View sought on plans to alter school holidays

Term time holiday dates up for discussion

TERM times for thousands of schoolchildren across the county could change if parents agree to options being put froward during a public consultation.

Families have three choices in the survey, to keep to the current system, have the autumn half-term break a week later, or follow neighbouring county patterns and have both autumn and spring half-terms a week later.

Any alterations would come into place from autumn 2019 and affect community and community special schools and voluntary-controlled schools.

Academies and voluntaryaided schools are able to set their own holiday dates.

A Leicestershire County Council spokesman said: “To ensure we can give schools and parents sufficient notice, we now need to consult on term time patterns for the following three academic years 2019/20, 2020/21 and 2021/22.

“Previous consultations, that included opportunities to align school terms with surrounding area have confirmed Leicestershire’s unique pattern has been popular with the majority of parents.

“The pattern can however also cause issues for some parents and teachers, in particular when children in a single family attend schools with different term patterns or where teachers work at schools with different term patterns than those of the school attended by their children.

“Leicestershire County Council therefore wants to consult parents, teachers and local businesses and residents on their preference - should we maintain the current pattern or align school terms with surrounding areas?”

The three different options are:

Option 1: This is the current Leicestershire pattern which includes an early autumn halfterm break and an early spring half-term break.

Option 2: Based on Leicester City’s term time pattern - with the autumn half-term break a week later but maintains an early spring half-term break.

Option 3: Based on an alternative term time pattern followed by other counties including Warwickshire - with both the autumn and spring half-term breaks a week later than currently.

All options are based on the following key principles:

The requirement to have 380 sessions (190 days) during a school year

Five inset days to be determined additionally by school governors

In line with school holidays across the UK, Christian religious dates have been incorporated to allow families to observe occasions such as Christmas and Easter

Where possible national bank holidays have been incorporated to be during school holidays

To review the length of the autumn term when considering where autumn half-term falls

To consider Leicestershire term times alongside neighbouring local authorities

Where possible to try and aim for a summer break of more than a minimum of three weeks

To continue to set the start of the summer break to follow the traditional industrial July fortnight pattern

The consultation runs until midnight on Monday April 2. Documents are available on the council’s website or paper copies can be obtained by calling 0116 305 6324.