Should Schools Close Early on Fridays?
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Should schools close early on Fridays?
A report says giving teachers Friday afternoons off could help with work-life balance.
Some schools have already seen success with this approach
My kids school did this years ago, they finished at 2pm on a Friday then about a year later they changed it to 1pm...it was a nightmare! Especially for those parents who working and have to then find childcare or pay extra for childcare.
The school has since gone to 3.15pm finish on a Friday now and it's so much better. We actually got notified via letter from the school to say that the government requires every child to have a certain amount of learning hours per week but this wasn't being covered with the 1pm finish so that's why they went to 3.15pm.
PinkElephant26 The never ending question . Are schools for the convenience of parents , teachers or for the education of children ? I'm sure everyone has their own take on that but compromises are hard to achieve .
PinkElephant26 really surprised when you said it went to 1pm as I had always understood that children had to have a amount of hours/weeks of school. Just going from 3 to 1pm is a loss of 80 hours per year, more than 13 days of schooling. I can't believe the head and teachers didn't realise it would take them under the obligatory time.
It's a good idea in theory but most teachers don't have their children at the same school that they work in so it would be a nightmare
Let's face it the schools in the same authority don't always have the same holiday weeks so changing the Friday finish would be a difficult one
I finish work after my kids finish school so noe ideal for me, especially in the winter. I wouldn't complain if I finished earlier
Our school has been closing early on a Friday for years. In our council area the secondaries finish early on a Friday but the primary school finishes at the usual time.
Child care is already massively expensive so the parents would either have to fork out more or take a half day to look after their kids. Not that smart an idea in a cost of living crisis
No. Its not fair on the working parents. Its hard enough to find a job that allows you to only work school hours. The parents would then have to reduce their hours. After so many years finishing early on a Friday it would be a shock to their system to not finish early on a Friday too.
I'm sorry but most of the comments are school v parent convenience . OK I'm old school where we had kids and accepted we had to make sacrifices and be able to "afford" our children . My parents sacrificed so much to ensure I had a great education and hopefully I repaid them and society in general thanks to my education .
I accept we're in a different world with different expectations but surely it should be about the children's education ? Not about parents convenience !
I realise that financial circumstances mean that many view schools as "free child care " - is that right ? Latest thing is that schools in Wales are requiring children as old as 8 to be toilet trained (exemption for medical reasons ) .
We moan about the "Nanny State " but isn't that what a lot of us expect ,or even demand ?
Why do the powers that be always want to change something that isn't broken? They changed the curriculum, all of this to the detriment of our children's detriment.
Problem is then parents would have to finish early, it would just end up being a never ending cycle
I thought a lot of them already did - in my area, they close for the week just after lunchtime. Life is too easy for kids these days - guess they’re prepping them for when they get to do 4-day working weeks in the future!
My children go into the paid after school club every day anyway , and that would still be provided if the school were to finish early.
The schools finish early for professional development training for staff, which I think is a good thing. More training , better education for our kids .
No, schooling should be about the Children Not teachers needs to go home early for 1 day, and what about the parents who work and can't get off early
My daughters primary school already does it finishes at 1.20 due to condensed day Mon to Thur
I think teachers working hours are low enough compared to the rest of society! Yes they have to do planning and marking after hours but many other jobs require extra work that is unpaid.
For kids, it's a lovely thing to look forward to. But for working parents, this is a nightmare. Childcare in this country is extortionate, so having to pay for more hours would hit a lot of people hard.
Yes yes yes!!! Please I make my kids work in takeaway we open soon on Fridays now great success
I think many Schools already finish early each day these days. The roads outside schools are blocked from 2.00pm onwards as students all come out. It's a lot different from my days when we would be starting lessons by 9.00am and finishing just after 4.00pm.
If they make school days even shorter then that will impact on how they learn and how much they learn. It might help teachers with their work-load as they are being given too much to cope with due to staffing levels being cut everywhere now but it won't help the pupils at all.
Well we had to finish at half past 3 in the 1980s in Bradford.
Must have been in the wrong time
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