Parents' Handbook 2022

Pattern of the Week For the Lower School (Shell, Remove, Hundred), all lessons are given over to classroom teaching or supervised private study. In the Upper School (Lower Sixth, Upper Sixth), Study Periods (“studs”) allow pupils to take much more responsibility and ownership of their learning: they are unsupervised, and students may spend this time in their own Study, in the Memorial Library, in departmental libraries, or somewhere else where they can work productively, by arrangement.

The pattern of the week varies according to the time of year and the House of which a pupil is a member; it also depends on individual commitments such as music lessons. In general terms, however, what follows is the routine followed by most of the school.

Monday to Saturday The Morning Pupils in the out College Houses of Preshute, Cotton, Littlefield and Summerfield, have breakfast in their Houses as do those in Barton Hill, Dancy, Elmhurst, Ivy House, Turner and Morris. Breakfast for pupils in all other Houses is in the Norwood Hall from 7.30am to 8.15am.

Lessons start at 8.45am and continue until 12.40pm and 12.50pm for the Lower School and until 1.15pm for the Upper School. Lessons last around 55 minutes and all year groups have a break from 10.40am – 11.05am.

The Afternoon On “Winter Timetable” (Michaelmas and Lent terms), lessons resume on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 4.45pm and continue until 6.40pm depending on the timetable.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, there are no afternoon lessons, but instead whole school study time from 5.30pm – 6.40pm (6.30pm for Shell and Remove) which is taken in House.

On “Summer Timetable” (Summer term), afternoon lessons run from 2.15pm – 4.10pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, as on Winter Timetable, there are no afternoon lessons, but instead whole school study time from 5.30pm – 6.40pm (6.30pm for Shell and Remove).

On Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, games and other activities take place. In the Shell everyone participates in the major game on at least two afternoons per week and, in addition, a programme of academic enrichment, life skills, hobby and recreational pursuits operates on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. Saturday afternoons are reserved for matches.

The extent to which a pupil may choose his or her games activity depends upon their year in the school.

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