Elementary school was a piece of cake; you turned up to class, read a little, played with your friends at recess, did some easy math, had lunch, read again, and then went home.
While there was a learning timetable in place, it just didn’t feel as busy back then.
In high school, things are a little different. As the students get older, they are closer to becoming adults and getting real jobs, or studying more difficult subjects at college.
Due to this, as the years pass, school schedules become a lot more rigid.
How many periods are there in a daily high school schedule? How long is each period?
If you want to know the answers to these questions, look no further. Continue reading to find out how many periods there are in high school.
What Is A Period In High School?
The average high-school student attends class for 32.5 hours a week, which works out to roughly 6.5 hours per day.
They will have classes that start in the morning, around 8:00 am, and end in the afternoon, around 3:00 pm.
At the start of each school year, the student will receive a timetable for their school activities.
Each class schedule is typically divided into intervals during which they are expected to be in class, take study breaks, or go on lunch breaks, depending on what is mandated for that particular hour.
These divided hours on the timetable are known as periods. Depending on the school, periods may be as short as 40 minutes, or as long as 2 hours.
How Many Periods Are In High School?
As we mentioned in the previous segment, the length of your periods will depend on which school you attend.
All schools will have different times for their schedules classes, and they will also have a different amount of periods in their school schedule.
The average amount of periods in a high school timetable is between 6 and 8, lasting somewhere between 40 and 90 minutes.
Depending on whom you ask, or how you see the education system, you may have your opinions on how many periods should be used during a school day at high school.
8 periods seems to be a popular choice for parents who want their children to succeed, as this means that the student can take part in more classes each day, and throughout the week.
However, recently, many school districts have been experimenting more with the 6-period school day, and this has been preferred by many students.
Including too many periods in one day will mean that students will have a lot of homework to catch up on when they get home, leaving them with little spare time to themselves.
While having 6 periods in a day may sound easier, some students prefer more periods, as their classes will result in being shorter.
For example, an 8 period day will be filled with much shorter classes than a 6 period day, as they need to split a 6.5 hour day into 8 instead of 6.
Are Shorter Periods Better For Students?
Since the pandemic in 2020 resulted in schools shutting down for months on end, the predicament left professionals wondering what could change in education upon the return of schooling, and what would best benefit the children attending school.
For example, when children were not in school during the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of schooling took place online.
This meant that high school students, middle school students, and elementary school students alike were spending a lot of time learning on their computers, attending classes and completing homework.
Following the resumption of physical schooling, a lot of parents, teachers, and kids started to ask whether an educational choice outside the regular school routine may be beneficial.
A logical location to consider this is the structure and amount of time kids spend in the facility itself.
For children inside the classroom, cutting the length of the school day opens up a plethora of opportunities, and possible advantages.
By spending less time in a classroom, students will find it easier to concentrate for shorter periods of time.
Additionally, children can spend more time engaging in physical hobbies by spending less time in school buildings, which is something most students can’t do while attending class all day.
As a result, their mental health will be less likely to deteriorate.
This is why many schools, following the pandemic, began experimenting with shorter school days with fewer periods.
6 period days are becoming more common nowadays, but with shorter hours, allowing students to go home earlier and spend less time inside the actual school building.
There have been arguments about whether giving children more free time is the best thing for them, as it may discourage them from wanting to study and work hard.
However, the flip side of the argument is that the opposite will occur, as more children will enjoy being at school for fewer hours.
Final Thoughts
So, there we have it.
The standard high school period will last somewhere between 40 minutes to an hour, and there will usually be 6 to 8 of them in a day, depending on which school you attend.
It is believed that high school students may benefit from working fewer periods a day, as well as working shorter school days, which is why the education system are currently proposing to shorten school days.
Only time will tell what will happen next.
We hope you found this article helpful and informative.
Leave a comment