The schools to thank for the four-term year
Retired Te Kauwhata College principal Bill Barwood remembers when school terms appeared to have no end.
Then, the school year was divided into three blocks, each term stretching out to 13 or 14 weeks.
‘‘By week 11, people were over it and students and teachers needed a break,’’ the 72-year-old says.
In 1993, Te Kauwhata College and five other rural North Waikato schools successfully trialled a four-term school year. By 1996, the four-term year was adopted nationwide.
"Our motivation 25 years ago was about creating a school term where you could see the end from the beginning.
‘‘There was a lot of scepticism from secondary school principals toward the change but it did make a difference to teacher morale and student learning,’’ Barwood says.
Former UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne last year ignited debate over the school calendar when he advocated extending the school year through to January to allow students to have their holidays during the hotter February period – a suggestion that still holds favour with educators.
He says the shift to four terms proves effective changes can be made to the school year.
Education Minister Chris Hipkins wasn’t available for an interview but in January didn’t rule out changes to the school summer holiday – but said there would need to be compelling reasons and strong community support.
Education policy researcher, Waikato University Professor Martin Thrupp, says it’s difficult to isolate the impact a four-term year has had on students’ learning, but he believes the shift made sense and thinks shifting the summer holidays to February does, too.
New Zealanders are committed to many leisure activities and the four-term year works well with this, he says.
‘‘I think schools have become more intensive places and if you add that to changes in the wider society, families with parents working, people working into the weekends, people need to have a break to catch up as a family as much as anything,’’ Professor Thrupp says.
Waikato couple David and Raewyn Hallett have three school-aged children and a fourth at kindergarten.
A 10-week school term suits their busy family life. The couple also support shifting the summer break to take advantage of the February weather.
The pair know of families who find the school holidays financially challenging because of the need to take time off work or pay for school holiday programmes .
‘‘But that will be the case no matter how the school year is arranged,’’ Raewyn says.
Barwood says the four-term trial was only made possible because of the introduction of 1989 school reforms Tomorrow’s Schools.
He and other schools had suggested shifting the summer holidays into late summer but the idea was dismissed as ‘‘a step too far’’.