Contact: Melanie Saunders, Education Officer (Secondary/Post-16), telephone 01962 846364, e-mail: [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 In the light of responses to consultation, this report seeks a decision on the pattern of school term and holiday dates for 2006/2007.

1.2 This proposal supports aim 1 of the Corporate Strategy (maximising life opportunities) by seeking agreement on term and holiday dates to support the planning of learning in schools.

2 Background

2.1 Following the confusion which surrounded consultation with schools for the 2005/2006 dates and the subsequent difficulties in reaching agreement on those dates, early and more frequent meetings were set up between the Conditions of Service Working Party (CoSWP) of the Hampshire Teachers' Liaison Panel (TLP) and officers of Hampshire Local Education Authority.

2.2 The first meeting was held in June 2004. As well as reflecting on the recent consultation process, this meeting agreed a set of principles to be applied to the setting of dates in future years. These principles were shared in a later meeting with neighbouring authorities and presented to the Executive Member in the report of 14 October 2004 which sought permission to consult with schools on the 2006/2007 dates.

2.3 Neighbouring authorities were in general agreement with the established principles, whilst acknowledging that they did allow a fair degree of flexibility in the local consultations. Potential patterns of term and holiday dates for 2006/2007 and future years were also discussed at this meeting.

2.4 At a further meeting with CoSWP in September it was agreed that a single set of dates, acceptable both to the County Council and to TLP should be established for consultation with schools. Whilst some flaws where identified in the proposed set of dates, it was acknowledged that these abided by the agreed principles and offered reasonable balance to the year. The possible move of the late spring bank holiday to the first week in June would have major advantages in balancing the length of the final two sessions of the year. Officers, Members and professional associations were urged to promote this move with national government.

2.5 It was noted at the meeting that the Local Government Association (LGA) National Standing Committee on the school year was due to meet in October. A further meeting of CoSWP and officers was therefore scheduled for November so that the recommendations arising from the LGA discussions with the national executives of teacher professional associations would inform the consultation with Hampshire schools.

2.6 The LGA recommended model is for a 190 day school year which has significant differences from the 195 day model favoured by Hampshire. However, the LGA model is accompanied by guidelines (Appendix 2) which allow a degree of flexibility locally whilst still complying with the recommendations. The agreement with the National Standing Committee on the school year states that "reasonable standardisation," implies a variation of no more than two days in any of the six sessions. It is accepted, however, that those LEAs which designate 195 days, undifferentiated as to which are pupil and which are training days, "may appear to produce a greater variation from the recommended pattern."

2.7 The November CoSWP meeting agreed to alter the week of the February break as well as some of the other key holiday dates to fall in line with the LGA model. However, it was also agreed to make use of the flexibility suggested in the guidelines to retain some of the originally chosen term and holiday dates, for example at Easter, in line with the agreed principles of the 195 day year in Hampshire. Not all local authorities intend to alter their key dates, most notably the February break, to fall in line with the national recommendations. This is in part due to the lateness of their publication and the number of split weeks they introduce.

2.8 The retention of a 195 day framework and two complete weeks at Easter leads to the need to schedule a week with a single day at some point in the 2006/2007 year. Schools have a degree of freedom in how they use this day to best serve their own local context. It was agreed to send two patterns for the year 2006/2007 to schools with the only difference being the placement of this single day on either the first Friday or the last Monday of the school year. Schools have been invited to say, bearing in mind the use they intend to make of the day, which would be the preferred placement. They have also been invited to comment on the proposed year plan.

2.9 Our neighbouring authorities are currently involved in the setting of term and holiday dates in the light of the LGA recommendations and their own consultations. Whilst it seems likely that the majority of the cross-border variations will be slight and largely related to the number of days scheduled, the decision to move the February break to the week beginning 19^th in line with LGA National Standing Committee recommendations or to stay with the original choice of many local authorities of the week beginning 12^th will result in some local variation despite an apparent national agreement.

3 Response to consultation with schools

3.1 The consultation document was sent as a school communication on 4 January 2005 with responses due by 25 February 2005. The pattern of responses was as follows:-

3.2 A small number of schools, 10, most notably among primary schools, expressed dissatisfaction with both options due, most often, to the placement of the single day which they felt was an unacceptable constraint. However, the majority of schools which responded, selected either option A or option B with the largest percentage, 26%, expressing a preference for option A.

3.3 A small number of schools, also recorded the view that the general pattern of the year represented too little deviation from the traditional year pattern and would have preferred a more radical option to be made available.

4 Legal implications

4.1 In the case of a community, voluntary controlled or community special school the LEA has responsibility for determining the dates of school terms and holidays. In the case of foundation, voluntary aided or foundation special schools this responsibility lies with the governing body. It is, however, rare for individual schools to establish dates at variance with the rest of the local authority area and with the other schools in their cluster as this can cause problems for families with children in more than one school and for teachers with children or partners in other schools.

5 Financial implications

6.1 None.

6 Personnel implications

6.1 The dates sent out for consultation are the result of an unprecedented amount of negotiation with representatives of teacher professional associations both at a local and a national level. Both patterns of dates were drawn up in agreement with Hampshire CoSWP and are in line with the guidelines from the LGA National Standing Committee on the school year.

7 Impact assessment

7.1 Race and equality impact assessment has been considered in the development of this report and no adverse impact has been identified.

8 Crime prevention issues

8.1 No adverse impact on crime and disorder has been identified.

9 Views of the Local County Councillor

10.1 Not applicable.

Recommendations

1 That the school term and holiday dates as set out in Appendix 1, Option A be approved for the school year 2006/7.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

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