03.06.16
Barnsley council cuts summer holidays by a week
School summer holidays in Barnsley will be one week shorter from 2017-18, the council has announced.
The council's new school holidays calendar reveals that it will cut summer holidays so that children only have August off, and will add the extra week to the autumn half term, which will run from 23 October to 5 November 2017.
However, the changes will only apply to community and voluntary controlled schools, whereas academies will have the opportunity to opt out.
Nick Bowen, principal of Horizon College, said the changes would mean that “half of Barnsley” was operating under a different school system to the other half, and “lead to difficulties in recruitment and retention of really good staff”.
Simon Murch, National Union of Teachers representative for Barnsley and Sheffield, called the idea “very poorly-thought-out”.
Cllr Tim Cheetham said that the shorter holidays would “support educational outcomes” by reducing learning loss over the summer break and allow more even distribution of holiday weeks.
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