What is school life like in a different country? Students in Britain have a very different school life than the students here in America. “Education is an important part of British life. There are hundreds of schools, colleges and universities, including some of the most famous in the world,” said Mandy Barrow. Students in Britain attend school longer, have shorter breaks, and their terms and requirements are much different than the schools regulations here in America.
How long do students in Britain attend school each year? Students in Britain do not have to attend school as long as Americans do. For example, a student can drop out at the age of 16 instead of 18. Education is free and compulsory for all children between the ages of 5 – 16 (“Introduction”). Students in Britain get to eat breakfast for 2 hours, from 7 – 9. They also get to eat lunch for an hour and a
…show more content…
That’s around seven hours a day. That’s one hour less than Americans. They also get a much longer time to eat lunch and breakfast. If you add it up, they attend classes for five hours and forty-five minutes each day for five days each week.
For vacation, they get six weeks for summer, two weeks for Christmas and Easter, and a week in the middle of February and October (“School Terms”). That’s two months and two weeks they get off from school each year. In America, students get off from school for three months a school year. So even though they attend class longer Americans get longer breaks.
Students in Britain attend school for one hundred and ninety-five days (“School Days”). American students attend school for one hundred and eighty days. That’s a whole fifteen day difference! American students also have ten snow days that can be taken off if it snows and the students can’t return to school. Britain students don’t necessarily have snow days; they just get called off from school because of dangerous snowy
According to writer Vanessa St Gerard from The Education Digest, a traditional school year is defined as “large blocks of instruction with inter-spread week-long breaks, all culminating with a long summer break” (2007). This structure is most familiar to Americans today, however the new alternative schedule presents a variance in the time allocated for breaks throughout the school year. “During a modified school year, instruction periods typically are broken up into 45-or-60-day sessions with each of these being divided by breaks lasting three to four weeks” (St Gerard, 2007). In the alternative calendar, schools would still break for a summer session, but in most cases the break would consist of about five weeks rather than eight. While the calendars might differ in session times, they would both meet the federally mandated 180 days of ins...
Before the argument, some misconceptions need to be clarified: Schools with the traditional school year have nine months of
The American educational system is based on the traditional, nine-month school calendar, which has been in place for over a century. Originally, the United States was an agrarian society. The majority of Americans lived on farms. People made most of the items that they needed, and with little trade necessary, there was no need for schooling (McLain, 1973). However, as people branched out into neighboring areas, they needed to learn new skills, such as basic arithmetic to price items, measure land, and more (McLain, 1973). As a result, it became the responsibility of those who were less needed on the farm or in the factory to acquire knowledge for the family (McLain, 1973).
Back in the olden days, schools were originally put on a schedule in which students would spend the majority of the year in school, and 2-3 months off for summer break. The purpose of this was so that children could be home for the summer to help their parents run family farms. Today, due to progressive industrialization of farming, modernized farming equipment, and decrease in family farms, the need for children to be home during the summer to help run family farms is minute if not obsolete; because of this many schools across the United States have transitioned to year-round schooling (“Summer”). Contrary to belief, year round schooling does not usually mean more school days. Currently most year-round schools adhere to the 180 day school year. Instead of the traditional lengthy summer vacation, year-round schools distribute the 180 days throughout the entire year while allowing for shorter breaks. Common scheduling for year-round schools includes cycles of 2-3 months in school followed by 2-3 week breaks (“Research Spotlight...
Year round schooling sounds rigorous, but in fact it is just a change in schedule. The traditional school year was made with farming families in mind when the families needed their children to help with the crops in the summer. That is why the traditional school year has a three month period where kids are not in school over the summer. In today’s modern world, that does not make any sense because now a days, big huge machines take care of the farms and crops. Also, our economy does not depend on the crops and farms like it did back in the 20th century. The year round school year would still require the same amount of school days as the traditional school year, which is 180 days in the classroom. But instead of a prolonged summer break, it would have a 45-15 plan. 45 days in school and 15 days out of it, which translates to nine weeks in school and three weeks off. The breaks would include three weeks off in fall, winter, spring, and summer. These breaks would be in nine week intervals.
One of the first concerns of a student when they think of year-round school is that they will be attending school five days a week, 52 weeks a year. That thought is incorrect. The year-round school schedule is still based on 180 days, which is the same amount as the traditional school year. The big difference between the two different systems is that the year-round school year have breaks that are more spread out throughout the year. Instead of have a long three month summer break from school, the year-round schools give a one month summer break. Although the summer break is shorter, the system allows the school to have longer breaks during the school year. One example of a year-round school schedule is from Balanced Calendar; the children would attend school for nine weeks, and then receive a 15 day break. These two week breaks that happen periodically throughout the year allow the children to relax, and not think about homew...
Year-round school, also known as a “balanced calendar”, is a new idea that is being brought up all over the United States. When most people hear the term “year-round school” they often think that school will literally be all year. In reality, year-round school is still the 180 days that a nine-month school year would be. The 180 days are stretched out through all 12 months of the year, and student get frequent breaks throughout the year. Schools that decide to use a balanced calendar have the option of how many days are spent in school and how many days will be spend on break. The most common schedule used is 45 days in school 15 days on break. There are also two types on year-round schooling systems. Single-track is when all the students are placed in the same schedule. They all attend school on the same days, and they all get the same days off. Multi-tracking is when the students are placed sub-sets. In an article that discusses the overview of year-round school they explain multi-tracking, “…the student body is divided into three of four subsets. The four sub-sets rotate vacation time, so that three sets of students attend school during a given term”(Chittom).
Although, year-round schooling does allow for students and staff to get breaks. In most cases, schools participating in a year-round system tend to go to school for nine weeks with a three week break in between. Throughout the course of the year, the students will be completing 180 days in the classroom, as goes for a traditional system. However, schools participating in a traditional system go to school for forty-five to ninety days, get a two week break, go back to school for forty-five to ninety days, and then get a 3 month summer. Just because a school district participates in a year-round system, does not mean the students and staff attending the school district go to school for more days throughout the year than the students and staff attending a school district that participates in a traditional system. The number of classroom days fitted into a year-round schedule is the same as a traditional schedule, expect broken down throughout twelve months, versus nine months.
When did most of your best childhood memories occur? Probably during summer break! Now think if those memories had not happened to you because of school. Some schools now are going off of the traditional break schedule and are turning over to year round schooling. Students need time to rest, students need time for other activities and kids need time to spend with their family.. Schools should keep a traditional school calendar for many reasons.
First, Long summer breaks is a problem for traditional schools. Year round school are schools that function on a 180 day system
What do you think about going to school year round with little breaks here and there, but not your traditional three month summer break? Year round schooling has been a decision argued with the government, teachers, principals and parents. Many kids and adults like to relax on their three month break. Many students are used to having two week winter break, one week spring break, and three months of summer break. Overall, one three month break would benefit than having three-week breaks broken up throughout the school year.
Japanese students spend 240 days a year at school, 60 days more than their American counterparts. Although many of those days are spent preparing for annual school festivals and events such as Culture Day, Sports Day, and school excursions, Japanese students still spend considerably more time in class than American students. Traditionally, Japanese students have attended school for half a day on Saturdays; however, the number of required Saturdays each month is decreasing as the result of Japanese educational reforms. Course selection and textbooks are determined by the Japanese Ministry of
Other than the flexible curriculum, private schools differ than other schools because of the smaller class size and more one on one attention. Specifically for British school system, the academic year runs from September 1st to August 31st. The school year is divided into three terms with longer school holidays between each term. In total there are 39 weeks of schooling (Education system in England). On the contrast, the American school year is a bit shorter as students start school in late August and end in the first week of June (Guide to the Education System in the
Most children attend school for about 6.5 hours per day. Some people argue that this not enough time for children to master key concepts while others say that children spend too much time in school and on homework which leaves them little time for family or fun activities. “There are many benefits to year-round schooling—including consistency, less time spent relearning material, and the implications that year-round schooling has for closing the achievement gap” (Lynch, 2016, par. 1). Currently, more than 700 schools have extended their day. Massachusetts extended their school day so that it was 8 hours and found that they went up 44 percent in math,19 percent in science, and 39 percent in language arts (“Should students spend more time in
Education plays a large part in the socialization of children into society. Most American children spend the required 180 days each year in school from the first grade through high school. Most of a child's day through these years is devoted to activities involving school such as attending classes, doing homework, and participating in extracurricular activities. The school format is designed to teach children to be productive members of society.