Frequent commenter Terry Mills has asked me to ask another question:
How many lessons each week do your secondary students have in mathematics, and how long is each lesson?
And, since we’re here, I’ll piggy back another question:
What times do your lessons begin and end?
Visited 30 times, 1 visit(s) today
Not enough lessons – Year 7 to 10 we have 7 x 55 minutes. Year 11 & 12 8 x 55. Usually at least one lesson lost per fortnight.
Day starts at 8:30 and finishes 3:25
This is possibly not what the schools I used to work for do now but this is what they were doing when I taught in them:
School A (government) – start 8:30am. 48 minute lessons, 9 per fortnight.
School B (independent) – start 8:30am. 1 hour lessons, 8 per fortnight.
School C (Catholic) – start 8:30am. 50 or 55 minute lessons, depending on the day. 8 per fortnight.
School D (independent) – start 8:50am, 55 minute lessons, 7 per fortnight.
School E (independent) – start 8:50am, 50 minute lessons, 9 per fortnight.
Colleagues I have spoken to who work at some of these schools say the number of lessons is becoming complicated by various enterprise bargaining agreements that are specifying minutes of face-to-face time and so lessons may be shortened in the future to accommodate this. They are not entirely sure what will happen though.
At my school (Victorian government public): 5 x 50 minute lessons per week for year 7 to 10
School starts at 8:43, finishes at 3:05
My kids in secondary school year eight and nine. They have three hours of maths a week. It is in a different times; morning, midday.
School 1: 2x 70 min, 2x 50 min per week
School 2: 4x 64 min per week
School 3/4: 4x 60 min per week
School 5: 1x 55 min, 1x 110 min, 2x 50 min per week
4 x 50min per week
School day starts at 8:55am. Ends at 3:40pm
Gov school, but quite an esteemed one.
Up to y10: 7×54 min periods per fortnight, including two doubles (108 mins).
Y11/12: 8×54 mins ppf, including two doubles (108 mins).
Previous school (gov, less esteemed)
Up to y8: 6×70 min ppf
Y9: 5×70 min ppf
Y10: 8×70 min ppf
Y11/12: 6×70 min ppf
However this may have changed after the (disastrous) 2022 union agreement
By way of comparison, in the early 1950s, our high school has eight 40-minutes periods per day, 4 in the morning from 9-11:40 and 4 in the aftenoon from 1-3:40. There was one math and one English period each day.
The current period length at my school is 80 minutes.
The number of periods per fortnight are:
Year 7 – 5
Year 8 – 4
Year 9 – 5
Year 10 -5
Year 11 – 5
Year 12 – 5
School hours are 8:40 to 3:05, so there are 4 periods in a day. There are also some senior lessons before or after school.
When the school went to longer periods all my classes started working slower after a few weeks – even the very good and enthusiastic class.
Sometimes you will get 4 out of your 5 lessons in one week. Year 8 can be particularly disastrous.
Gov school – 8.40am – 3.05pm – 50 minute periods
All maths 7-12 is 9 x 50 minute periods per fortnight
Last school I was at: Independent (South Australia)
Year 8: 4 x 45 min lessons
Yr 9-11 5 x 45 min lessons
Yr 12 starts with 5 x 45 min but some teachers go to 6 x 45 min lessons in term 3 after most students complete their research projects.
5 x 50 minutes.
3 singles and 1 double.
8:40 start.
3:30 end.
Starts 8.55, finished 3.00. maths. 4 X 60 mins , students slowed down when we changed from 50 minutes a few years ago. Many doubles and split doubles in vce
Government senior secondary college.
School hours 8.40-3.40
Lesson lengths: 40 min Monday
Other days 60 minutes or 120 mins
Total each week 3hrs 40 min for every subject.
People in Soecialist Mathematics have an additional 3hrs 40 mins each week.
No scheduled classes after lunch Friday.
2 doubles a week (100 min each, Monday after lunch and Thursday first thing) with a single thrown in every second week (50 min, after lunch).
It’s (just) enough time but I do not like the way it’s distributed. At all.
4 hours per week in total, scheduled as 2 x 1 hour sessions + 1 x 2 hour session. Same for all year levels / VCE maths subjects.