Can School Extend Easter?

[EasterEvenLonger]

My kid’s school had published Easter holidays as:
Mon 7 April - Tuesday 22nd April

They have written today to extend it to:
Friday 4 April - Thursday 24 April
An additional 3 working/school days

I can’t list all the reasons this is a fucking nightmare for me. Can they just announce this without any consultation and just 3 weeks notice? They haven’t taken any subsequent days off to compensate. It’s an additional 3 days.

YABU - of course they can
YANBU - no they shouldn’t be able to do this

Ok but you need to realise school isn’t childcare.

I feel your pain, we had 24 hours notice that my DDs school wasn’t opening for 3 days after summer break because building work had run over. I needed to find 3 days childcare for my DD who has complex needs and can’t tolerate random childcare and can’t be left alone for more than an hour or so. She also really struggled with understanding why she couldn’t go to school.

Like you my leave is planned around the school holidays and we’d just come to the end of the long summer break. While school isn’t childcare most people’s work is centred around their kids being at school. Apparently it’s perfectly reasonable to give no notice of closure, not provide any alternative provision and leave parents to get on with it. I had to use unpaid leave, which then caused an unexpected financial impact again, right at the end of the long summer break where we’d already spent more than usual keeping things covered.

I get it’s sometimes unavoidable but let’s not pretend there’s an easy fix and that it’s not problematic for parents to find extra cover at short notice.

Except in the very limited circumstances set out in the Education (School Day and School Year) (England) Regulations 1999, schools must meet for at least 380 sessions or 190 days in any school year.
I don't know how this fits with the school needing to be open for 190 days. I would check in with the local authority.

Ok but you need to realise school isn’t childcare.

School isn’t childcare, but it’s factored into
parents childcare plans. My child by law needs to be in education and society’s way of facilitating that is to say they need to be in school for 190 days per year.

Those days I don’t need to provide childcare myself or arrange with an external provider because they are required to be in school. In fact it would be ridiculous to pay someone for childcare my kids can’t access, because they are required to be in school. I do ensure my child is cared for outside of their appointed school days.

When school, at short notice, cannot meet their legal duty to open it leaves parents trying to piece together childcare they shouldn’t actually need because their child should be in school. That is complex and difficult for many parents who don’t have alternatives sitting around waiting in case a child needs care because their school isn’t open on days it should be.

It’s accepting that sometimes things happen out of schools control.

no school wants to shut when they should be open but with the best will in the world no headteacher can control everything and sometimes a unexpected closure is all that can be done

Well if staff are having to move buildings when do you expect them to do this? Teachers don't get paid for the majority of their holidays and can't be expected to give more up.

This would not work. At all. There are no extra staff to keep ratios up to do this.

🤣 at teachers just doing it in the holidays as if they don't have kids or holidays booked etc

Yes they can, it will be inset days. Our school moved into new building too, but they did it during the summer holidays, using a professional moving firm! Staff just labeled boxes and items with their new class room numbers. I sympathise with you as I know it's difficult covering the holidays with annual leave. I actually ended up leaving my job because of it, and the number of sick days mine had! I took a long break and when they started secondary school, I went back to work.

It's not inset days. Read the OPs posts. Inset days are for staff training, not for moving furniture.

I would still contact the LA and ask their thoughts on it.

My DC's school added an extra day to the end of the Christmas holidays 3 days before the end of term. They can do it but I wasn't pleased. Thankfully they're at secondary so don't need babysitting while DH and I are at work.

It appears that state schools legally have to provide a minimum of 190 days when it is open for students. I think your best approach is to contact the school governors and ask how the additional closure impacts that. It seems a reasonable question.

(There may be loophole when it involves building work etc though).

Who will pay?

There IS a provision which allows for additional days due to issues such as building work delays, etc. as is the case here.

The school hasn't just decided to close for no reason.

Those who think that this should be done while the children are in school, even doing it class by class would you want to move house while responsible for 30 children?

would you want your child to be walking down the corridor to the toilet while tables and cupboards where being moved?

The staff would much rather be in the classroom doing their job but sometimes these things can’t be avoided. If building works over run then the work needs to be done during term time

No - they might not have. Our school is currently meant to complete next February but it's running 2 weeks behind. If they can't catch up that time the move will have to happen in April. However if anything else slips or there's any issues with the snagging, that might go into the summer for the move. In any scenario school will close for 3-5 days and the days will not be made up elsewhere. And the contractors and council representatives at the school meeting last week said they will aim to give parents a few weeks' notice but they can't promise it as things can change a lot - and they can only do this over a school holiday with the way the actual move everything else will happen (furniture, kit, books, etc etc). So it needs to be before or after Feb break, before or after April break or before or after summer break - they have no idea which one.

If they're able to make a massive push and finish for an earlier break that's a huge advantage as they have a year's project to knock down the old building but can't start that until we are all out of it. So if it drags into 'after' summer holiday then it's hugely problematic for the budget. So if they're able to make a last minute call to move earlier they will do it.

In any case, even if the days were made up elsewhere it wouldn't solve this specific problem. Am sure there's a solution as the entire catchment will be in the same situation.

The real issue here is the lack of funding for schools. In a sensible world there would be a moving package as part of the new building budget and professional movers would be paid to do the removals. Not teachers who should be teaching and not moving furniture.

In our situation we have council movers. The teachers are the ones to pack up books, paperwork, supplies, resources - to take down the stuff on the bulletin boards and on the walls and to disconnect any specialist kit in the CDT/science labs etc. that's one day. One day for the movers to shift everything to the new building (with online learning) and then one day for the teachers to come back to unpack their actual teaching resources and set up the classroom how they want it. They aren't actually moving furniture

I'd like the academy trusts that embezzle millions to spend taxpayers money on childrens education instead of lining their own pockets.

They ought to have factored in 'moving costs' when they decided on building works.
Strange how they can afford a new building and all the new tech (that teachers need 3 days to learn) but not a team of guys to shift furniture.

Ah yes - so the academy trusts can squirrel the money into their own pockets.

Great business model.

So it was all miraculously signed off to be finished the day before Good Friday so the only possible moving date would be Tues/Wed/Thurs after Easter Monday?

I call BS.

The school could have got everything organised to happen during the Easter holidays with proper removal people shifting the furniture.
There's really no excuse.

Yawn.

Who paid for the new building? the new tech? the new furniture? new kitchens? new toilets? new carpets? new computer suite? new library? new sports hall?

You're saying they can't afford to hire a removal firm for a couple of days?

Our school INSET days were always given out at the start of the school year and never changed as they were the same for all schools in the LA.

On a couple of occasions we were told (at not much notice) that all classrooms had to be cleared and everything put into containers for work to take place in the holidays. We closed 2 days early for one holiday and came back 2 days later at the start of another term.