Number of teachers?

[joanne0012]

No: HPFGUIDX 34116

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Hollydaze" <hollydaze at b...> wrote:
<< Where did five classes come from? Is this just for the teachers? I still don't 
see how that is possible 8but then I also don't see how the timetables work) 
Harry only has 3 classes per day and in every year they always seem to follow 
one another, in the 1st year he (seems) to have two lessons before lunch and 1 
lesson after lunch (could be two it is not really clear - double lessons etc) 
followed imediatly by supper/dinner. WHere are teh "gaps" where the other 
classes would take place?>>

What "gaps" are you referring to?  It seems that the kids have 3 subjects per 
day (plus Astronomy on Wednesday nights).  But the teachers would have to 
teach 5 classes per day in order to cover this schedule, which is about the same 
number of classes that US high-school teachers have each day, which makes it 
plausible.  The kids have breaks between classes (we've seen them clean up after 
herbology before going to their next class) so a five-period schedule for 
teachers, with each kid having classes during 3 of those periods each day, makes 
sense.

<< The fact that HRH's timetables don't change as to when their lessons are 
placed would imply that every year has the same time table schedules and so 
every lesson is going on at the same time. >>

Do we really have evidence of this?  IIRC, the kids are very curious about what 
their new schedules look like, indicating that they change very year.

>> One other problem, so far we only know of three lessons (in Harry's year) 
that are tought with two houses, Potions, Herbology and Flying (may only be in 
one year anyway) so if this is the same in every year (these are the only double 
house lessons) then that only makes SNape and Sprouts work loads lighter, not 
any body elses. >>

Right, but we have seen that Herbology and DADA are classes that are doubled 
up, so this makes sense -- the courses with the most kids taking them have to 
be doubled up.