Continuous timetable

This week in our school the great debate has started,  

Do we want a different timetable in our school?

What is best for our students?

All over Europe the timetables differ greatly.

In the U:K timetable is from 9 to 3.30 in primary but we have an hour to eat from 1200-1300 and a short break in the morning. Secondary schools have longer timetable.( I always think it's funny here in Spain that the youngest children have the longest day)
In France the longest day in Europe from 8.30-1630
In Italy usually 0800-1330 but six days a week
in Portugal the same as England.
Greece 08.30 to 12.30 or sometimes 1600
We could take into account the countries like Sweden, Norway and Finland but it is true they are really conditioned by the weather and quite different from Latin countries.  (I know The U:K Isn't Latin, but it's a system I've worked in)

So what is the best?

I can only tell you about what I experience in my classroom every day.

After the kids come in from the playground at 2.30 pm usually they have been out running about for at least an hour and a half.  They are either boiling hot and very sweaty or freezing to death.  In Madrid there is no happy medium.  They are often upset because of conflicts in the playground which then have to be resolved.  They are often exhausted and over tired and it's really difficult to get them to relax, settle down  and back into a studying mode again. 

The afternoon sessions are 45 minutes each one and quite often you set out to do the same lesson you did in the morning with a different group and find that the response just isn't the same.  The children are not as motivated and  the lesson just does not go as well.

Yes it's true there are monitors in the playground but frankly,  I think forty minutes free play is more than long enough.

  It's like when you have kids around to your home to play.

The first hour is fine the kids are happy and play well but after a certain amount of time they begin to get a bit boisterous and out of control.

 You start looking at your watch and wishing that their mum or dad would arrive soon to pick them up.  That's what afternoons at school feel like.

It's also true that Spanish kids do get lots of homework which is a big headache for most parents.  Wouldn't  it be great if the day was organized so that when they got home the homework was already done and you could spend time playing with them or doing other activities?

School really isn't a dumping ground to get the kids out of your hair for as long as possible.

Many parents feel worried by the change and think that kids will be getting out of school at 2.30.  This is a big problem if they work.  But if they were assured that the school would still take care of the kids until four and send them home with the homework already done than maybe it wouldn't be so bad.

You know the Madrid Community Education Authority was not interested in this timetable a few years ago and made it really difficult for schools to obtain. 

 Now all of a sudden they seem to have changed their ideas.I wonder why???

Well the debate was over before it began  last week because the "Consejo escolar" decided  Not  to allow the parents to vote.

It seems that some people like to make decisions for the rest of us.