Education Secretary Michael Gove's plans for shorter school holidays slammed by Kingston pupils and politicians

Michael Gove has suggested that by September next year state schools should finish an hour later at 4.30pm and have their summer holidays reduced from six weeks to four weeks.

He said the reforms would produce better performance, allow British students to keep up with Asia, and make life easier for working parents.

Mr Gove told an education conference: "We can’t afford an education system that was essentially set in the nineteenth century."

The Government had also suggested the school day could even be extended to last from 7.30am to 5.30pm, boosting learning and making it easier for parents to go to work.

Mr Gove said ‘some of the best schools in the country’ recognise the need to change the structure of the school term and move to a longer school day.

Under the current system, the school year is 190 days long. Pupils get about six weeks off in summer, two weeks at Christmas and Easter as well as three half-term breaks lasting a week each.

School days usually run from about 9am to 3pm, or 3.30pm.

But Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary at the National Union of Teachers, said: “We must remember that children and young people are entitled to a childhood and some time when they can simply relax.

"Not everything they learn stems from being in a classroom. Longer school days will leave children, especially younger ones, tired and unable to concentrate.

"This is not about teachers defending long holidays but when teachers are often working 50 to 60 hours a week it is about ensuring that both teachers and pupils have time to re-charge their batteries.

“Yet again we see the Education Secretary making policy up on the hoof with no real evidence for either the necessity for change or the benefit it might bring.”

Councillor Patricia Bamford, Kingston Council's lead member for children and young people, called the proposals “hasty”.

She said: "A piecemeal implementation would have no merit, particularly when families including staff and pupils work across borough boundaries.

"This hasty proposal needs to be properly thought through and would require support from all affected parties.”

Youth parliament MP and Coombe Girls’ School pupil, Georgia Bell, said: "I think it is quite mean.

"I get that Mr Gove’s intentions are to make students knuckle down and make the most of the school year, but after a certain point that concentration gets wasted because your attention span goes.

"I don’t know how effective they will be. It could backfire and make students resent the changes."

Leader of the Kingston Labour party, Laurie South, said: "Who is going to pay for that? The cost of doing this is crass - it is so expensive.

“We have already got teachers working a considerable amount of hours marking books, preparing lessons and teaching.

“Ideas come from visiting other countries with different cultures and customs but what is going to make the difference is the quality of what actually goes on in the classrooms.”

He said the six week summer holiday originally came from children traditionally helping with the harvest but the shortening of it now might upset many young people.

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