Northamptonshire primary considers closing on Friday afternoons

Ashby Fields Primary School in Daventry, Northamptonshire is running a consultation which looks at closing on Friday afternoons to give teachers more free time.

The new four and a half day week timetable would start in September if agreed. A document published on the Northamptonshire school’s website said it was proposing to send children home at 1.15pm on a Friday afternoon.

“The recruitment and retention of high quality teachers is a national problem and one that has a direct, major impact on, not only our children’s education, but their well-being and confidence.

“The huge workload that ensures teachers work an average of 60 hours a week during term time and through their holidays to keep up. Many teachers, despite their love of frontline teaching, cannot manage this workload and maintain a healthy work/life balance, and subsequently resign.

”We can offer our teachers more time out of the classroom to be able to collaborate with their peers and develop the exciting curriculum we want our children to receive, without ‘burning out’."

The document points out that the school timetable currently delivers 27.5 hours of classroom hours per week. Removing two hours from a Friday afternoon keeps it comfortably within Department for Education guidelines, which recommend that Key Stage One children receive 21 hours of lesson time per week and Key Stage Two, 23.5 hours per week.