Council to consult on set school Easter holiday

A proposal to set a fixed school holiday for the first two weeks in April each year from 2019 is to be put out to consultation by The Highland Council’s care and learning service.

The service will consult with head teachers, parent councils, the local negotiating committee for teacher representatives (LNCT) and other relevant educational establishments in Highland.

It is the responsibility of local authorities in Scotland to set their own school term dates and in-service days to ensure schools are open for 190 pupil days and five in-service days each year.

Eighteen other local authorities already have a fixed two weeks at Easter.

If in any given year, Easter Friday and Monday fall outside the proposed two-week break for Highland, schools would still close on Easter Friday and Monday.

Members of the council’s care, learning and housing committee agreed to the review of Easter school holidays.

Committee chairman Councillor Andrew Baxter said: ‘Other local authorities are already following the model of a set school Easter holiday and officers understand from early discussions some head teachers are keen to move to this proposal.

‘It is important the opinions of all head teachers, parent councils and the LNCT are heard, hence members have supported the consultation.’

The 18 other local authorities are Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Moray, Orkney, Argyll and Bute, Western Isles, Glasgow, Borders, Edinburgh, East Lothian, Fife, North Lanarkshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling, North Ayrshire, Dundee, Inverclyde and Clackmannanshire.