does a school have to consult parents before implementing a 4.5 day week?

[fivennotfour]

got letter home last week. After the summer, school will only be open 4.5 days instead of 5 due to budget retrains.

there will be limited placed for the Friday after school club - probably nowhere near as many needed. Many working parents will be shafted.

Anyhow, there was no consultation by school. just a letter letting us know that these changes will come.
Can they just do it.

The thing is, consulting with parents isn't going to raise money for staffing, is it?

but it disproportionatly affects one subgroup of parents - those who work. This is not fair either.

Imagine the queues for the photocopier!

Irish schools have longer holidays but ‘Irish parents manage’ is an unfair comment.

I have a lot of Irish friends and they are either SAHMs or they get help from their parents. The holidays and the school day was known well I advance before even conceiving a child. This is clearly not the case here.

@spreadingchestnuttree no school dinners here either do they have packed lunches. They open their lunch at their desk and eat for 10 and then the have 20 mins play. And also 10 mins play for morning break! That is plenty. I know how uk school breaks work as I worked in the I’m for years!10 mind of break time is spent waiting at a table to be called to get your cooked lunch and 20 mins later there are still some kids hanging around eating,then they have to bring up they’re tray and scrape etc,then they get half hour play. They really don’t loose out on much play.

The issue is a lack of funding.

If parents kick off at the governors, then the real villains - the conservative government- get away with it yet again.

This has been a long time coming. Teachers haven’t had an above inflation pay rise for years (what’s the point in increases which are lower than the cost of living increases?). School budgets continue to be cut.

Wake up and smell the coffee! I would be hounding my local MP, and as he’s a Tory, it would be very strong. I would also write to DfE.

Unless you expect schools to be run on fresh air.

No lost learning time and a shorter week. Sounds brilliant. Something most working people would live in their own jobs. But tricky for working parents.

Yes @notaniota I was just going to say I think That some uk schools could do with getting rid of kitchens and hot dinners.

To be fair it is a good idea when money has to be saved. Teaching time/educational hours are not being reduced. There is no legal obligation to provide childcare at all, just an education. That's why they don't need to consult. You could complain to the local authority but they haven't done anything wrong as childcare is the parents responsibility.
However, it is a stroke of genius by the school because nothing gets parents mobilised/motivated like sending kids home early! Schools need desperately need more money!

Teachers have been trying to tell parents how bad things are in schools for a while now. The problem is that no one listens until it directly effects them. Now parents are having to miss work because of the cuts maybe they will start to ask the government to fund schools properly.

@immortalmarble it’s very clear the uk system needs an overhaul. The schools are trying to do it all for parents and families! Perhaps If ppl were paid more, then they could stay at home for longer and use family etc like over here. I’m not saying it works for EVERYONE here but it works for most!

But the school hot dinner may be the only one some dc's have some days.
I don't have time to do a hot dinner after work two days a week.
And a lot of children on free school meals really do need that hot food.

The majority of teachers received a 3.5% pay rise this year.

If the governors are good ones this won't be a decision they've taken lightly. There's only so much you can do with limited funding.

School funding is in crisis. It is getting worse. Teachers well being is very important, their pay hasn’t been increased yet the demands on them are increasing.
You can’t change the decision but what you can do is to mobilise parents to complain to your MP, to the DfE and your LEA.
I would like to see a National day of action by parents where we call kept our children off school for a day in protest at the chronic underfunding and lack of investment in their future. Yes that would be a nightmare to coordinate, but parents need to stop waiting for someone to do something about school funding and realise that they are that someone.

A primary school near us does this, they save thousands in staff costs each year. Friday club was free for th first year after the change, now you need to pay from 1pm until 6pm. Working parents are quite shafted.

AuntieDolly Most teachers did not get a 3.5% pay rise last year. 2% of that was funded. Some schools chose to give the full 3.5%, some gave 2%, and at least one large academy chain near us gave absolutely nothing.

Maybe parents will finall twig how bad things are?

The majority of teachers received a 3.5% pay rise this year

After years of underwhelming pay rises.

And the pay rise is to be funded out of existing budgets which have reduced, in real terms, by 8% since 2010.

There’s no new money. So more cuts have to be found somewhere.

Not everyone wants or is able to do that youmad, and it is a terrible attitude that they should.

I agree meg

There
Isn’t
Enough
Money

That’s it!

Auntiedolly the majority didn't receive a payrise. A minority did! I think it was less than a third.
To keep schools open you do also need qualified teachers, the majority of schools struggle with this too.
There is a recruitment and retention crisis also!

I don’t think it reduces the actual teaching time, I think it’s the teachers non contact time that’s affected. I am not a teacher so sorry if that’s not right or correct terminology.

Some councils up here (Scotland) have consulted on it but parents were up in arms so they backed down. Edinburgh however has had a 4.5 day week, half day on a Friday for a long time now.

All our schools are half day Fri. Lots of people (women) work from home or do a compressed week or work part-time to cover it. It will change how many workplaces operate. It is like the Marie celeste in my office on a Friday.

Are you absolutely sure there was no consultation?
Our secondary schools recently changed to 4.5 days, and there was huge outcry from some parents about no warning, but there had been LOADS of consultation and meetings and information, they just hadn't bothered their arses reading/listening/going to any of the information sessions.

That would annoy me not because of the shorter day but because of the longer days - School day is long enough already! And for working parents it will be a real problem. Can they not offer a larger after school club for a fee? I know when we looked around secondary schools a lot of them in the area have an early finish on a Friday, but for a primary school that's quite unusual. If enough parents complain surely they will have to re-think or at least offer some competitively priced after school care.

Roads are noticeably quieter too.