Why Have UK Ministers Added Extra Time on to the School Week? | Succeed With Dyslexia

Schools in England are to be expected to offer a minimum contact school week of 32.5 hours as part of a package proposed by the government to combat the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and raise standards across the board. The reform will see schools obliged to expand teaching hours to reach the 32.5 hour per week minimum; the equivalent of an 8.45am to 3.15pm teaching day Monday to Friday.

Many schools already teach to the 32.5 hour a week model – figures from the Department for Education suggest that around 75% of schools operate within the parameters of the new legislation. However the government believes that bringing all schools in line with the new minimum timings system and erasing discrepancies across the country will raise attainment for students and schools, as well as go some way as to head off some of the learning time lost as a result of the global pandemic.

Many schools that will be affected by the reforms are thought to be set to add around twenty minutes to half an hour to their working school day to comply with the new legislation. Adding an additional twenty minutes to the school day equates to adding around two weeks to the school year annually; however the move has been met with both support and criticism from the parent and educator community this week.

Teaching unions have voiced that they are “unconvinced of the benefits” of adding extra time to the school day, citing that many schools already adhere to (or teach in excess of) the proposed 32.5 hour model, and the effects of such a reform are set to be smaller than those required to enact any real kind of recovery or change. There has also been criticism based on the loss of flexibility that the proposed changed might entail- Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders spoke to The Guardian this week, commenting that “Adding time on to the school week may sound straightforward, but there are many issues which need to be considered in individual schools, and we would encourage the government not to rush any additional changes.”

He also gave the example that rural schools, for instance, may operate on an adapted timetable to reflect the needs of a rural community, to fit in with safe transport arrangements for children and young people- and adding extra hours on to the school day could mean that many rural families may struggle to get to school.

What benefits could adding extra time to the school day have?

• Adding extra minutes to individual lesson slots, which can be used to expand feedback or conclusion lesson segments
• Extending a single lesson slot per day by 20 minutes, allowing additional working time on core subjects like English and Mathematics if timetabling allows
• Adding an extra two weeks of learning time onto the standard school year, which could be important considering the learning hours lost during the pandemic
• It could enable schools to build dedicated study time into their school day; for example, adding half an hour a day as in-class homework time

What issues does adding extra time to the school day entail?

• Neurodiverse students- especially those with ADD/ADHD- often find the school day too long to maintain concentration for anyway, which can lead to more anxiety and more disengagement from learning
• Many students already feel tired after a day of school, and some educators believe that students struggle to take in any new information after around three or four hours of learning – so there may be limited benefits
• Transportation difficulties for students and staff, especially those in rural and isolated communities
• Transportation difficulties for students who rely on public transport with particular timings – a 20 minute extension to the day could mean that they have to wait a much longer amount of time before getting home
• Actively cuts down on working time for students who work after school
• Students could be less likely to engage with after-school extra-curricular activities
• Actively cuts down on volunteering time for students who volunteer after school
• A reduction in time between coming in from school and the set times of eating dinner and getting ready to sleep – many children do homework and coursework straight after coming home, so a loss of home-education hours
• Loss of more free time in daylight hours, especially in Winter, which can be damaging to student mental health
• To many students, an extension of the school day will feel like a punishment after what has been an already difficult period to be in education

And what about the impact on educators and support staff?

• Longer lessons, meaning existing lesson plans will have to be tweaked
• More hours in work during a time where the profession is already under significant pressure and for many, a lot of off-the-clock working takes place
• Higher levels of student tiredness and disengagement to work around in the classroom
• Higher levels of student dissatisfaction to work around in the classroom, especially if the extra time is construed as punishment or a sanction – feeling like ‘everybody has got detention for no reason’, etc.

The proposed reforms are part of a much larger suite of changes outlined by the Department for Education on Monday in a schools white paper with the intention of raising the amount of children leaving primary school with the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by 2030. Currently, this figure stands at 65%, and it’s the intention to see it rise to around 90% in the next eight years.