the day, depending on time started and how long lunch is.

Summer break is about 8 weeks long. 2 week break over Christmas and New Years. 1 week break around the end of March for spring break. As well new this year there will be a 1 week break in November, on the week for Remembrance Day. Then there are other holidays that are off (Easter, Thanksgiving, Victoria Day, etc.), as well as 4 PD days a year and 1 or 2 days in lieu.

Kindergarten starts at age 5 year, but is not mandatory. Grade 1 is the first mandatory year, for 6 year olds. They must be 6 by March 1st of the year.

 

[Faolmor]

I was told there are only two year 11-12 colleges in Hobart, COz - I might have heard wrong though! (Or maybe one has closed?!) I think there is currently a push to have all high schools in Tassie go to year 12, too. Not sure if it'll go ahead or not, but that's the plan, I believe...

 

[Ex member]

As a slight side line to the question - what age do they start? In the UK it's the September before they turn 5; so if they were born on 31st August 2010 or 2nd Septmeber 2009, they'd start school this September.
Don't think I've explained that well! So child A, 31st August would be 4yrs 1 day and child B 2nd sept would be 4yrs 364 days on the 1st September - which is what is meant by "the September before they turn 5".

We are slightly different in our area

They are not legally required to start full time school until the term after they are 5, my dd was born October and under this system she didn't need to start full time school until January, a lot of summer born children can realistically start their full time education in year 1, not many choose to do this unless there is a place shortage.

My dd's school term and time :

3 terms a year

Holidays' similar to the other posters here from the uk.

We break up on 22nd July and go back on the 5th September (dd's gym training times change from 29th July from evening to longer daytime training hours including lunch breaks on most of the times she is in)

This week at school they are spending the week with their teachers for September, my youngest has gone into year 3 for the week, my oldest has gone into year 6 for the week, next week for the last day and a half they are back with their old teachers. The last morning (22nd July) consists of a full school assembly where awards etc are given out and from lunch time onwards we have a summer fete.

The school day starts at 8:45am and finishes at 3:15pm for all years except nursery who do half days either morning or afternoons.

 

[COz]

I was told there are only two year 11-12 colleges in Hobart, COz - I might have heard wrong though! (Or maybe one has closed?!) I think there is currently a push to have all high schools in Tassie go to year 12, too. Not sure if it'll go ahead or not, but that's the plan, I believe...

Actually, 4 that I can think of and I just checked that they all still exist:
Hobart, Rosny, Claremont & Elizabeth

 

[Aussie_coach]

Every state in Australia actually now has the same number of school years, the reason why it seems that some have an extra year between Kindergarten and Grade 1 is because the years are called a different thing in different states and it gets very confusing because the same name is used for different year levels.

In my state we have Kindergarten but it is the same as pre school in other states, it is not a part of school, there are not kindergartens at most schools they are a separate pre school institution. In the ACT, NSW, VIC, NT and TAS its called pre school but in QLD, SA and WA its called Kindergarten but its the same thing.

Then the first formal year of education is called Kindergarten in the ACT, NSW and TAS, its called Prep in QLD and VIC, its called transition in the NT, Reception in SA and Pre primary in WA. But its all the same curriculum.

 

[MissLisa]

^^^ I'm so confused by the different names for the same things in different states. I've grown up in NSW, was confused by my housemate who grew up in QLD. She finished school a year earlier than me even though we are the same age as Queensland used to have one year less schooling than NSW. I now coach a girl during school holidays who is from Adelaide and again they call everything different. Both of us confuse each other all the time as our terminology differs!! I can't keep up with it all. It just seems odd and confusing to have different names for the same things! Preschool is before you start school, Kindergarten is the first year of school and then into the grades (Year 1, 2 etc) in my understanding.

I went to a private school and our start and finish times were staggered even within the same school. Junior school went 8:45- 2:45, Middle School 8:50-3:15 and senior school 8:55- 3:20. I think this was more for the parent pick up congestion as it didn't make a difference for the buses as they had to wait for the seniors anyways. There were a few times where my older siblings would miss the bus as the bus driver wouldn't stick around long enough. Parents were never too impressed about that!

We had heaps of holidays too. Generally an extra week or week and half more than the public schools each holidays. Loved it. I went to another private school (much smaller one) for a few years and the principle didn't believe in extra holidays. We had less holidays than all the public schools! No pupil free days or anything.

And then I was homeschooled so my days were however long it took me to get through my work/ needed to go somewhere and holidays were the usual ones plus I would work out every year to finish all my subject's work a couple of weeks early so I could have extra holidays! Best ever. The last few weeks were pretty sparse as well as I would have already finished some subjects and just have a few to go

 

[3gymgirls]

Here in my state in the US, you must be 5 by July 31 before starting kindergarten. Some parents choose to wait until their child is 6 before starting kindergarten for maturity reasons, but that is the latest you can delay starting school. Our school year runs from mid-August to mid-May with 4 nine-week terms. Grades K-5 go from 8-3:30 and grades 6-12 go from 8-3:45. We have two weeks at Christmas and a few other days here and there.

 

[Aussie_coach]

It is very interesting to make a comparison. Here in my state in Australia we have 40 weeks of school but 6 hour days.

You have 36 weeks in your state in the US but 7 1/2 - 7 3/4 days. So a month less school than us but 1 1/2 more hours a day.

The overall teaching hours are not much different.

Which do you think is more effective?

 

[Iwannabemargo]

hmm just adding ours up, 6 hour 20 minute day in Primary with 1 hr 20 mins of breaks, so 5 hours of instruction for 40 weeks less 5 "Baker" days = 975 instructional hours a year.

Secondary is 3 100 minute lessons a day so 975 hours again.

What about breaks in the school day, how much actual teaching time, bet its a similar amount?

I also like the tertiary college idea for years 11 and 12. Big Boy is off there after summer and he is really looking forward to making new friends

 

[emilykatherine]

hmm just adding ours up, 6 hour 20 minute day in Primary with 1 hr 20 mins of breaks, so 5 hours of instruction for 40 weeks less 5 "Baker" days = 975 instructional hours a year.

Secondary is 3 100 minute lessons a day so 975 hours again.

What about breaks in the school day, how much actual teaching time, bet its a similar amount?

I also like the tertiary college idea for years 11 and 12. Big Boy is off there after summer and he is really looking forward to making new friends

In high school you get a 25 minute lunch and 5 minutes in between each class, I have 7 classes a day, so we get about an hour of a break everyday

 

[Bajanswife]

In Barbados the dates are set by the Ministry of Education. Public schools are as follows:

Term 1: Sep 8 - Dec 11
Term 2: Jan 6 - Apr 1
Term 3: Apr 21 - Jul 2

Each school determines its own hours. Most schools start around 8.30 a.m. and end just before 3 p.m., but some of the schools have gone to an earlier day to help alleviate school traffic. e.g. 8 - 2.15.

All 3 of my kids go to a private school, which tries to follow the Ministry as closely as possible, but sometimes they do vary their dates. e.g. this year is a Pantomime year for the school, so Term 1 is ending on Dec 4th instead so that the kids can concentrate on all the performances throughout December. This private school starts the day at 8 a.m. and goes until 2.10 p.m. Some of the senior students get "8th period" a few times per week, depending on their timetable, which takes them to 2.50 p.m.

 

[gymisforeveryone]

FINLAND:

Every year there are 27 school weeks. The summer holiday is usually 10 weeks (early June to mid August) and Christmas holiday is usually 3 weeks. There is also a fall break (1 week) and winter break (1 week) and Easter break is aroun 4 days. Also many religious holidays here and there.

The length of the school day depends the grade.

At first and second grade (7-8 years olds) it's 3 hours and 45 minutes a day
3rd and 4th grade (9-10 yo) it's 4 hours and 30 minutes a day
5th and 6th grade (11-12 yo) it's 4 hours and 45 minutes a day
7th, 8th and 9th grade (13-15 yo) it's 5 hours a day

High school hours varies depending which subjects you decide to study and how many courses but usually about 6-7 hours a day.

The school day may start at any time at the lower grades (the earliest start time is 8 am and usually the latest time is 11 am) but the the schoolday never lasts longer than 3 pm. Usually in the primary school the school ends around 1 pm or 2pm.