Secondary school closing-time on Fridays.

political analyst

It used to be the case that, Monday to Friday, the secondary school-day ended a few minutes before 4 PM. A few years before the pandemic, those schools started closing shortly after 1 PM on Fridays. What was the reason for that change? I've asked teachers at the secondary school at which I was a pupil and they don't know.

Gregor Samsa

It gives the kids a chance to get something to eat before heading to the pub. I know some people say eating is cheating, but I always found the hangovers were much worse when I went straight from school to the pub back in the day, and it showed in my grades. My kids, on the other hand, get in a burger and curry-cheese chips in Supermacs first, and they’re flying it in their tests.

freshpopcorn

I finished school in 2011 and I went to college I met people from city schools and they got a half day on Wednesday.

Later on in 2011 my old secondary school got a new principal and they started up the half days on Friday.

It's going on since a long before Covid.

From my understanding at the time they cut class time a little.(This may have been due to government cut backs.) And the cut time off their lunch breaks.

Strumms

Local school had a half day every Wednesday. I’m pretty sure they only had a 30 or 40 minute lunch though.

I went to a school a bit further away… we had the full hour and finished at 4…

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058324326/secondary-school-closing-time-on-fridays

My cynical thoughts are that once teachers got used to finishing up early on Fridays, they didn't want to give it up again.

Dial Hard

I'm not sure this is a recent thing. I finished school in 1999 and we got a half day every Wednesday for staff meetings or something.

Hippodrome Song Owl

Secondary school students receive 28 hours of contact time per week. That hasn't changed in a very long time - decades. It's up to each school to organise their timetable. A half day has been a thing in many schools for decades. No need for cynical conspiracy theories.

mikemac2

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

So did I and I never got a half day. 🤔

Our hours were 9-4 with a lunch hour. If schools were getting half days I must assume the teachers and students added the time somewhere. Like 30 minutes each day. Shorter lunch breaks mentioned on the thread, makes sense.

We were on the battered death trap rusted to scrap Bus Eireann cast off yellow Bus Scoile. Heath and Safety howarya? So the buses ran according to the schools

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415019#Comment_121415019

Your a teacher?

dickdasr1234

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415426#Comment_121415426

A teacher of English, hopefully!

Trampas

I finished school in the 90’s and it was 9-4 Mon, Tues, Thurs and Fri with an hour lunch from 1-2. Half day Wed at 1. Fri for me seem to end with a double class of practical like art, woodwork or tech drawing over the years. 9 classes and 6 classes a day on the half day

iniscealtra

Lunch is much shorter in many schools now. 35 minutes

ZX7R

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415019#Comment_121415019

School I went to nearly 30 years ago was one of the first to Introduce it on a trial.

What ever group involved at the time recommend Wednesdays as it broke the week for the students and also sport matches were to be played that day so teaching time would not be missed.

I know guidance teachers representatives were hugely involved at the time.

Happyhouse22

It’s just a different way of dividing the school day- weird that the teachers you asked couldn’t explain.

There are 28hrs of class time in the week. Schools can divide this up as they see fit. The most common would be 42 forty minute periods and or 28 1 hour periods. But I am sure there are schools who have 35, 45 or 50 minute classes too.

When I was in school it was 9 to 3.40 Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. 9 classes each day with 40 min non teaching time divided into two breaks. On Wednesday we finished at 13.10 only having 6 classes and 10 mins of break time.

Many schools are changing from 40 minute classes to 1 hour classes at the moment so that could definitely account for changes in timetables. For example maybe they do 6 1 hour classes Mon- Thurs and then the remaining four hours on Friday (lines up well with the 1pm finish you mention).

Can yiu remember how long the classes were when you were in school?

iniscealtra

A lot of schools have training on Fridays after school.

I haven’t heard of any matchs played after school though.

Hippodrome Song Owl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415426#Comment_121415426

No.

Dial Hard

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415258#Comment_121415258

Our day was 8.50 - 3.30 with 35 minutes for lunch.

spurious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415588#Comment_121415588

That was done in at least one Dublin city centre school to avoid local filth getting kids to deliver packages containing pharmaceuticals.

Peter Flynt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121414577#Comment_121414577

Mod

Warned for this .

spurious

The weird lengths of classes (37 minutes etc.) are reflective of the mess Irish schools are in since teachers do not get full positions. In the old days a teacher of (say) Maths was available for x number of full classes per week, but now, with partial contracts and all the messing that has gone on, to give classes 5 classes of Maths (or whatever) per week, minutes have to be saved here and there. 15 minutes a week saved over a large number of teachers may allow the school to put in a minority interest subject, or allow the Ordinary level class to be seperate from Higher Level, or to offer a Higher Level class in some subjects.

It's an art form in itself managing timetables. A nightmare really.

The half day in secondary school is unnecessary but has been around a long time...

The one I can't understand is why we accept primary schools tossing kids out at 1.30 & 2.30 and having to scramble to get them to after-school. Who does that suit..

Peter Flynt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415875#Comment_121415875

Schools are not creches. If you don't want to mind your own kids then don't have any.

Padraig Mor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415594#Comment_121415594

One of the first and it being a trial - dunno about that. I started secondary in the 80s and always had a half day Wednesday - and it wasn't a new thing when I started either

There we go with the typical nasty response.

What about when both parents work.. why can't after-school be provided within the schools. It doesn't have to be the same teacher. It's the arrangement that is in many other European countries.

Rawr

I went to secondary school in the 90s and I remember at least one half-day baked into the timetable. It was usually a Friday but I think some years it could float over to Wednesday. What I also remember was a fairly long lunch break of about 45 mins. I was a 10 min walk from home, so I’d go home for the break which devided up the day nicely.

On the half-day you’d often have a situation of walking back to the school for just an hour, and then leaving again.

ZX7R

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415897#Comment_121415897

Questionnaires were handed out to the parents about it.

Possibly one of the fist outside of Dublin

Padraig Mor

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121416018#Comment_121416018

Varied from place to place I guess. This was Cork btw.

ZX7R

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121416057#Comment_121416057

Possibly just the school I went to over 30 years ago so the memory might not be the best

We used to finish 30 mins early on Thursday & Friday when I was in school.

3:45pm Mon-Wed & 3:15pm Thurs & Fri. The Mrs would finish at 1 o’clock on Wednesday’s in her school at the time.

Badly Drunk Boy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121416018#Comment_121416018

I started secondary school in 1985, and in 1987 or '88 they brought in the half-day on Wednesday. Instead of getting our lunch-break on a Wednesday, we did one extra class and then we were finished. This was in Kildare.

Rothko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415019#Comment_121415019

The OP never mentioned anything about conspiracy theories.

Hippodrome Song Owl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121416209#Comment_121416209

I didn't quote the OP. Another poster put forward the usual anti-teacher conspiracy crap despite being obviously completely misinformed on the subject.

ZX7R

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121416198#Comment_121416198

Kildare wicklow border

L1011

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415594#Comment_121415594

Half days have been common in secondary schools for a lot longer than 30 years, so yours was not a trial

My parents had half day Wednesdays in the early 60s. School I went do did half day Fridays from when it opened in the early 70s

political analyst

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

But the benchmarking process has since put those meetings outside school hours. As far as I know, in my locality the secondary schools started closing at around 1PM on Fridays a few years after the Haddington Road Agreement.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415019#Comment_121415019

The point is that the regular half-day on Friday only started in my locality in 2017, I think - and this was many years after staff meetings were moved outside school hours.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121416198#Comment_121416198

But the school authorities wouldn't have expected pupils to go without eating from 9AM to 4 PM, would they?!

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415875#Comment_121415875

It has always been the case that junior and senior infants finished their school day at around 1PM.

Hippodrome Song Owl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121416477#Comment_121416477

It has absolutely nothing to do with Haddington Road or meetings moved outside school hours. The only meetings in school hours by the time of the austerity agreements were three "half-in-half-out" meetings per year, amounting to a half day just once a term anyway.

If schools in your locality only introduced half days around 2017 then that's a separate issue, and they were outliers already in terms of normal practice nationwide. Perhaps they found they couldn't retain staff with a less favourable timetable arrangement than has been the norm everywhere else for decades.

political analyst

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

I never said it had. I was replying to Dial Hard's point about a school having a half-day in the past for staff meetings. What I meant is that Friday half-day in my locality was nothing to do with benchmarking or the Croke Park or Haddington Road agreement.

Hippodrome Song Owl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121416850#Comment_121416850

OK. Well in that case I've no idea why you quoted my post when making that point.

Badly Drunk Boy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121416479#Comment_121416479

I might be slightly off on the exact times but we started at 9am with three 40-minute classes to 11am. Then a break for 10 minutes, followed by two more classes on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, so then our proper lunch-break at 12.30.

On Wednesdays, we had three classes after our 11am break instead of two, but we could them go home.

This was over 30 years ago, hence the uncertainty/inexactness.

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121415864#Comment_121415864

Was there any need to answer my post with such vitriol? I hope your people skills are better in real life.

Stheno

When I was in school in 1991 all the secondaries finished at 1:45 on a Friday. I did subjects in three different schools and had to traipse in and out as I'd 2 classes in one, on in another and three in my main school every Friday

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121417090#Comment_121417090

It's just the way he is unfortunately

boardise

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121414577#Comment_121414577

Just like the Guards and the roster changes ... I love the sheer dedication of all those public 'servants' --they serve alright --themselves.

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121417120#Comment_121417120

I wonder did it vary between the types of schools? I went to a vocational school and our day was 9am to 1pm, then 2pm to 4pm. Morning break was 15 minutes and they did that by knocking 5 minutes off the first 3 classes of the day. We'd get let off at 3:20 the odd time but that sticks in my head because it was a rare treat.

political analyst

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121416983#Comment_121416983

I quoted you to tell you what I meant in my reply to Dial Hard in order to disabuse you of the idea of the Friday half-day having anything to do with a public-sector productivity agreement.

Hippodrome Song Owl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121417426#Comment_121417426

OK. I didn't need to be disabused of any such idea since I never thought that, and my quoted post never suggested anything of the sort.

spurious

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121417495#Comment_121417495

Unlike everyone else, presumably.

freshpopcorn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121417386#Comment_121417386

In my local town the schools got out about forty minutes early on the first Wednesday of each month.

However when they did introduce the half day all school agreed on it Convent, CBS and Vocational agreed on the half day because of the buses.