School children on the Isle of Wight could have just 4 weeks of Summer holiday from 2020, as the Isle of Wight Council looks set to launch a consultation on changing term dates.
The Council is investigating the patterns of term and holiday dates within the school year to ensure that they best support learning and outcomes for children, as well as best supporting education and wider communities in how they organise the work and home life calendars.
The changes would only effect 27 of the Island’s 48 schools and although the Council say they will work with the other establishments to agree on term dates, it recognises that they are not compelled to agree.
A decision will be taken on Thursday on whether or not a consultation should be launched. If given the green light, the consultation will begin on 24th November 2017 and end on 12th January 2018. A decision on which option to pursue will be made in March 2018.
The first year in which a new school year can be implemented is September 2019 to August 2020. Option B, which would see a 4-week Summer holiday, would come into force in the 2020-2021 academic year.
The options are:
Councillor Paul Brading, cabinet member for children’s service has said:
“We understand how important it is for families to spend quality time together and it’s becoming increasingly costly for people to get away during the school holidays so we are looking at innovative ways to address this problem and want to hear from Islanders what they think.
“It was our manifesto pledge to examine options to give families more choice over when they take their holidays, while at the same time making term lengths more even. Our aim is to further improve attendance which will then drive up educational standards so we have all our schools rated good or better by Ofsted.
“We are committed to looking very carefully at this issue and want to hear the views of people with or without children of school age, and importantly, schools and businesses – particularly in tourism – so that we can make informed decisions on any change.
“This is a radical plan but it has some merit and because we are an Island it is much easier for us to do it. Saying that, we will be guided by what people tell us.”
Jon Platt, who went to the highest court in the land in a fight with the Isle of Wight Council over term-time holidays has said:
“I don’t disagree with these proposals but they may actually make the problem worse if all schools on the Island don’t adopt these new dates.
“The real and lasting solution is to abandon the myth that missing a single day of school for a family holiday has a detrimental impact on a child’s education. Family holiday absences correlate with improved outcomes, even up to 20 days a year.
“A number of local authorities have looked at the evidence and don’t issue any penalty notices for term time holidays, recognising the benefits they bring to children and families. It’s a shame that, as always, the Isle of Wight is years behind the curve, still penalising and stigmatising something that has been shown to have a positive impact on children!”
