A pledge by Jeremy Corbyn to give workers an additional four national holidays per year will reduce the school year to 186 days for pupils, and 191 for teachers.
The new bank holidays planned by the Labour Party as part of their election pledges, would be on each nation’s patron saint day: St David’s on 1 March, St Patrick’s on 17 March, St George’s on 23 April and St Andrew’s on 30 November.
Corbyn believes the holidays would “celebrate the national cultures of our proud nations” and give more families time to spend together.
Schools are currently required to open for 190 days to pupils each year, and an additional 5 days for teacher training.
The Labour Party has confirmed the holidays include schools and that teachers would not be exempt from the additional days.
Schools would therefore only be required to open 186 days a year for pupils, instead of 190, with teachers attending school for 191 days, as opposed to 195.
The policy directly contrasts the Conservative’s approach to attendance.
The government recently pursued the case of a father who removed his child for a week to visit Disneyland all the way to the Supreme Court, with Schools Minister Nick Gibb claiming that even having “just one day off” can damage a child’s education.
A Schools Week investigation revealed that one in six schools is disrupted during elections – with many having to close twice in six weeks to accommodate the local and general elections.
In 2012, when an additional bank holiday was called for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, schools were only required to work 189 days.
I doubt there isn’t anyone who wouldn’t love the chance of 4 extra days off work, but Does this mean labour are happy with pupil attainment in schools at present? Does he also expect staff not to work on these days – is labour will guarantee workload decreases by the equivalent of 4 days? Or are labour simply expecting staff to work longer on a standard working day?
More detail please labour on how it will work in schools
Also on another note- I assume labour do not think it’s wrong for children to Miss up to 4 days at school at present. Is this correct?
A better idea would be to scrap Bank Holidays (Christmas excepted) and add the ‘lost’ days to holiday entitlement. That would avoid millions of people being forced to have days off all at the same time.
If Corbyn’s policy were in force now, schools would open after the Easter break only to close for St George’s Day quickly followed by the existing May Day. Subjects which happen to be timetabled for Mondays lose teaching time – particularly important when it’s the run up to exams.
And if a school faces closing for local elections (May again) or general elections… Parents threatened with fines for taking their children out of school for holidays in term time might feel rather angry.