# school on Saturday



## Encolpius

Hello, I wonder which countries children go to school on Saturdays. In the Czech republic or Hungary children don't go to school on that day. Thanks.


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## Hakro

I went to school every Saturday but it was a long time ago. Nowadays Finnish children don't go to school on Saturdays. I'm not sure but I think that Saturday was dropped in the end of the sixties.


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## übermönch

In Israel they certainly got school on Sundays, Saturday being actually the only holiday in a week.


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## SaritaSarang

At my school you might go to school on a Saturday during the summer to make up a class you missed too many days in, but for sure you can get " Saturday School"  if you get into trouble, which requires you to go in for a while on a Saturday to serve some time.


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## DearPrudence

In France, in primary schools you had school on Saturday mornings but no school on Wednesdays (so that you could go to catechism).
But some schools preferred "la semaine des quatre jours" and worked neither on Wednesday nor on Saturday but had less holiday.

I don't know now what's done in primary schools.  

Sometimes in some "universities" (to make it simple) students only have exams on Saturday (yippie  )


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## Encolpius

DearPrudence said:


> In France, in primary schools you had school on Saturday mornings but no school on Wednesdays (so that you could go to catechism).
> But some schools preferred "la semaine des quatre jours" and worked neither on Wednesday nor on Saturday but had less holiday.
> 
> I don't know now what's done in primary schools.
> 
> Sometimes in some "universities" (to make it simple) students only have exams on Saturday (yippie  )


 
That's a very interesting answer.


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## tvdxer

Encolpius said:


> Hello, I wonder which countries children go to school on Saturdays. In the Czech republic or Hungary children don't go to school on that day. Thanks.



In the U.S., most students do not have school on Saturday (or Sunday, of course).  Some schools do have "Saturday detention" as a consequence for kids who misbehave, though.


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## .   1

No school on Saturday or Sunday in Australia.

.,,


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## srta chicken

With "No Child Left Behind" demanding continuously improving test scores, schools here in Los Angeles, on an individual basis, have started offering Saturday school to low-achieving students. 

Also, it is very common for children of parents born outside of the US to send their kids to Saturday school so that the kids learn their parents' language and culture. Some public schools offer Chinese, Korean, or other non-Western European languages, but quite frankly, the variety of languages offered is as patheticly inadequate as the number of years a foreign language is even offered in most public schools and public school districts.


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## maxiogee

When I was in school we had school on Saturday mornings.
But, we had a half day on Wednesday.
So we still did a five-day week. 
Well five and a half really, rugby matches were on Saturday afternoons, and they were compulsory - it was a boys only school. My sister didn't get the Wednesday half day, but she had hockey or netball on Saturday mornings.


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## Etcetera

It depends in Russia.
Primary school children normally don't go to school on Saturdays. 
Secondary school children may have classes on Saturday, but it depends on the school. When I was at school, we didn't go to school on Saturdays before Form 7, and it was really awful: we had 7 lessons almost every day. 
In the end, we agreed to have lessons on Saturdays.


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## sdr083

Never heard of anyone going to school on Saturday in Norway. And any teacher who tries to give homework over the weekend will become _very_ unpopular...


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## .   1

sdr083 said:


> Never heard of anyone going to school on Saturday in Norway. And any teacher who tries to give homework over the weekend will become _very_ unpopular...


I wish that this were the case in Australia.
There is far too much pressure put on kids at school these days.
I remember having no homework over the weekend, as long as we did all our work during the week.
Sadly, this is no longer the case and the kids have precious little time to be just kids.

Sad

.,,


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## Etcetera

sdr083 said:


> Never heard of anyone going to school on Saturday in Norway. And any teacher who tries to give homework over the weekend will become _very_ unpopular...


When we heard from one of our teachers that there would be no homework for next class, we usually started. It was something really outstanding. 
Lucky Norwegians.


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## mirx

Etcetera said:


> It depends in Russia.
> Primary school children normally don't go to school on Saturdays.
> Secondary school children may have classes on Saturday, but it depends on the school. When I was at school, we didn't go to school on Saturdays before Form 7, and it was really awful: we had 7 lessons almost every day.
> In the end, we agreed to have lessons on Saturdays.


 
The same happens in México.

Most schools have two shifts and the most intelligent (actually the most affluent) students get to pick which shift they want to attend, still, morning shift may have a class or two in the afternoon and viceversa. To avoid this when I was in shcool we decided we wanted classes on Saturdays instead of going to school in the afternoons, We also had 8 lessons everyday. From 7 in the morning to 3 pm.

Normally primary schools don't have classes on Saturdays, but it is always up to the teacher to say if the kids need reinforcement and so have to attend on saturdays or stay extra time during the week.

Small children, let´s say until 3th grade, will never be asked to come on saturdays.


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## kronem

DearPrudence said:


> In France, in primary schools you had school on Saturday mornings but no school on Wednesdays (so that you could go to catechism).
> But some schools preferred "la semaine des quatre jours" and worked neither on Wednesday nor on Saturday but had less holiday.
> 
> I don't know now what's done in primary schools.
> 
> Sometimes in some "universities" (to make it simple) students only have exams on Saturday (yippie  )



Just to add a few things:
Actualy, this is a choice of the  département" (france>régions>département>villes...). Somes primary schools work on saturday morning, other on wednesday morning(but it's really rare), and recently they tend to turn in a 4 days week reducing summer holidays. Usually from 8H30 to 16H30, with à break for lunch, and a quarter of hour at 10am and 14 pm to take a break.

For junior high (our "collège", from "6ème" to "3ème", 11-12 years old to 15-16 years old), the common schedule is that we're off on the saturday and work on wednesday. Both until noon. It just half day at school. Usually it begins at 8H30-9 AM and finishes at 16H30-17h. the breaks time is almost repescted.

For highschool (our "lycée" from "2nd" to "Terminale", 15-16y/o to 18y/o): public school work from monday to saturday. Both wednesday and saturday are half day. The breaks time is
almost respected but a little reduced (from a quarter of hour to ten minutes, and your lunch brake can last from an half hour to 2 hours).

In university... there is no rule. It opens six days a week, but i've never met people who got class on saturday, but wednesday afternoon isn't traditionaly off. You may have a full day without a brake to eat, bu you also may have a three days week.


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## badgrammar

Unfortunately, the school on Saturday plague is still alive and well in France's primary schools.  I cannot begin to tell you all just how much I hate that system, it is idiotic and useless.  Children do not go to school on Wednesdays.  However, their parents work, so either parents must pay for day care, negotiate Wednesdays off, or send the child to the in-school day care center (in which case children are basically at school 6 days a week).  

And on Saturdays, aka the weekend, when most of us do not work and might have slept in and relaxed around the house, or left for a nice weekend in the country, we have to wake those children at 7:30 am and ship their tired, sleepy heads off to school.

The logic behind this is that children supposedly learn better when they have only a 1 day break in between school days, and a 2-day weekend puts their entire scholastic future in jeopardy.  So they should be off 1 day in the middle of the week, and 1 day (Sunday) on the weekends.  There are parents and, obviously, decision makers who actually believe this.  

We are seriously considering to refuse to send our kids to school on Saturdays, and damn the bullocks if they don't like it.  But teachers have strict instructions to only give out Monday's homework on Saturday, so the children are forced to go.  Also, if you don't send the child to school on Saturday, you get a call from the principal.

Did I mention I think this is stupid, deliterious and costly?


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## kronem

Yeah, but the opposite is also true: some parents work on saturday.
For now studies don't prove children learn better with 4 days a week neither 5 days... what we're sure is that a child is fully concentrated 15 minutes a day


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## jmx

In Spain children used to go to school on Saturday mornings up to around 1970. Not any more.


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## TraductoraPobleSec

I was told kids in Italy go to school on Saturday morning. Am I right?


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## Pirlo

TraductoraPobleSec said:


> I was told kids in Italy go to school on Saturday morning. Am I right?



An Italian friend of mine, she told me that they attend school on Saturday, however their days finish at about 1PM (I cannot remember the exact time) rather than a full day, which is observed in Australia (We go to school from 8:45-15.25)


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## badgrammar

kronem said:


> Yeah, but the opposite is also true: some parents work on saturday.
> For now studies don't prove children learn better with 4 days a week neither 5 days... what we're sure is that a child is fully concentrated 15 minutes a day



Of course, some parents work on Saturdays, and sometimes we do, too.  Nonetheless, most folks work during the week, and have the weekend off.  Finding childcare on Wednesdays and sending kids to school on the weekend when you're there is just a hassle.

And I respectfully disagree...  About the fifteen minutes.  It's not a second over 10!


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## kronem

2 minutes is my personal record, can't remember if it was two minutes in a row 

It's a bit off-board but i'd be interested in some link or source if you had, about that stuff. The studie i got stated 14-16 minutes...

It needs to be verified but i've been said that germans go to school in the morning and dedicate the afternoon to sports/arts/cultural stuff. From Monday to friday. I don't know if the wednesday afternoon is off.


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## vachecow

Some private schools in the US go to school on Saturday.


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## Siberia

Yes, Saturday is a school day in Italy even if some things are changing in some schools but 90% still have to go.


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## palomnik

I finished high school in the USA more years ago than I care to admit, but at my high school, which was run under Roman Catholic auspices, we had Thursday off and went to school on Saturday.  We were told that it was a vestige of Catholic schools in Europe, especially France.  It does not appear to be the practice in France any more, but I presume it may have been a century ago.  In any case, the school dropped the practice while I was attending and went to the normal Monday-Friday school week.


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## badgrammar

Actually I don't know what the actual average is, I was just speaking from my own and my kids experience.  

What do you think though about school on Saturday?  Maybe if you grow up with that system, it just seems normal to you? 



kronem said:


> 2 minutes is my personal record, can't remember if it was two minutes in a row
> 
> It's a bit off-board but i'd be interested in some link or source if you had, about that stuff. The studie i got stated 14-16 minutes...
> 
> It needs to be verified but i've been said that germans go to school in the morning and dedicate the afternoon to sports/arts/cultural stuff. From Monday to friday. I don't know if the wednesday afternoon is off.


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## DearPrudence

You're absolutely right, French pupils had their Thursday off not so long ago.
I know that in the 60s-70s it was still the case.
I don't know when it changed to Wednesday though ...


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## vachecow

I had a half day on Wednesday and another half day on Saturday.


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## Etcetera

badgrammar said:


> What do you think though about school on Saturday?  Maybe if you grow up with that system, it just seems normal to you?


To me, it seems to be the lesser evil. 
In Russia, schoolchildren have to cope with exceptional amount of material. As  I've mentioned in my post #11, in Form 7 we had to choose if we wanted to have free Saturdays, but 7-8 lessons a day, or just 6 lessons a day with only one day off. (We started our lessons then at 8.15 a.m., and 6 lessons finished at about 2 p.m.)


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## vachecow

badgrammar said:


> What do you think though about school on Saturday?  Maybe if you grow up with that system, it just seems normal to you?


I always hated it because I knew that other people didn't have to go.


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## jinti

As an exchange student to Japan back in the late '80s, I went to school for a half-day on Saturdays. I remember not being too thrilled about it (or the 45-minute bike ride to and from school that I had in all that humidity), but nobody else really grumbled about it. It was just normal -- they were very surprised to hear that back in the States, I didn't have to go on Saturdays.

Now I work at a college where we have classes 7 days a week. Weekends are quite popular with people who work Monday - Friday and have kids to take care of in the evenings, or are just too tired out from the workday to face nightschool.


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## Maja

Most schools in Serbia have two shifts. We usually have 6 classes a day, 5 days  a week. Morning shift starts at 08.00 and finishes at 13.15. Afternoon shift  starts at 14.00 and finishes at 19.15. 
Smt we have the 7th class to  compensate for some lost classes. In primary school we had half-an-hour break  after 2nd class, in Gymnasium we had two shorter breaks, after 2nd and 4th  class. 

No school on Saturday unless to catch up with lessons if we were  losing some days due to holidays etc.


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## maxiogee

Maja said:


> Most schools in Serbia have two shifts. We usually have 6 classes a day, 5 days  a week. Morning shift starts at 08.00 and finishes at 13.15. Afternoon shift  starts at 14.00 and finishes at 19.15.
> Smt we have the 7th class to  compensate for some lost classes. In primary school we had half-an-hour break  after 2nd class, in Gymnasium we had two shorter breaks, after 2nd and 4th  class.
> 
> No school on Saturday unless to catch up with lessons if we were  losing some days due to holidays etc.




I presume, Maja, that this is because of a shortage of space for the number of pupils. Do the teachers work both shifts?


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## Etcetera

maxiogee said:


> I presume, Maja, that this is because of a shortage of space for the number of pupils. Do the teachers work both shifts?


Let me tell you about how it's in Russia. 
Yes, two shifts are used mostly in school where there isn't enough space for all pupils. 
Primary school teachers, who work with their own class only, usually work only one shift. But secondary school teachers, each of whom is responsible for one (more rarely two) subjects have to work both shifts, if necessary. 
For a Russian teacher, it's pretty normal to come to work at 8 a.m. and go home at 6 p.m. Or later.


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## Poetic Device

The only thing that they had for school on a Saturday when I went was detention.  Jinkies, that was horrible!  Imagine six hours of detention!!!


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## Maja

maxiogee said:


> I presume,  Maja, that this is because of a shortage of space for the number of pupils. Do  the teachers work both shifts?


 Yeah, I guess that is the  reason.

In secondary school, my  (older) brother and I went to same Gymnasium, but different shifts and we had  all the different professors. 
In primary school, I  think it's the same situation. Every group of professors sticks to one shift.  

Technically speaking,  we only have "teachers"  from 1st to 4th grade  of primary school, one teacher teaches all the subject to one class (apart from  foreign language). And from 5th to 8th grade (as well as in secondary school), we  have professors,  different one for  each subject (math, Serbian, biology, history, geography, physics,  chemistry...).


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## dromer

I think in Belgium too, they used to go to school on saturdays, but that's a long time ago
nowadays, school is from monday till friday (8am till 4pm, approximately ; exception for wednessday, from 8am till 12am)


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## Abbassupreme

I think there's school on EVERY day of the week save for Friday in Iran.


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## Kajjo

It's Monday till Friday in Germany -- and that is enough. Family interaction is also important for children, I believe.

Kajjo


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## tvdxer

SaritaSarang said:


> At my school you might go to school on a Saturday during the summer to make up a class you missed too many days in, but for sure you can get " Saturday School"  if you get into trouble, which requires you to go in for a while on a Saturday to serve some time.



The same here, except not sure about the summer thing.


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## Lugubert

Hakro said:


> I went to school every Saturday but it was a long time ago. Nowadays Finnish children don't go to school on Saturdays. I'm not sure but I think that Saturday was dropped in the end of the sixties.


bla bla Swedish bla bla fifties.


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## chaquira16

Lamento no entender bien el inglés, espero que me ayudéis a participar en español.
 Deduzco de lo poco que entiendo que la mayoría de los países de los foristas hay clase los sábados, según en qué niveles.
¿Alguien puede orientarme por si voy mal encaminada?
Me gustaría opinar.
Gracias anticipadas.
Saludos
Carmen


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## Lugubert

Sorry; I should perhaps have been more explicit. To clarify: the way I remember it, Sweden stopped Saturday classes in the 1950's, on all levels. If I remember the preceding pages correctly, most schools on all levels anywhere don't teach on Saturdays.


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## jonquiliser

chaquira, parece que en la mayoría de los países mencionados no hay clase los sábados, aunque en algunos sí (sobre lo que algunos por cierto han expresado descontento profundo).


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## srta chicken

Quisiera aclarar que en los EU, las clases los sábados siguen muy en vigor (o "rigor," se me olvidó la expresión), epecialmente para niños asiáticos (cuando la meta es la transmisión de cultura) y para quien necesite ayuda académica adicional, en las escuelas urbanas.


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## gabrigabri

Pirlo said:


> An Italian friend of mine, she told me that they attend school on Saturday, however their days finish at about 1PM (I cannot remember the exact time) rather than a full day, which is observed in Australia (We go to school from 8:45-15.25)




Hi!

I went to school on Saturday, in Italy it is normal (not for little children!), because we finished at 1 PM (or 2). Somebody wanted to stop this thing, and stay longer on other days, but I don't think it is good. It wasn't a problem for me to go on Saturday since I had every afternoon for me (not at school!).


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## dn88

Nowadays in Poland children do not attend school on Saturday.


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## min300

Abbassupreme said:


> I think there's school on EVERY day of the week save for Friday in Iran.



That's right, but there are many students who go to school even on Fridays for some kind of make up classes.
Actually in Iran there is a lot of pressure on students for being successful, for this reason they also try to use their holidays for learning something. For example there are different language courses on Fridays. I think it may be somehow strange to imagine why some of us don't spend our holidays as a real holiday and we work and study on that day.I think it would be much better to have two days off the week.


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## alfmartinez

Hello
In argentina and the rest of south and center america i know, there are no classes on saturdays nor sundays.
Here we actually go out on fridays to enjoy the end of week at home.


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## suslik

In Estonia children don't go to school on Saturdays, but when we were under Russia (not so long time ago) then they had to go to school on Saturdays too. I know because my mother told me that she had to go and she never wanted, so she tried to sneak away from it
Thank God Russia have no power over Estonia anymore.


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## GEmatt

In primary school in Switzerland (until age 12 or 13) we had normal "core" classes on Saturday morning, but Wednesday afternoon off.

At secondary school level (until age 15 or 16), we would still have Wednesday afternoon off, and elective classes would tend to take place on Saturday morning, so time spent in the classroom then would be variable (anywhere from 7.30 through to 12.30 or later, or just one hour of class, starting at 10.30).


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## Encolpius

I found the answers very interesting, so maybe we can fresh it up a little bit again.


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## bb008

Hola

En Venezuela desde preescolar o kinder hasta el último año de bachillerato, no incluyen los días sábados para la asistencia al colegio. Ahora bien, puede ser que tengan un paseo y decidieron ir un fin de semana, en ese caso puede ser, yo estuve en varios paseos escolares y en uno de ellos pasamos un fin de semana fuera de la ciudad, así que la salida fue un sábado en la mañana y el regreso fue el domingo, pero es la excepción de la regla.
 
En cuanto a la Universidad muchas si tiene clase los días sábados, también puedes asistir a la biblioteca y en muchos casos puedes tener clase un día sábado en una materia específica.


Saludos


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## romarsan

Hola.

En España hay un horario unificado para prácticamente todas las escuelas, pero algunas escuelas privadas no cumplen este horario ni tienen las mismas vacaciones que el resto, aunque, tanto sus calendarios como sus contenidos están homologados.

Los sábados no hay escuela y se dedica a actividades deportivas voluntarias.

Saludos


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## KaRiNe_Fr

Hola.

En Francia, desde este año (2008), no hay escuela el sábado tampoco.


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## alexacohen

. said:


> There is far too much pressure put on kids at school these days.
> I remember having no homework over the weekend, as long as we did all our work during the week.
> Sadly, this is no longer the case and the kids have precious little time to be just kids.
> Sad
> .,,


There is no school on Saturdays in Spain, unless there is a special event, such as a football match against school next town, or a concert, a ball, things like that.

However, those can hardly be considered lessons, the only thing in common being the school building.

But sadly, here happens the same thing that is happening in Australia: teachers seem to think that long weekends exist for the sole purpose of piling up homework on poor innocent pupils.


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## gurseal

I attended Catholic and public schools and never had to set foot in a classroom on Saturdays.


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## Nanon

KaRiNe_Fr said:


> Hola.
> 
> En Francia, desde este año (2008), no hay escuela el sábado tampoco.



... y como tampoco hay clase los días miércoles, los alumnos de primaria están en la escuela cuatro días por semana, seis horas diarias (sin contar los recreos y el tiempo del almuerzo para los que comen en el comedor escolar). 
Vamos a ver si eso funciona pero ya hay críticas diciendo que el calendario escolar está muy desbalanceado.
El problema de saber qué hacer con los niños el miércoles sigue en pie y en la mayoría de las ciudades, las actividades extraescolares (deporte, cultura...) son pagas.

French primary schools now open four days a week. Pupils do not go to school on Saturdays anymore, and Wednesdays remained as days off, with the same problem of knowing what to do with children while parents are at work, as mentioned by Badgrammar on page 1. 
A school day lasts 6 hours, lunch time not included. Saturday mornings (or any other day of the week, it is up to each school) are now dedicated for "personalised support to the most challenged pupils", meaning that if you don't want to go to school on Saturdays, you need to be a good student...


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## Lopes

In the Netherlands the weekend is allways free (I've at least never met anyone who went to school on saturday). Plus, on the schools for 4-12 year olds, wednesday's finish at 12.15 (normal days on 15.00)

When I did Erasmus in Italy I was shocked to find out there was class on saturday mornings (and to protest I stayed in bed every time). 
That was university though.


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## ronanpoirier

Here in Brazil, schools (not sure if private schools do it too) have to have 10 Saturdays with classes during the school year. 
For Universities, sometimes we have some kind of activities at Saturdays, but they are "complementary activities".


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## MetalMarianne

In Chile public schools have classes from Monday till Friday, from 8 till 16, except Fridays where the shift finishes at 13. Children get both breakfast and lunch at school and should theoretically not have homework to do. 

Private schools normally have more extended schedules for the higher classes (14 till 18 y.o.) they go from 8 until 18. The reason is that they have more hours per matter and more matters than the public schools.

On Saturdays you may have the cathechism (religious education for both first communion and confirmation) or scout meetings - which sometimes are considered part of your school schedule, mostly when attending schools from a religious order.

You can have classes on Saturdays if the school decides to close on a weekday (example: when a holiday is on Tuesday, you may choose to be closed the preceding Monday) - then you have to "pay back" that day, so you open a Saturday. The problem is that students tend not to go those days...


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## gurseal

Some of you east of the Atlantic have described a school week with Wednesday's off and a half day on Saturday. This is exactly the schedule of the business community, but not the public school system, during the 1960s of the small Southern U.S. town where my family moved.

Is there a European, er, British connection? The people in the town at that time tended to be descended from Scots, Irish, and English.


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## Cheesee = Madness

In Canada (As far as I know) there is school mon-fri 8:00-3:00,(High school level) but not on the weekend. Teachers compensate by giving us projects, etc to do over the weed-end. I've never heard of a student in my school getting a detention on the week-end, or for that matter after school. They punish you by giving you warning, calling your parents, or, if that doesn't work, they give you and In School Suspention where you sit in the office and they hover over you and force you to do work. They also have Out of School Suspentions, but those are only for the most serious cases. I've heard about how(At and old private school a relative of mine used to go to), in the past, the used not to have a two day weekend, but after the majority of a fortnight they would give you a four day holiday.


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