Barnsley Council cuts school summer holiday

Barnsley Council has approved plans to reduced school summer holidays by a week, in favour of an extra week off later in the year.

The Council claims the move will reduce knowledge loss over the long break and distribute holiday more evenly throughout the year, allowing families to book cheaper holidays.

Th final day of term for 2016 is the 20 July, this will be pushed back to 26 July in 2017, and 31 July in 2018. The additional week will be added onto the October half term.

Nick Bowen, Principal of Horizon College, has criticised the plans, warning that such a big change should only be brought into force after a thorough consultation and suggesting many academies will not follow the new term times.

He said: “We have been left perplexed that a change of this magnitude is being brought in without any real consultation with all headteachers in the area.

“This will affect our ability to recruit high-quality staff because they will not want a shorter break – they need to recharge their batteries – and also it may lead to them having different holidays to their children.

“There is also the fact that most of the academies in the area probably won’t come on board with it so everyone will have different holidays. And it will be a disaster in terms of attendance because parents who have multiple children will have to take other siblings out of school if the holidays don’t match.”