http://i.imgur.com/Rh1TgBt.png

This is what I'm using for a fic I'm now pretty much starting over with thanks to DLP.

I thought History would have less hours because there is no practical component to the topic. Astronomy was only one night a week because it's rather useless and book one suggests there is only one night a week they did astronomy on.

Any reason for choosing 45 minute lesson blocks? Hour blocks seem more useful to me. Also, why dinner before 5pm? I expect it would start at 5pm and (when there is no feast) run to about 7pm.

I never went to boarding school on the other hand.

 

Just a few different timetable options for your consideration.

You can look at Eton's timetable:

0900-0940 - Class 1
0950-1030 - Class 2
1040-1120 - Class 3
1120-1145 - Break
1145-1225 - Class 4
1235-1315 - Class 5
1315-1420 - Lunch

After that are 3 more scheduled periods, which are used for sports and other activities, and then a final period which is used for tutorials and such.

Or alternatively, Gordonstoun (a Scottish boarding school) advertise their timetable as being breakfast, followed by assembly at 0815, with younger students then having five 1 hour lessons, and upper years having six 1 hour lessons, with supper being scheduled at 1800.

And one other timetable, is a fairly standard one for a state school (non-boarding) in Scotland (the one I went to):

0850-0905 - Registration
0910-0955 - Class 1
1000-1050 - Class 2
1050-1105 - Break
1110-1155 - Class 3
1200-1255 - Class 4
1300-1345 - Lunch
1350-1440 - Class 5
1445-1530 - Class 6/Final class of the day

 

I went to an English boarding school, though I lived close enough to it that I didn't have to board.

Our timetable was:

0840-0845 Registration
0850-0925 Period 1
0925-1000 Period 2
1000-1035 Period 3

1035-1100 School assembly/chapel/house assembly/tutor group
1100-1115 Break

1120-1155 Period 4
1155-1235 Period 5
1235-1310 Period 6

1310-1420 Lunch

1420-1455 Period 7
1455-1535 Period 8
1535-1610 Period 9

As you can see, periods are all 35 minutes... except period 5 and 8, which are 40 minutes.

(Timetable edited for accuracy)

A few general comments:

- Younger years generally have more hours of classes than older years, not less. They study more subjects, whereas older years have specialised. This seems to hold up in canon, where upon starting NEWTs Ron comments about having free periods where they don't have a lesson. This is exactly the same as with A-Levels (NEWT parallel). From 12-16 you don't have free periods.

- A "double period" doesn't really mean a lot of time. An awful lot of classes will be doubles to prevent too much getting up and moving around.

- You get more doubles the older you get, as younger children need the variety of changing class.

- At our school, dinner was at 6pm, after the day pupils had left.

 

You seem to have forgotten about a break period between classes so the students can walk calmly in Hogwarts, and most of the time the students seem to arrive before the teachers, so I would say 10min between most classes is a must. At least 5min is.

And when in double periods they leave early?

 

Generally speaking timetables don't include time for walking between classes, though it's acknowledged that walking between rooms does take time. Teachers accept that it takes time to walk and will not punish you for being a minute or so late.

 

basic classes: charms, transfiguration, dada, potions, herbology, history, astronomy
electives: muggle studies, divination, arithmancy, runes, creatures. Could be more that we don't know of.

It's suggested that students don't have the same classes everyday, which makes sense. Living in a castle where one class is outside (herbology) and another could be at the top of a tower (divination) means there needs to be a ton of time in between classes. Also, some classes seem like they would need a lot of time in order to get anything done, such as potions, unless their only brewing period is their double lessons and the rest are theory. So I could see the schedules arranged in such away where they have an 1.5 hour class every other day, rather than a bunch of 45 minute classes, and a double class could be 3 hours long and taking up the whole block between breakfast and lunch. And some of the electives are set up in such a way that there are certain classes that fall in the same time slot.

 

How on earth does anyone get anything done with half hour lesson slots?

Took us at least 10 minutes at the beginning of class to come in, settle down, everyone to arrive, etc.

 

Another reason why I think 10 min between classes is a necessity. Imagine, organizing your materials, it's not just getting you pen and notebook.

But most classes aren't in oposite sides in a huge castle, with some being outside or underground, and the teachers, specially Sprout and Hagrid need to prepare themselves between classes, Snape too methinks. And counting all this time inside 40-50 min classes, would mean very little is done.

 

This is what I've put together that accommodates the needs of both students and teachers:

Let's say there are 9 units per day, but with 1 a floating morning break and another a floating lunch. 5 in the morning, 4 in the afternoon, but really 4 and 3. At most 35 units per week/student. There's a reason for the float:

Major subject teachers have 5 years of everyone, with reduced NEWT classes requiring fewer periods/week. Ex.: Potions- 6 (3 and 3) periods/week/year for years 1-5 is 30 periods, adding 4-6 periods/week for NEWT levels = 36 periods at most occupied, meaning each teacher has at least 2 breaks per day (lunch and another) except on one day. Of course, the Professor could make the 3rd period for NEWT-years a non-instructive but monitored lab, making their time almost break-like.

For a student, 1st-2nd years attend 19 periods a week - 3 of most but only 2 of History and Astronomy, one of which is at midnight; 3rd-5th years attend at least 4 more for 22+1 midnight periods/week, though a madwoman like Hermione could add up to 10 for 28+1 periods a week.

Each period is 50 minutes instruction + 10 minutes transit; the clock tolls the hour and the bell give the ten-minute warning from 7:50 am until 4:50 pm; Professors are encouraged but not compelled to release students at the warning. Double-periods ignore the warning and tolling.

Breakfast is served 6-8AM
Lunch from noon-2PM, though in two phases of 1 hour each
Supper is offered 4-5 for a lighter meal
Dinner is served 5-7, again in two phases of 1 hour each
Feasts run two hours instead of dinner, with start times variable depending on the event.

 

I think you're overestimating the size of the castle compared to the size of a school, Invictus. Especially when you consider that almost all Hogwarts classes take place within the same complex of buildings.

Dover castle is the largest castle in Britain and is a good comparison for Hogwarts.

Here's its circumference:



By comparison, here's the circumference of my old school:



Now, as for walking between classes, here's a typical distance you might have to walk if Dover castle were converted into a school, and they had classes in separate buildings:



And here's a typical distance we had to walk between classes at my school:



It's not all that different.

 

True, 10 min is far too mcuh, and programming 5 min would be stupid. I was thinking about my Vet School in distance terms, but she is simply too big for European normal Unis and schools. It has 8756.9 squares miles, and internal bus is need between all buildings, went crazy there, XD. The distance between the entrance and the meals hall is 1.5 km.

 

Why not, its the equivalent of 1 class of each subject per day. If your basic education is taken care of with just 6 classes, then you'd damn well better get a thorough education in them.

The other possibility that you could use to fill gaps in a timetable would be supervised study time. Where its reasonable to give a 6th or 7th year a free period and expect them to utilise it in a semi-mature fashion, you can't do the same for an 11 year old. So where it would be a free period, they are studying/doing homework under some form of supervision (prefects perhaps?). Its reasonable that this sort of thing wouldn't necessarily get a mention in the books, and as I recall there are several scenes in the movies that would back up this idea if you were will to accept them as canon.

Personally, if we're going canon+, then I'd say there must be other classes that aren't mentioned. Not your normal core subjects, but the sort of thing you maybe get an hour or two of per week. Basic things for First Years like spelling and grammar classes, to make sure they can adequately write all the essays that seem to make up homework for Hogwarts. Hell, even more basic than that, lessons in how to properly write with a quill would be necessary, at least for the muggle borns.

Lessons like that wouldn't have made it into the books because they're just not magical enough to be interesting. But I do think they'd, realistically speaking, be vital.

 

I've always wondered about flying class and how long it continues. I quite like the idea that actually they continue flying classes all the way up to 5th year, like a magical version of PE. But it's not assessed and there's nothing for Harry to learn there, as he's already an expert, so it's never mentioned again after the first class.

 

It would make plenty of sense for flying class to continue, since brooms really are the default travel option for the wizarding world. They'd want everyone to attain a basic level of proficiency in it, not just people who've played quidditch.

 

Not with only the one teacher per subject, no. Even with 3 periods/week (a double and a single) per year, the teachers would have a tight schedule. The only other workaround I have is for the off-periods for young years be 'study hall/activity' periods monitored by the more idle instructors like Babbling, Vector and Burbage.

EDIT: for the above, maybe they have all three periods in Potions on Friday morning. Hermione's estimate of a half-hour in the library might assume a ten-minute transit tacked on at both ends. Weird schedule, though.

I wouldn't expect broom classes to extend much beyond the first term of first year- it's essentially bicycle lessons. Broom trips up the mountains could easily be a spring term activity, but it still doesn't tax the body much if you're not trying to execute sharp turns at high speed, strike a heavy ball with a mallet while in motion or catch and fling a quaffle.