A campaign for a four-day week for schoolchildren has massively soared in support – and now the Department for Education has been forced to give an official response. The petition on the Parliament website has now soared to more than 100,000 signatures, meaning MPs are set to debate the scheme.
The petition, created by Steve Smith, states: “We urge the Government to require all schools to reduce the school week to four instead of five days by making each school day one hour longer whilst requiring the school week to be four instead of five days.”
While UK schools typically operate a five-day week, there has been a shift towards a four-day week in the USA, with 2,100 public schools across 26 states adopting this model.
Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, which champions shorter working hours without pay cuts, said: “A four-day week for teachers could solve the severe recruitment and retention crisis being faced in our schools. Unless we tackle work-life balance for teachers, the government’s pledge to recruit 6,500 more teachers in England will be meaningless.”
Now the Department for Education has responded – and said there are ‘no plans’ currently to make a change. It said in a response: “The government has no plans to reduce the school week to four days. Regular attendance at school is vital for children’s education, well-being and long-term development as well as parental employment.
“To ensure children across the country have sufficient time in school to enable them to achieve and thrive, the Government has set a minimum expectation that all state-funded, mainstream schools will deliver a minimum school week of 32 hours and 30 minutes.
“Consistency in the length of the school week is essential for providing equal learning opportunities that will enable children and young people to achieve and thrive. While most state funded schools already meet this requirement, schools that don’t are encouraged to move towards doing so as soon as possible.
“Reducing the school week to four days whilst still delivering the minimum expectation would mean a minimum school day of over 8 hours. Schools would have to deliver an additional 1 hour and 38 minutes per day across the four days to meet the weekly minimum requirement.
“Reducing the school week would also have a damaging impact on parents, many of whom would need to make additional arrangements for childcare, reduce their working hours or potentially leave the workforce altogether. This would in turn put families under financial strain and have a damaging effect on the country’s economy.” To read the full response click here.
The latest statistics reveal that the average full-time teacher in the UK works a staggering 52 hours per week during term time. Daniel Kebede, a former primary school teacher from North Tyneside and now the leader of Britain’s largest education union boasting over half a million members, is advocating for changes to prevent teacher burnout.
Kebede proposes granting teachers one day a week to work remotely, as well as introducing staggered start and finish times for their working day. He stated this week: “Staggered starts and finishes and remote planning time would make a real big difference. Does a physics teacher need to be in at 8am in the morning?”.
“Timetabling can allow for staggered starts and you just also just need the government and employers to trust that teachers are doing their work as necessary rather than being forced to be on site.”
Teacher retention rates in the UK rank among the worst in a study of 20 countries conducted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Nearly one in ten qualified teachers left the profession in the academic year 2022-23, according to OECD data.
To view and sign the petition, click here.