4-and-a-half-day week to be introduced at a west London primary school

[notthe1Parrot]

Just seen this on the local TV news, and wonder if this will become commonplace. (I know Edinburgh have been doing this for a good few years.)

I’m interested to know how this works. I assume all staff get a pay cut and general running costs are cut with no one on site at that time.

How do the school continue to provide all the statutory stuff though? Is there not a statutory number of hours?

Budgets are reeeeally tight with some schools needing to find thousands upon thousands of pounds over the next few years. It could be a trend that takes off.

As far as I can remember re. Edinburgh, lunch and break times were cut so that no teaching hours were lost.

I've worked (as a supply teacher) in a school local to me and they have a 4.5 day week. All the teachers take their ppa tine on a Friday afternoon and they have a 30 minute lunchtime to make up for the lost teaching time. I think it was to save money on someone to cover ppa as well as money on heating, lights etc.

I'm in Edinburgh, the children finish at lunchtime but the staff work in the afternoons - protected time for marking, preparing lessons etc.

I like it. There are childcare options and clubs for working parents but a lot of people tend to work a 4 day week or work at home on Friday's. My office is deserted on a Friday. My children use the time for play dates and activities.

Children have the same number of classroom hours as any other child as their day is slightly longer -8:45 to 3:20 in primary.

Sounds ideal - so long as there are childcare options for the Fridays I'd be working but the weekends when we went away would be brilliant - get on the road a couple of hours early and avoid the worst of the traffic.

I assume all staff get a pay cut
No. That's not how it works.

The school saves money by not having to pay supply teachers to cover the time when staff are away from the classroom. It also means that staff can all have their PPA time at the same time so can collaborate on planning etc.

Must be a nightmare for working parents and 30 mins lunch is a shame for the children, not much playtime

I would like it. Our school often has the class teacher only for 4 or 4.5 days as they do their PPA in these times. Ok if always the same supply teacher is used but otherwise a waste of teaching time.

I would,go for an earlier start though than shorter lunch