Children have missed out on their “entitlement to childhood” as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, says Kim Fisher, headteacher of Windsor Clive Primary School in Cardiff.
Participation in afterschool clubs has been sporadic at best and children have not been able to socialise with friends to the same extent. Mr Fisher’s own son will be 8 in March but has not had a birthday party for the past two years because of the restrictions that have been in place to curb the spread of Covid.
It was, therefore, with the intention of putting some “lovely experiences” back into the lives of his pupils that Mr Fisher signed up for the Welsh government’s extended school day pilot, which will see over 1,800 learners in 13 schools and one college benefit from five hours of extra activity over a 10-week period.
The extra hour at the end of the school day could, however, be just the beginning of changes to the rhythm of the school day and the school year in Wales.
The government says it has been decades since there was “a serious conversation about the way we structure the school year”, and that now is the time to reflect, as we emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.
“Not reflecting on the experience of the last two years and simply carrying on with the old way of organising the day and year without discussing staff and learner well-being, and aligning terms with modern living patterns, would be a wasted opportunity,” a Welsh government spokesperson told Tes.
Meanwhile, education and Welsh language minister Jeremy Miles has said that reforming the school year “could help to narrow the disruption caused by the long summer holiday on learners, narrow educational inequalities, and...support learner and staff wellbeing”.
‘No mention of the education benefit’
There may be some educational benefits to reforming the school year, says Laura Doel, director of the NAHT Cymru school leaders’ union, but she is more sceptical about the benefits of lengthening the school day, saying “we have yet to be provided with any evidence that supports extending the school day”.
Ms Doel also questions the timing: Welsh schools are “under so much pressure as it is” trying to prepare for the new curriculum, due to be introduced in September in primaries and some secondaries, as well as the exams and new qualifications.
“All the focus from the government has been on the school day fitting in with family life and working patterns, with no mention of the education benefit to learners,” says Ms Doel.
“All the evidence available suggests that there is little or no data that supports keeping learners in school for longer, because longer periods in school do not increase a child’s capacity to learn.”
She adds: “If the government’s plan is to support working families with a national childcare offer, then they should come out and say that. Schools are not childcare providers and our profession of dedicated school leaders, teachers and support staff should not be expected to take on additional work and responsibility to do this.”
At Windsor Clive Primary, Mr Fisher says activities will be run by a mix of school staff and external providers. In his school, he estimates a third of staff have signed up to take part but participation is “totally optional”, he says, and teachers will be paid for the extra work.
The pilot - which gets underway at Windsor Clive Primary on Monday, 7 February - will see pupils in Years 2 and 3, who are aged 6 and 7, take part in a wide range of activities - from football, cookery, yoga and storytelling to dance, drama and digital learning.
Over the course of the 10-week programme, the pupils will experience 12 different activities and will stay on in school until 4.15pm, as opposed to 3pm, from Monday to Thursday.
After-school lessons ‘would be a slog’
Extending the school day is, of course, something that has been called for amid concern about how far behind children have fallen with their learning as a result of the move to online learning last year and in 2020, as well as the disruption caused by ongoing absence and disruption during the pandemic.
In England, Sir Kevan Collins quit his post as education recovery tsar after his plans for a £15 billion catch-up package, including extending the school day, were not fully backed by the government.
However, Mr Fisher is clear that extending the school day in his school will not be about drilling pupils in phonics or trying to make up for lost time in maths.
He says: “It’s understandable that people might think the more time you spend learning, the more you are going to learn but if you asked pupils to stay after school for a maths lesson, what would the uptake be like? And for the primary-aged children especially, at the end of the day, it would just be a slog.
“So we decided to focus more on wellbeing, which chimes with the new Curriculum for Wales because it’s not just about the classroom - it’s about the experiences beyond the classroom.”
The Welsh government says the pilot has been inspired by “international models and proposals made by the Education Policy Institute” and will be “focused on supporting disadvantaged pupils and schools particularly affected during the pandemic”.
In September, an Education Policy Institute analysis advised that funding an extended school day was likely to yield “consistent and strong returns”. But the outcomes of keeping children in school for longer depended on “how the time is used”, it said, with the “most effective” methods drawing on “existing and well-trained staff” and “integrated to existing classes and activities”.
The researcher that carried out the analysis, Luke Sibieta, suggested that extra time after normal hours should focus, at least partially, on sport and the arts, which might be “more appealing for pupils” and therefore influence attendance.
