Changing Welsh school terms ‘would help pupils catch up’

As reported by BBC news, permanently changing term times and school hours could help pupils to catch up on teaching missed during the pandemic, a leading academic says

School hours could be condensed into four longer days to give time for extra support, said Gareth Evans, of the University of Wales Trinity St David. He added shorter summer holidays could also help children from more disadvantaged backgrounds. The education minister said there are no current plans to change term dates.

But Evans, director of education policy, argued more should be done to capitalise on lower COVID rates in the summer.

“The infection rates are likely to remain around for some time and Covid is not going to go away,” he said.

“If we can repackage school term times to accommodate a slightly shorter summer break and a slightly longer Christmas break, I think that will do us no harm in terms of mitigating COVID.

“There’s also a very key educational reason for doing this, we know that learners don’t benefit from a six-week break over the summer period.

“It’s not natural to break learning up for that long and children from more disadvantaged backgrounds tend to suffer the most.”

All pupils are expected to return to the classroom after Easter, following a phased return and months of remote learning.

Evans said tweaking the hours of the school week could also help schools find extra time for catch-up work or for teacher and pupil well-being.

“I think these are extreme circumstances and they demand radical and innovative responses,” he said.

“An asymmetric week – or a four-day school week as it’s sometimes known – is also something that we should definitely explore.

“Schools can have a reduction in break times and start slightly earlier to accommodate them having an earlier finish on a Friday, or an afternoon off here and there to support more bespoke individual learning and catch-up.”

Evans said that if school hours were mostly condensed into four longer days, then it could also allow learners and staff to make up for lost time in other parts of life.

“I think what it could do is create more time for independent learning, more time for one-to-one learning support and give pupils the chance to spend more time catching up socially with their peers and at home with their families,” he added.

“I think we’ll be doing very much the right thing by our learners and supporting school staff as well, because let’s not forget that they have been through an awful lot this past year themselves. They will need time to recover and repair.”