As reported by The MEN, a petition calling for the school week to be reduced to four days has seen a surge in support, with over 50,000 signatures added in just 24 hours on the Parliament website
The petition calling for a four-day school week has already attracted 64,733 signatures and could trigger a parliamentary debate if it reaches 100,000. The proposal suggests extending each school day by an hour, allowing pupils to attend four days a week instead of five.
Some schools are already trialling the idea. Liberty Woodland School in England, which teaches children aged four to 16, has adopted a different timetable in response to concerns about pupil wellbeing and teacher shortages. Instead of the usual 9am to 3pm schedule from Monday to Friday, lessons run from 8.30am to 4.40pm, with Fridays off for students. Teachers, however, still work on Fridays, supporting pupils online with unfinished tasks while also using the time for planning and marking.
Recent figures show that the average full-time teacher in the UK works 52 hours a week during term time. Daniel Kebede, a former primary school teacher from North Tyneside and now leader of the UK’s largest education union, has called for reforms to ease this burden. He argues that teachers should be allowed one day a week to work remotely and suggests that schools adopt staggered start and finish times. “Timetabling can allow for staggered starts,” he said. “What’s needed is for government and employers to trust teachers to do their work without being forced to remain on site.”
The Department for Education, however, has pushed back against such proposals. Earlier this year, a spokesperson stated: “We are not going to reduce the amount of time children in England spend in school.”
