Does your child's primary school have a 4.5 day week?

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www.theguardian.com/education/2017/jun/28/leicestershire-school-plans-four-and-a-half-day-teaching-week

Apparently this is becoming increasingly likely because of funding cuts and some schools already operate this.

I can't quite work out where the saving is - are the teachers forced to change their contracts and take a salary cut?
Could they achieve the same by adding days onto school holidays or does it have to be weekly?

What do the kids lose out on - does it translate into shorter lunch breaks etc during the week?
Dd's only in reception and seems to spend most of her week playing anyway but by Y5/6 presumably that's two hours less learning?

If anyone uses a school that moved to a 4.5 day week I'd be really interested in how it works and what the savings translated to - eg were teachers able to be kept on that would otherwise have had to leave?

Our school has raised this on several occasions but haven't implemented it as yet. The idea was to start a little earlier and have a slightly shorter lunch break so the actual teaching hours are the same. It frees up the teachers do their planning and prep work all at the same time and means that the children have their teacher in the class the whole time they're there. I fully supported the idea but it was not popular among the other parents.

This sounds interesting and actually sounds like it could be a benefit. Gutted it isn't happening where I am- I'm in Glasgow and it sounds like lots of Scottish schools are doing it, but not here!
How would the 9-day fortnight work? One Friday off every two weeks?

my kids went to a primary that did this. something silly like 9 extra minutes a day meant a half day every Monday.
it was fab for dr.'s dentist optometry appointments etc. but a pain in the neck for working parents. no after school clubs.
not sure about the savings; heat lighting etc could yield slight savings but not much.
teaching staff hours would be the same but possibly ancillary staff (reception, custodial) could be decreased and any pt jobs could have their hours cut (librarian and pe staff) or job share with another site.

Im in Canada. Children have every other Friday off. We're also expected to provide school supplies - notebooks, files, pencils, crayons, glue sticks etc. School isn't compulsory until Grade 1 (age 5/6)

And my son's Kindergarten class finishes today, so that's him at home until September 5th. Teachers are there until Friday.

I've only ever taught in schools which close at 12.30 on Fridays. As someone said earlier, kids often do sports clubs in the afternoon but out with school. I love the fact that my own daughter finishes at 12.30. There are a mixture of mums and dads at pick up. It's just the norm here now.

I think that the level of cost saving, if the school really sits down and thinks it through in its entirety and not just TA hours being saved is going to be minimal.
There may well be good reasons other than finance for all the PPA time being on a Friday afternoon but if the school is thinking about equity with its customers (pupils and parents) then they should realise that shutting Friday afternoon is a bad idea all round.

I had no idea this was so prevalent. Never heard of it around us ( south east). It would have suited us to the ground - SAHM with family spread around the country - hate the m25 slog north on a Friday night to see them for a quick weekend visit.

Sounds good, would be nice to have an extra curricular activity of choice on a Friday afternoon or get some of the endless birthday parties out of the way so they don't take over the weekend. Far better that then letting the children just watch tv in school as seems to be on the increase. If they aren't learning then let them go home.

The level of cost saving dep0ends on who covers PPA.

Our school uses teachers to cover PPA. With, say, 12-14 classes, an average-sized school would save 12-14x 2 hours of teacher salary per week [afternoon PPA, every class has PPA, done at the same time for each year group, so it does work out as number of classes x 2 hours]

That's actually a reasonable saving over a year.
If PPA is covered by TAs, then obviously the saving is less.

All our secondary schools and some of the primaries finish at 12:30 on a Friday. It was put the parents at our school but voted against. I would have been quite keen but am a SAHM. Working parents were not so keen.

How does this fit with the requirement for schools to offer 380 sessions ?

"Local authority maintained schools must open for at least 380 sessions (190 days) during a school year."

I also can't see how this fits with 380 sessions. Making some sessions longer doesn't negate the need to offer 380 sessions.

I also have concerns about how the needs of children with unstable home lives will be met. Requiring parents to have flexible childcare may really push a family to its limits.

We have had this in Edinburgh since 1988.

I think Scotland has different conditions to England where schools must provide 380 sessions regardless of length of school day.

The school is an academy so not local authority bound.

Scotland have to do 190 days and if staff 195 days.

All of the schools mentioned are academies?

I work in school that does the asymmetric week and it works really well. School runs 8.40-3.15 Mon-Thurs with 15 minutes for break and 45mins for lunch. We finish at 12.30 on Fridays. Children with free school meals (everyone up to P3 and then means tested older children) have lunch before they go home. We do have a high rate of absence on a Friday though and it does mean parents having to organise and pay for more hours of childcare. On the flip side it allows time for extra curricular activities and play on Friday afternoons and as staff we can still do a 2 hour CPD session and an hour of planning or whatever after school and be home by 4.30 which lessens the feeling of spending your entire life at work!

Sounds like a nightmare for working parents, 8.40-3.15 every day (my DCs primary) is hard enough to work round.

How does this fit with the requirement for schools to offer 380 sessions ?

"Local authority maintained schools must open for at least 380 sessions (190 days) during a school year."

Is a session defined in hours? Some pps said they finish at 1.05 and with my cynical hat on I'll point out that at our school a child who registers at 1.00 and leaves at 1.05 would officially miss no sessions.

Don't forget teachers get 10% (I think that's the figure) PPA time a week. It costs to cover those teachers. So a school with 10 teachers will then have the cost of another person FT to cover their PPA.
Usually this is now TAs but the cost is £10k upwards.

The half day will be used for all teachers to take PPA on that half day therefore the cover isn't needed.

I'm in Edinburgh and as others have said, we've had half day Fridays for ever (even at high school). Everyone is used to it, and when I first moved here, pre-kids, my job's core hours included a shorter Friday, presumably to accommodate school hours.

Neighbouring authorities have started doing the same more recently. The thing I've noticed is that my kids don't seem to have less teaching time than others (or those in independent schools), just spread differently across the week. And teachers are in on a Fridays afternoon, just not teaching. I'm not sure if it saves money, but it works well here.