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How long is an average high school day in your culture/country?
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Satsuki (She/Her) nord.pub satsunami@nord.pub
Joined: 2026-08-31
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USA: Typically for us, about 7-ish hours, I have to go in the building before classes start before then though, making it about 8 hours. Sometimes, we have half days, but they're pretty rare. We have all our classes, they're just very condensed 4-5 hours.

Here, we start at like 07:00 (Mondays 08:10 or so) and we end at 14:50.

Norway: 6-7 hours apparently, from 08:00-14:00 (2: p.m.) or 15:00. (3 p.m.)

25   Original
Oni_eyes sh.itjust.works Oni_eyes@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-06-12
#2 · Quote Reply

The school I work for runs eight 7 1/2 hours but we could run 7 flat if we had a bigger building or less students. We need three lunch periods to fit them all in the cafeterias.

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Shimitar downonthestreet.eu Shimitar@downonthestreet.eu
Joined: 2025-01-28
#3 · Quote Reply

Italy: 5 to 6 h from age 6vro 19. For age 6-11 it's common to have longer school days (8:00-16:00) to give parents opportunity to pick kids after work.

For age 11-13 it's almost always from 8am to 13:00.

For age 14-19 depends on school, usually 30 to 36h per week, often on 5 days.

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MarieMarion literature.cafe MarieMarion@literature.cafe
Joined: 2025-06-05
#4 · Quote Reply

Rural France : 8 to 6, and half-days on Wednesdays.
Or rather, 7.55 (first bell) to 6.
Same for the middle school. My 7th grader's week goes:
Monday 8-6 (with a free half-period before lunch, and the regular 2-hour lunch break),
Tu 8-6
W 9-12
Th 8-5
F 10-5.
(But she's an overachiever and signed up for several electives. She could shave off 5 hours from her school week.)

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Infrapink thebrainbin.org Infrapink@thebrainbin.org
Joined: 2025-02-15
#5 · Quote Reply

We don't have high school in Ireland.¹

When I was in secondary school in the early 2000s, the day ran from 09:00 to 16:00 Mon to The, and we finished an hour early on Fri. My sister's school ran from 09:00 to 15:45 every day.

¹I am not being pedantic. Ireland, like Britain, has a two-stage system with primary (5 - 12/13) and secondary (12/12 - 18) schools, in contrast to the tgree-stage system found in France, America, and Japan.

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boletus sh.itjust.works boletus@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-07-12
#6 · Quote Reply

Australia: 0900-1500. 6 sessions broken up by recess and lunch.

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Pandantic [they/them] midwest.social Pandantic@midwest.social
Joined: 2023-06-28
#7 · Quote Reply

Rural France : 8 to 6, and half-days on Wednesdays. Or rather, 7.55 (first bell) to 6. Same for the middle school. My 7th grader's week goes: Monday 8-6 (with a free half-period before lunch, and the regular 2-hour lunch break), Tu 8-6 W 9-12 Th 8-5 F 10-5. (But she's an overachiever and signed up for several electives. She could shave off 5 hours from her school week.)

As an USAian, I was surprised to see 10 hours, but we don't do a 2 hour lunch here so it ends up about the same.

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CarrotsHaveEars lemmy.ml racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2021-10-03
#8 · Quote Reply

In China it's about ten hours, from 7 a.m. to about 5 p.m. It's going to last till bedtime if you're in the last year and be preparing for the college entrance exam.

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whotookkarl lemmy.dbzer0.com whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Joined: 2025-07-12
#9 · Quote Reply

Mine was 8:00 - 15:00 but I was pretty chronically late and tired because I couldn't fall asleep until around 2am most nights

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eldavi lemmy.ml eldavi@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2023-07-18
#10 · Quote Reply

it was 6.5 hours back in 1994 in the american southwest.

1
Meatwagon piefed.blahaj.zone Meatwagon@piefed.blahaj.zone
Joined: 2026-08-21
#11 · Quote Reply

In China it's about ten hours, from 7 a.m. to about 5 p.m. It's going to last till bedtime if you're in the last year and be preparing for the college entrance exam.

That sounds horrible.

4
CanadaPlus lemmy.sdf.org CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
Joined: 2023-06-12
#12 · (edited) Quote Reply

In China it's about ten hours, from 7 a.m. to about 5 p.m. It's going to last till bedtime if you're in the last year and be preparing for the college entrance exam.

Ah yes, the famous 996 culture.

In practice, is it 4 hours of paying attention and 6 of going through the motions, or just goofing off? There's been some research to the effect 8 hours already gives diminishing returns, if you're doing something subtle or complicated.

3
CanadaPlus lemmy.sdf.org CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
Joined: 2023-06-12
#13 · (edited) Quote Reply

We don't have high school in Ireland.¹ When I was in secondary school in the early 2000s, the day ran from 09:00 to 16:00 Mon to The, and we finished an hour early on Fri. My sister's school ran from 09:00 to 15:45 every day. ¹I am not being pedantic. Ireland, like Britain, has a two-stage system with primary (5 - 12/13) and secondary (12/12 - 18) schools, in contrast to the tgree-stage system ...

Thank you for the footnote. Without that, it could also have been pedantry, or the German system, where secondary schools have postsecondary-like specialisations already.

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emergencyfood sh.itjust.works emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works
Joined: 2023-07-03
#14 · Quote Reply

6-7 hours in India (0900-1500).

2
wotaku discuss.tchncs.de wotaku@discuss.tchncs.de
Joined: 2026-07-15
#15 · (edited) Quote Reply

~6 hrs for me.
From 6 am to 11:30am

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MarieMarion literature.cafe MarieMarion@literature.cafe
Joined: 2025-06-05
#16 · Quote Reply

As an USAian, I was surprised to see 10 hours, but we don't do a 2 hour lunch here so it ends up about the same.

It could be shorter, but not by much: the school restaurant is a 10-minute walk from the school, and of course being French the food is ultra-local, organic, in-season home-cooked three-course meals (plus the cheese course, obviously), which you don't scarf down).
Still, it's annoying. My kid is very young still and 6 is very late for her.

2
CarrotsHaveEars lemmy.ml racketlauncher831@lemmy.ml
Joined: 2021-10-03
#17 · Quote Reply

Ah yes, the famous 996 culture. In practice, is it 4 hours of paying attention and 6 of going through the motions, or just goofing off? There's been some research to the effect 8 hours already gives diminishing returns, if you're doing something subtle or complicated.

I'm not sure how diminishing it would be, but as a person who went through it, most of the time I didn't nod off in the night-studying sessions. I actually had homework to complete and I remembered knowledge studied during the time. Even if it's diminishing it's still a net gain than those who don't do the extra study, given that I don't stress myself out.

2
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