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Government proposes new 12-term school year
15 Apr 2004 by Simon Castle and our education staff
The government has extended its plans for reforming the school year from having six terms to twelve, DeadBrain has learned, prompting fears that the school year will be effectively doubled – twice. "We're now looking at a school year that will last four years, which will include an eight-week Christmas holiday from about March of the second calendar year, and an examination period for A-level students that would last twelve months," said the NUT's outgoing 'Chief NUT', Doug McAvoy. "It's sheer lunacy and the teaching profession will not stand for it."
Proposals to introduce a six-term school year into schools in England and Wales, changing half terms into full terms, have been circulating for a while, but according to an official in the Department of Education the proposed number of terms is set to double, although the length of the school year will be unchanged.
"The length of the school year will still be the same, we're just suggesting local authorities change the configuration of the school terms," she said. "If we had implemented the six term system, then we would have had half terms in the middles, and before long we would have changed to a twelve term system anyway. It makes sense to do it all in one big leap."
Responding to a suggestion from a passing teacher that she should in fact take a big leap herself, the spokeswoman expanded on the department's plan. "We would have twelve terms in a year, each three weeks long, except for three four week terms to make the numbers fit, with a week's holiday between each, and a special fortnight holiday in the summer, making 52 weeks," she explained. "Because of the brevity of the terms, we will have to scrap half-term holidays, but to help teachers and pupils relax during term-time our planners have come up with something we like to call 'weekends'. We think they could become quite popular."
When our reporter asked about the effects of shorter summer holiday times on the prices of holidays, the official told us that any price changes would be out of the government's control. "It's about supply and demand," she said. "Yes, everybody will want to go on holiday in the same fortnight, but what they should remember is that there will be plenty of other weeks they can go on holiday instead. I'm told Skegness can be quite nice in February."
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