3 maths lessons

[zzxxee]

my daughter has just started secondary school. when i read her time table i was horrified to discover she only has 3 maths lessons a week....... has anyone elss kids just started secondary school and is in this situation or can any teachers tell me why so little time is being put into maths?

[poohshunny]

Hi zzxxee. My son started secondary school this year too. His school has a week 1 timetable and a week 2 timetable. Week 1, he has 3 maths lessons, but week 2 he only has 2.
I hope your daughter is enjoying high school.

[chrisrob]

But what proportion of the taught hours is that? The lesson periods are likely to be longer than they were at her junior school - and she'll have more homework. How many other subjects just she now have during the week.
Now she's in econdary school, other subjects start taking a greater importance. She should have learned her basic mathematics in the primary school.

[zzxxee]

she did learn basic maths at primary but i think 2 45 mins per week is not enough

[Iamblue]

I started secondary (grammar) school in 1968, and still have my original timetable from my first year. it comprised of 7X40 minute lessons per day. Over the course of a week, my lessons were as follows:
7 Mathematics
7 English Language
3 English Lit
3 French
3 P.E. (Games)
2 History
2 Geography
2 Biology
2 Chemistry
2 Physics
2 R.E. (Religious Education)

I seem to remember that for the second year, certain subjects (such as German, Latin, Commerce etc) were introduced, and you had the choice to drop some of the "lesser" subjects if you wished. If memory serves, though, we still had to take the "full quota" regarding Maths and English.

[Bloss]

I have been teaching for 20 years and 3 lessons a week at secondary school is typical. My current school is 3 lots of 55 mins. My last school was 3 x 1 hour lessons. When you consider all the other curriculum areas ( English, Languages, Technologies, Sciences, Humanities, PE & PSHCE) it is all that can be devoted to Maths in most schools. If students go on to study in sixth form - years 12 & 13 - it usually goes up to about 5 hours a week. She will probably be doing a couple of homeworks of about 20-30 minutes a week. Primary schools - because of the numeracy strategy- usually have a numeracy hour every day, but this has not followed into secondary. My daughter has just started a high school and she also has 3 lessons. All I can say is that I have happily seen hundreds of pupils progress well with this amount of maths; many would find more than this very trying!! I hope she settles in well and enjoys her school days.

[matty34]

I just finished secondary school. The 3 maths lessons is pretty much what it would be around different schools. Like Bloss said; its typical.

I had 3, 1 hour lessons in a week.

[saxy_jag]

It's not the quantity that matters so much as the quality. I too had seven or so 40 minute lessons a week, and left with a hatred and fear of maths that was only resolved years later - and mine was supposed to have been a good school!

If the teaching is done well enough, the child will be inspired enough to learn for him or herself and the teacher's contact time will be purely a matter of tutorial and guidance time.

Sadly, this happens all too rarely in modern state schools.

[rock-n-roll]

3 classes a week is pretty typical id say. when you just start secondary school theres many different subjects so i suppose that's why.
when i went to school we had 3 lessons per week in first and second year, 4 a week in third and fourth year and if we chose it as a higher in fifth/sixth year we got 6 lessons a week.