Aligning the school day

Proposed class timetables

Recognising the current national context, all Midlothian secondary schools from session 2024/25 propose to base their timetable on a ‘student week’ of 1,600 minutes.  

All schools would follow a 32 period model of 50 minutes. Monday through Thursday there would be seven periods (classes) and four periods on a Friday.

The proposed Senior Phase school day structure would be

  • Mondays through Thursdays: the first period would be 8.40am to 9.30am and the last period would be 2.35pm to 3.25pm. There would be an interval from 11.10am to 11.25am with lunch from  1.05pm to 1.35pm
  • On Friday: the last period would be 11.25am to 12.15pm with an interval at 10.20am to 10.35am 

Split breaks

Some schools have split breaks and lunches for S1/S2/S3 and Senior Phase (S4/S5/S6) students. They could still do so if the proposed changes go ahead or introduce split breaks.

If a school does not have split breaks all students would follow the Senior Phase school day structure outlined above.  

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