Reassurance sought as too much teaching time is being lost at Island School
It appears that the Education Bureau has approved a rise in English Schools Foundation fees. I would therefore like to ask it and the ESF board whether there are a minimum number of school hours that have to be adhered to during a full academic year, as I am concerned at the number of hours that have been lost at Island School.
In Island School for the 2007/08 year, parents were informed that the school would close every Wednesday at 2 pm instead of the usual 3.10 pm, in part because of the new IB curriculum that the school was implementing, resulting in teachers needing training/meetings, etc.
Therefore, according to my calculations, in the 190 days of schooling in 2007/08 the students were losing over 200 hours of teaching time. The 190 days of school were not really 190 days, either, as five days were allocated as professional development days for the teachers (this, for the uninitiated, are extra holidays for the students) - an extra 35 hours lopped off?
At the end of the 2008 term we were informed that in the next academic year, due to parental concerns, the hours allocated to parent-teacher consultation would be increased and on the day a particular year group has consultations, school would finish early at 2pm.
Since school already finishes at this time on a Wednesday, I would have thought that this would have been the logical day to have the consultations on, but no - Island School will shorten yet another day of the week to fit in the consultations.