Scottish council under fire for 4.5-day school week plans

Instead of a five-day school week, the council is looking to move to a four-and-a-half-day week across ­primary and secondary schools.

Children would arrive 10 minutes earlier and leave 10 minutes later, and have shorter lunch breaks four days a week. One day of the week, children would go home at lunchtime.

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“My initial reaction was anger and confusion,” the 41-year-old mother and PR consultant told the Sunday National.

“Anger that the wheels will fall off our very carefully managed schedule, and confusion as to why the council would think that this is a good idea.”

Many authorities in Scotland have already implemented this model, including in the Borders, Edinburgh, and North Lanarkshire.

The “perceived benefits” as stated on the consultation website for Dumfries and Galloway, include improved wellbeing for children and young people, potential increase in recruitment and wellbeing of staff, enhanced extracurricular activities, and increased opportunities for children and young people.

Yet in a Freedom of Information response seen by the Sunday National, the Scottish Qualifications Authority responded to the following questions raised by a community member: “I would like to know how ­education authorities’ exams ­results have changed since moving to a 4.5-day week? What areas of ­Scotland are performing better than ­others? For example, are 4.5-day areas ­outperforming five-day areas? What impact has been seen in the ­transition to 4.5-day weeks?”

The answer to their request?

“Under section 17 of the Act, when a public authority does not hold ­requested information, it should let the applicant know. SQA is aware that some schools have adopted a 4.5-day week, with school finishing at lunchtime on a Friday.

“However, this is not standard across all schools in Scotland and SQA does not hold a list of what schools have adopted the four-day week. Accordingly, we are unable to provide any information relating to your request as we do not hold the information that would allow us to do so.”

Susie has seen “no scrap of ­evidence” to suggest the benefits of the proposal to a child’s wellbeing, and suspects it is being proposed for financial reasons.

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“I can understand that from a school’s perspective, introducing a 4.5 day week could be helpful in terms of the allocation of time for planning, marking and career ­development opportunities,” she said.

“However, should this come at the expense of tens of thousands of ­working parents who will need to either cut their own working hours and invest in additional childcare, if indeed they can find it?”

If the proposal moves forward, which Susie suspects will happen, she predicts her children will spend up to five hours in front of the tv on the half day they aren’t in school, missing out on “valuable lesson time and social interaction with their school mates.”

She doesn’t only worry for her own children, but for those in the whole of the region.

As Dumfries and Galloway’s child poverty level is now at 26% – 2% higher than the national average – Susie has seen the struggle ­parents have to find jobs to provide for their families.

“Putting further pressure on ­working parents, combined with the high cost of living, will create huge problems for many families,” she said.

She is also concerned children will find themselves at a “loose end” and either end up with hours of screen time or engaging in anti-social behaviour.

“Finally, I worry about the ­academic attainment gap between those in the most and least deprived areas of the region as it stands to ­reason that many of the more vulnerable children will be further left behind in terms of academic progress,” she said.

Another parent, John, whose name has been changed, is equally ­frustrated by the proposal, ­especially considering there is no access to ­after school clubs or town pick up to ­alternative childcare provisions.

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The lack of childcare has already impacted John and his wife’s jobs, and their son’s mental health, but he’s worried it will get worse if plans for a 4.5 day school week – which he learned about on ­Facebook rather than from the school – moves forward.

“I’m devastated and disappointed for our family,” he told the Sunday National. “I can’t see any logical reason for this. Why change ­something that isn’t broken?”

In considering how his family will hope, he said he “genuinely has no clue.” They’ll be “winging it” or he or his wife will have to sacrifice a day’s work.

“It will increase stress in the ­family and damage our chances of ­promotion further,” he said. “It will also lead to a debate on which ­parent has to do this – which one should sacrifice their job and chances of progression.”

It’s not just parents, but teachers as well, who aren’t on board with the proposal.

Rebecca, who has asked us to change her name, is a first level ­teacher in Dumfries who said the ­proposal has been very “sudden”, ­leaving “a lot of unanswered questions for staff.”

“Beginning earlier in the day, and finishing later, will have a huge ­impact upon energy levels of the ­children I teach,” she told the Sunday National. “Afternoon teaching is already a very different beast to that of teaching first thing. Children are tired, feel overwhelmed, and find it harder to concentrate. I think this will only be harder when adding on time to the school day.”

By the time she drops off her own children at a childminder’s the new proposal will only give her 45 ­minutes to prep for the entire school day ­before the bell rings.

“Starting the day earlier, only means even more work being taken home to ensure everything is set up, marked, assessed, cleared, and so on for the next day,” she said.

“Ultimately, I don’t know why we are considering this. I can’t foresee any positive impact it will have on my children’s mental health or my own, and this factor is the one being ­paraded around.”

What she didn’t expect was the huge backlash teachers would ­experience from parents in light of the proposal.

“For some people, they are seeing it as myself and colleagues ­having 'more time off' and it’s another bout of bash the teacher, which has huge impact on morale and emotional and mental health of school staff,” she said.

As infuriated as John is with the proposal, he isn’t surprised given the region’s Conservative leadership.

“It doesn’t surprise me that ­public services are being cut and the ­people most affected by it will be the ­children,” he said.

“Dumfries and Galloway ­Council is realigning itself for an aging ­population and forgetting the ­children. It worries about depopulation but have only increased this by shutting schools, making areas even more unattractive.”

And with “no problems to ­begin with,” Susie concluded it was a “massive waste of resources and priorities.”

She said: “Our priority should be getting support into schools, not into the timetabling of the school day.”