COMMENT: Our school is voting on cutting back to 5 lessons a day

"They're selling it as better for the teachers as well as the kids," Sydney mum Nama writes for Kidspot.  

There's been a lot of talk lately about schools having a good hard look at the routine we've taken for granted.

Six lessons, five days a week - but does it need to be like that? Some schools around the country, like Queensland public schools who are moving to four days a week next year, don't think so.

Is it because school was set up to suit the working parent? Surely not - because, for example, there's nothing about school holidays that suits the working parent.

So I love the fact that the routine is up for discussion after remaining the same for decades - despite our world being completely changed - especially since the pandemic.  

Talking about change feels like when working from home became a real thing in 2020 - a long-overdue revolution that we never thought would happen.

That's why I'm voting yes at my son's school for a change to a 5-period day.

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"Enhance the teaching day"

Here's the information we got from my son's public high school over the last few months:

"Over the last year the College has been canvassing ideas and approaches to enhance the teaching day and support student engagement and success. We are currently looking at moving to a five-period day."

They list, "Less periods, less cognitive overload," as a major bonus to the move. The school day will have five 60-minute lessons, two 30-minute breaks, with only one lesson after break two.

This means less time moving around between classes. The school day will finish at 3pm; 20 minutes earlier than it currently does.

Because it's high school, the College adds: "We can also see the added advantage for parents of having a slightly earlier pickup time to facilitate after school activities and appointments."

Agreed.

As the parent of a teen (16) who's almost completely independent (he still needs my money and me to drive him around at night), I love all of this. I can see that it might not work for working parents with little kids.

But for me, who sees my teen have super long days of learning (which includes running up and down a campus on a steep hill), then homework/sports/music/downtime (and most of the time, a couple of chores), I really support the idea of consolidating learning like this. And I am all for making days slightly less intense than young minds should have to manage.

Believe it or not, there just could be a better way to educate our kids, and for us to teach them that if there's a better way to do things, that should be explored.

Image: supplied

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"Good for the teachers"

Finally, there's a big bonus for the teachers:  the school predicts that less individual lesson planning means a lesser load for already overworked staff. And thus the ability to focus more on the five lessons - and offer better education and meet the needs of the curriculum more efficiently.

I love that they've sold this with teachers in mind, also. Their profession has also changed significantly, so why has it taken so long for them to be considered in the equation, too?

The pandemic taught us many things, but maybe most importantly, that life doesn't have to be done just because that's the way it's always been done. We have an opportunity to re-design education and offer it up in a way that might suit a wider group of people better; I say let's embrace it.

Originally published as COMMENT: Our school is voting on cutting back to 5 lessons a day