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St. Patrick School

 A Balanced Day School

What is the Balanced School Day?

The school day continues to consist of 300 minutes instructional time and 90 minutes break.  Traditionally the school day has consisted of a lunch hour (60 minutes), and a mid- morning and a mid-afternoon recess break, 15 minutes each  (three major transition periods for students).  The Balanced School Day approach to organizing the school embraces three instructional blocks (roughly a hundred minutes each), separated by two nutritional / activity periods (two transitions).

Why move to the Balanced School Day?

The opportunity for uninterrupted quality teaching time, with extended periods, is highly desirable.  By moving "snack time" and "preparing for recess" into the nutritional breaks, more time is made available for teaching and learning.  Lessons are less likely to be rushed and the potential for higher quality instruction is more likely to occur throughout the entire school day.

 

Two vs. Three Transitional Periods

Why move from 3 transitional breaks a day to two transitional breaks a day?  This simple shift in organizing the school day will save a minimum of 20 minutes a day, 100 minutes a week, 400 minutes a month and 3600 minutes a year.  We save the equivalent of 12 teaching days. The reality is that during the winter months, younger students require even more time to get ready for recess.  The savings in terms of teaching time is potentially much greater than 12 teaching days, depending on the age of the students.

BALANCED DAY SCHEDULE

2008-2009

TIME

MINUTES

PERIODS

8:30 a.m.

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 School Starts
8:30 a.m. -  9:30 a.m. 60 minutes Instructional Period # 1
9:30 a.m. - 10:36 a.m. 66 minutes Instructional Period # 2
10:36 a.m.- 11:16 a.m. 40 minutes Nutrition Break
11:16 a.m. - 11:56 a.m. 40 minutes Instructional Period # 3
11:56 a.m. - 12: 39 p.m. 43 minutes Instructional Period # 4
12:39 p.m. -  1:29p.m. 50 minutes Nutrition Break
1:29 p.m. -  12:10 p.m. 41 minutes Instructional Period # 5
2:10  p.m. - 3:00 p.m. 50 minutes Instructional Period # 6
3:00 p.m.

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 Dismissal