Shropshire parents back shorter school summer break

A Shropshire Star poll reveals 61 per cent say they would be happy for the summer holidays to be cut from six to five weeks in return for a two-week October half term.

But Shropshire's schools are unlikely to follow the lead of Barnsley, which has become the first authority in the country to make the move.

Changing how school holidays are spread throughout the year, without the clear backing of schools, will not happen in the county, council leaders have said.

David Minnery, Shropshire Council portfolio holder for Children and Young People, said the kind of sweeping change that has been announced by Barnsley Council in South Yorkshire will not happen "on his watch" in this county.

Telford & Wrekin Council has also said it would not change school holidays without tying up with neighbouring West Midlands local authorities. The comments have come after Barnsley Council found itself under fire for cutting the school holidays from six weeks to five in a controversial break with tradition.

The South Yorkshire council has decided to instead add an extra week to the October half term, saying that by spreading the holidays out through the year it will help both children and parents. Reasons given are to help prevent "learning loss" for children on the long break and helping ease parents' need to arrange for a month and half of activities and child minding.

By spreading holidays wider it also means families should be more able to avoid inflated holiday prices as everyone scrabbles to get away at the same time, supporters say.

The move was supported in the shropshirestar.com poll of more than 700 parents.

But Barnsley Council's move has come under fire from some parents and headteachers, with Simon Murch of the National Union of Teachers calling it "a very poorly-thought-out idea."

Criticisms have included the fact that local authority schools' holidays will now not tie up with independently run schools in the area such as academies, and that the idea was not fully consulted on before the timetable for 2017 to 2018 was released, though the council insists it had consulted teachers and parents on the changes.

Councillor Minnery said though he understood the argument, any such change would have to be driven by the schools, not by the council.

He said: "I think it would only happen in Shropshire if all the schools agreed that was what they wanted."

The problem of families not being able to afford to go away in the school holidays has led to some trying to take their children out of school in term time, leading to fines.