Changes to school day start-time coming at Shropshire secondary

A county secondary school will be changing the start and finish times for the beginning of the September term.

Haberdashers Abraham Darby, in Madeley, Telford, announced the changes to parents in a letter this week.

Under the plans, which come into force for the next school year, the school day will now start at 9.30am on Thursdays, instead of 8.30am.

The school day is also set to be longer, moving to a 3.10pm finish every day of the week, instead of a 3pm end to the day.

In its letter the school accepts the change will “affect the routines of some of our families” and says that is why it is providing 15 weeks notice.

The letter says the change is being made to allow for an extra one hour of staff training on Thursdays - to address improvements required following the recent Ofsted inspection.

Some parents have voiced frustration at the change, warning of potential risks with children waiting in the area for an hour before school - if their parents cannot arrange to drop them off at 9.30am.

In the letter to parents, Joe Edgar, the school’s principal said: “These two adjustments have been made deliberately to ensure we can build in one hour of weekly staff training on Thursdays.

“This dedicated time will enable our teachers and support staff to engage in focused professional development and to implement swiftly the targeted improvements identified through the recent Ofsted inspection.

“Providing regular, protected training time is essential if we are to secure sustained enhancements in teaching, curriculum delivery and pupil outcomes.”

The principal said the training can not take place after school due to the potential cancellation of clubs and afterschool classes.

The letter states: “We are very proud of our extra-curricular offer, if we met after school, some clubs and activities and Y11 Masterclasses would need to be cancelled/postponed or would need to start after the staff training.”

The principal added that they had tried to “minimise disruption” for families.

She wrote: “The Department for Education are clear that the working week for pupils should be 32.5 hours. Changing our start and end times allows us to continue to meet this expectation.

“I would like to reassure you that, in determining these changes, we sought to minimise disruption to family routines. We intentionally avoided starting the school day earlier; instead, the modest lengthening of the day combined with the later Thursday start allows us to meet our professional development needs while maintaining a reasonable balance for pupils and families.

“We understand that these changes might affect the routines of some of our families, so by advising you of the changes now, fifteen weeks in advance, we hope will provide an adequate notice period to allow for alternative arrangements to be made.”

The change has been met with frustration from some parents.

One said: “This is ridiculous news and we, as parents, cannot believe it has been made.

"Working parents will have no choice but to drop their children off at normal time and then more than 1,000 children will be hanging around the local area waiting to start school on a Thursday at 9.30am.

“This is a huge safeguarding risk and will also put children at risk of bullying.

"Working parents can't say to their employers that they can't start their day until 10am because their child doesn't start school until 9.30am.”

The parent described the decision as “unbelievable” and said: “PD days are for staff training and now they want more time to the detriment of the child's education.”

They added: “It feels like parents and the children are being impacted by the school failures outlined in the recent Ofsted report.”