Lessons start at about 9.15 a.m. with, for example, two lessons of one hour followed by a short break followed by another one-hour lesson. From 12.30 to 1.30 is the 'dinner hour' at which simple hot and cold meals are provided. In the afternoon are two more hours of lessons. So school finishes around 3.30. For younger children the lesson periods may be shorter and the school day end earlier. Almost all schools have a decent playground for the children to run around, both during the short breaks and also during the dinner hour. Often school dinners are served in two 'sittings' so all children have half-an-hour when they can be active outside. This is particularly important for the younger children. (Remember that although our climate is often wet, we do not have huge amounts of snow to impede people. Children expect to be outdoors during the breaks unless it is pouring with rain. Slight rain and drizzle are not important.)
Primary schools often organise 'After-School Clubs' which are run by paid professionals to keep younger children safe and happily occupied until their parents are able to collect them or are known to be at home.
Secondary schools usually have a football pitch, tennis courts, and so on, as well as playground areas where teenagers can wander or hang around with their friends. In all schools pupils will also be offered lunch-hour and after-school activities. What they are offered depends on the willingness and enthusiasm of individual teachers: drama clubs, computer clubs, choirs and orchestras, science clubs, foreign language groups, coaching for sports of all kinds, 'young businessmen' groups, camping and exploring clubs. Among the more unusual clubs I have known were an Archery Club in a Comprehensive where the pupils learnt to use longbows, and a Skipping Club in a primary school where the children practiced so avidly that they were able to take part in local, regional and national competitions.
Most schools have no lessons on Saturday or Sunday. Instead of one very long holiday in the summer with very short breaks at other times, our children have three 'terms' in a year, with about two weeks of holiday at Christmas/New Year, two weeks at Easter and six weeks in the summer. In addition there are short mid-term breaks of a few days. (Some schools are experimenting with a 'four terms' year with equal breaks between the terms.) These shapes of school days and school years are specific for this country. In the rest of Europe school days usually start and end earlier, while the summer holiday is much longer, with correspondingly shorter breaks at other times.
The details of the school curriculum are always changing. Here are the proposals in 2009 for a new rearrangement of what children should learn in primary schools. It is an example of the swing of the pendulum away from government-directed details to more teacher-and-child focused education.
The national curriculum will contain six fundamental areas of education: understanding English, communication and languages; mathematical understanding; understanding the arts; historical, geographical and social understanding; understanding physical development, health and well-being; scientific and technological understanding. Note that 'understanding' is a key word. We do not want our children to learn lists of facts about this historical event or that writer, because such knowledge without any context or explanation means nothing. The job of the teachers is to ensure that (he children understand at their own level the reality of what is being taught. So, for example, scientific experiments should be demonstrated and, if possible, carried out by the children; they will he asked to find out, to ask questions, to learn more.
The teachers have welcomed this reformulation of what children need to learn; however they have pointed out that many demands are being made on the class teacher. The difficulties are two-fold. First, it is almost impossible to make sure that each child understands at his or her own level in a class of 30 children; and secondly, in a crowded school day it is difficult to include all these areas of understanding and to teach properly, particularly when the obligation remains to make sure that all children can read fluently, write and do basic mathematics.
In secondary schools a similar rearranging of the curriculum is taking place. The traditional subject areas remain: English, Mathematics, Science (sometimes divided into Physics, Chemistry and Biology), History, Geography, a Modern Language (sometimes two) and Physical Education. These have all been the standard subjects for decades. Alongside them are subjects which have been neglected for some time and which are now returning: Art and Design, Music, Design and Technology (practical subjects); and then there the newer subjects for the twenty-first century - Information and Communication Technology (computers), Personal, Social, Health and Economic Education (everything from sex to organizing a bank account), Citizenship which is explained above, and finally religious studies which has become a study of different religions and sometimes non-religious traditions. This last subject is obligatory but parents are entitled to withdraw their children from religious studies lessons if they wish to do so. (See below for more information on religion in our schools.)
Some parents think that there is too much emphasis on 'personal development' and not enough on serious 'hard' subjects. Others worry that General Science is taking over from a more profound study of Physics, Chemistry and Biology; individuals may request that Latin and Greek should appear on the curriculum, while other eager parents will be trying to persuade the Head Teacher that children should study politics and economics properly rather than as part of a course of Personal Development or Citizenship. The problem, in the secondary school as in the primary school, is that the curriculum is overcrowded. There is always so much more that children should study and 'understand'. But where can these important lessons of shared knowledge be squeezed into an overcrowded timetable?
State schools provide the necessary textbooks and equipment (such as physics laboratories) for the classes. Inevitably some books are old and shabby, or there are not enough, so the School Parent-Teacher Association will try to raise money to buy extra books, or ask those parents who can afford to do so to buy one or two books for their child. Schools also organise such out-of-school activities as museum visits, visits to historical places, adventure weeks in a country camp, and trips abroad. Parents have to pay for these, although most schools have a special pot of money to help those parents who cannot afford to send their children. Trips abroad are, in any case, optional. Our schools are the centre for many kinds of activity: but, as always, what actually goes on out of school hours depends very much on the individual school, its head teacher, its teachers, and its ethos.