Eight-hour school day for some Auckland 10-year-olds

By ANNE BESTON

A private Auckland school is extending the school day so boys as young as 10 will be studying longer than the average eight-hour working day.

Exclusive King's School in Remuera will have a school day next year for boys in Years 5 to 8, aged approximately 10 to 13 years, from 8am to 4.15pm.

Year 1 to 4 finishes at 2.50pm except for Fridays when the whole school finishes at 3pm. The school, which charges about $10,000 a year per student and caters for pupils from years one through eight, already had one of the longest school days in the country, 8am to 3.15pm.

One parent, who did not want to be named, said it was robbing children of their childhoods and giving families too little quality time together.

The mother of a 9-year-old student said she had discussed the change with the school but had been told to "like it or lump it".

Parents were not consulted and she believed others were unhappy but wouldn't speak out.

The extra hour at the end of the day would mean that, with travelling time, her son's day would effectively begin at 7.10am and finish at 5.30pm.

Although the school would make break times slightly longer and reduce the amount of homework when the changes take place next year, the woman said she wouldn't want her son to do any homework if he was getting home at 5.30pm.

She could not remove her son from the school because her former husband was strongly in favour of him remaining, she said.

In a letter to parents, headmaster Tony Sissons said the longer hours were to "increase the time spent on mathematics, English and social sciences without ... decreasing some of the special aspects of the King's School curriculum".

Independent Schools of New Zealand executive director Joy Quigley said its members did not have to consult parents on school issues as they were not bound by state school rules.

Bruce Adin, national president of the state schools teachers union, the New Zealand Educational Institute, said King's was "perfectly entitled" to increase school hours because it was an independent school.

"If that was a state school making that decision, however, there would need to be a considerable amount of consultation with the community, Board of Trustees and the Ministry of Education," Mr Adin said.

State schools could also increase school hours, Mr Adin said, because the law stated only that schools must operate a minimum of two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon.