School Hours and Schedules
Main Office Hours
- The front office is open and available to support students and families from 7:30 am to 3:30 pm, Monday through Friday, except on PWCS holidays or school closures.
- Summer hours (the end of June, all of July, and the beginning of August) are 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, Monday through Friday, except on PWCS holidays or school closures.
General Daily School Hours
7:45 am - Front doors open for students
8:15 am - School begins
8:20 am - Morning Announcements
10:15 am-1:45 pm - Lunch times for all grade levels
2:55 pm - Dismissal for all students
School Times - Morning Arrival
- The typical hours for students are from 8:15 am to 2:55 pm daily, Monday through Friday, when school is in session.
- The Nokesville School opens its doors to students for morning arrival at 7:45 am each morning.
- Breakfast is served from 7:45 am to 8:15 am.
- Students on the buses will be released at 8:00 am to enter school. Kindergarten students will be walked directly to class.
- All students will be fully supervised while in school as they arrive and walk to their classrooms.
- The bell rings at 8:15 am to start the school day. Students are considered tardy in school by 8:15 am.
School Times - Afternoon Dismissal
- The afternoon announcements begin at 2:55 pm each afternoon.
- Students being dismissed to parents in cars will go to the main gym. Numbers from car tags will be called to dismiss students from the gym to the car rider line. Students will be called in the order of the cars in the line and walked all the way out to their car.
- Students that ride the bus will be walked all the way from class to the bus by their teachers.
Elementary-Level Required Instructional Amounts of Times
- Language Arts (Reading and Writing):
- Kindergarten - 140 minutes daily
- 1st & 2nd - 120 minutes daily
- 3rd, 4th, & 5th - 90 minutes daily
- Math:
- Kindergarten - 70 minutes daily
- 1st & 2nd - 90 minutes daily
- 3rd, 4th, & 5th - 75 minutes daily
- Social Studies & Science:
- Kindergarten - 45 minutes daily
- 1st & 2nd - 45 minutes daily
- 3rd, 4th, & 5th - 90 minutes daily (45 minutes each)
- Encore: 45 minutes daily
- Physical Education: 45 minutes two times per week
- Core Extension (remediation/enrichment): 45 minutes daily
- Lunch: 30 minutes daily
- Recess: 30 minutes daily
- If you want a copy of your child's schedule, please ask the office staff or your child's teacher. He or she will happily provide one for you during the school year.
- Learn more about required instructional times in PWCS Regulation 602-1 - Elementary Instructional Day.
Middle-Level Daily Schedule
- Courses at the secondary level (middle and high school) have various required amounts of time provided by the Virginia Department of Education.
- Seven-Period Schedule:
- PWCS requires all middle-level grade levels (grades 6-8) to follow a seven-period school day.
- The seven-period schedule includes
- Seven 48-minute periods of different subjects
- A lunch break of approximately 30 minutes
- An advisory period of 15 minutes that includes school news and attendance
- Transitions between periods and classes that are approximately 2-3 minutes long
- An example of a sixth-grade schedule is written below. Each student will have a personalized schedule based on their chosen electives and their instructional levels in language arts and math.
- 8:15-8:30 am - Advisory (Tiger Time)
- 8:32-9:20 am - First Period (ex. Math)
- 9:23-10:11 am - Second Period (ex. Creative Writing)
- 10:14-11:02 am - Third Period (ex. Family and Consumer Science)
- 11:02-11:29 am - Lunch
- 11:32 am-12:20 pm - Fourth Period (ex. Math)
- 12:23-1:11 pm - Fifth Period (ex. Chorus)
- 1:14-2:02 pm - Sixth Period (ex. Science)
- 2:05-2:55 pm - Seventh Period (ex. Social Studies)
- 2:55 pm - Dismissal
School Delays and Closures
- PWCS may close school due to inclement weather. Central office will notify parents in multiple ways when this happens.
- Different color-coded alerts will go out to families during any change in school hours. These are listed as Code Red (school closed), Code Orange (school closed, virtual learning), Code Yellow (Two-hour delay), and Code Green (regular school day). Learn more about the different color-coded alerts on the PWCS Inclement Weather Codes website.
- Sometimes due to weather, such as snow accumulation, the school may begin on a 2-hour delay. The school division decides this and sends out a notification to all families.
- On 2-hour delays, the school will begin at 10:15 am and end at 2:55 pm.
- The PWCS Weather Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) website gives more information in a question-and-answer format about decisions for Code Orange and Code Red.