Could a four-day week work in schools?

This article was originally published on 20 March 2024

“Groundbreaking.”

This was the word used by more than one educator on social media in response to the announcement that one multi-academy trust (MAT) is planning to introduce a nine-day fortnight for teachers, as part of a new flexible working plan.

“We want people to go and do the things they need to do so if they want to take their dog to the vet or they need to go to the dentist or they want to go out to lunch with friends, then it’s all up to them,” says Neil Miley, deputy CEO of Dixons Academies Trust.

In many sectors, flexible working has taken off in a big way in recent years. As lockdown proved there was more than one way to get the job done, workers have increasingly demanded new arrangements, with employers becoming more open-minded to them.

But schools, on the whole, have lagged behind - as the reaction to Dixons’ new policy shows.

Despite this, it’s widely accepted that reducing working time could help with education’s recruitment and retention crisis.

One model being touted is the four-day week. A recent petition demanding a four-day week for pupils and staff - cramming five days’ lessons into four days - gathered more than 42,000 signatures.

The government believes this would have a “damaging” effect on pupil learning and wellbeing. Longer days would be “too tiring” for pupils, it claimed in its response. But what do we actually know about the effects of a four-day week model on schools, teachers, pupils and parents?

• How we’re giving teachers a nine-day fortnight
• Flexible working toolkit: what schools need to know
• How to arrange flexible working as a classroom teacher

Some of the best research into the topic has been done in the US, where the four-day school week for pupils has been operating in some districts as far back as the 1970s.

The trend has been growing in the states in recent years and it is thought that up to 900 school districts - 2,100 schools - are now operating a four-day model, around 7 per cent of total districts.

The model, initially pioneered by geographically large rural districts to reduce travel time and improve attendance, proved particularly popular in rural states such as Colorado, Oregon, Montana and Oklahoma. Following the 2008 global financial crisis, it was then seen as a way to save money.

But districts are now motivated by the four-day week’s potential to improve teacher recruitment and retention and it is growing more popular in some more suburban areas as a result.

So, has the model achieved its aims? Did districts save much cash by reducing the days that pupils needed to be bussed to school or classrooms heated and canteens manned?

Well, not much. Research by Paul Thompson, associate professor of economics at Oregon State University, who has been researching the impact of a four-day school week, suggests minimal gains.

“Only about 1 or 2 per cent of their expenditure was saved as a result of the four-day school week,” he says, highlighting the fact that while the schools are closed, teachers are still working flexibly and salaries are paid for the five-day week.

And what about improvements in teacher recruitment and retention?

A major 2021 study by the Rand organisation reveals that teachers in four-day week areas are overwhelmingly in favour of it.

“Over 85 per cent said they probably or definitely would have chosen the four-day school week and they feel like they are more productive as a result,” says Thompson. “Morale is a bit higher. That’s a pretty universal thing.”

Some teachers, he says, reported that the four-day school week was a big factor in them staying or going to their current position.

Could a four-day week help recruitment and retention?

But Thompson warns that although there are “anecdotes” that applications are up for vacant positions, there is not a lot of empirical evidence for an improvement in recruitment and retention.

Thompson and his colleagues are starting to look at this question now in a couple of states. “It’s becoming more critical to get more evidence around whether this is an effective strategy…In the next year or two we’ll know a bit more,” he explains.

There are also concerns that the effect of the “perk” on recruitment could fade if neighbouring schools and districts all adopted similar schedules.

Unsurprisingly, the Rand study found that the four-day week was extremely popular with pupils, too.

More surprisingly perhaps, it found that 84 per cent of parents would choose it, despite the childcare issues it might throw up.

“They felt that parental stress was reduced, maybe because they could attend appointments or go to a sporting event or go on a trip,” says Thompson.

However, he stresses concerns that researchers are not necessarily reaching the families for whom the four-day week might not work, such as single parents or those with children with significant special needs or English as an additional language.

‘It’s not the days, it’s the hours’

And while pupils may enjoy their day off, research has revealed some troubling impacts on attainment.

It turns out that if you cut pupils’ hours in class, they tend to fall behind.

“Our research and others’ on instructional time say it’s not the number of days, it’s the number of hours [that matter]…the composition of when those hours happen seems less important,” says Thompson. “With 32 hours per week or above we really don’t see any difference in achievement under a four- or five-day model.”

However, he adds, most districts in the US operating a four-day model do not extend the hours enough to make up the shortfall from losing the fifth day.

“They’re increasing the other four school days by some length of time but by too little to sufficiently compensate,” he says.

There are also concerns as to what pupils get up to - and even what they eat - on their Fridays off.

There is “some evidence” of an increase in juvenile crime on Fridays in four-day week areas, says Thompson, plus “implications for nutrition and physical activity”, through “losing access to school meals and physical education and recess opportunities”.

“We found that students were drinking more sugary beverages, they’re more likely to be food insecure, more likely to use drugs like marijuana,” he adds. “[So] there could be potential unintended consequences of taking students out of their supportive school environment and putting them into a situation where parents aren’t home.”

While some states such as Oklahoma and New Mexico are legislating to limit four-day weeks, Thompson says he still expects them to increase overall.

“Every week it seems like there is another school adopting this so I don’t see it slowing down any time soon unless we get some big interventions at the state level,” he says.

Could a four-day week improve teaching?

So with this evidence in hand, could English schools move to such a system, or a version of it? With few funds for extra staff and a government insistent on “hours in the classroom” post-pandemic, it looks unlikely that pupils will be getting a day off every week.

But could staff? Campaigners at the think tank Autonomy say it is far from out of the question, with their own research showing that 61 per cent of teachers believe a four-day week would improve their teaching.

A total of 69 per cent of those surveyed by Autonomy said that they would be much more likely or somewhat more likely to stay in the profession if they had a four-day week.

A significant minority (45 per cent) of teachers also supported a shift to a four-day week for pupils as well as staff.

The report points to the example of Forest Gate Community School, Cumberland School and Waterside Academy in London - schools in the Community Schools Trust - which have successfully moved to a 4.5 working week for all since 2019.

“Results went up the year after a shorter working week was introduced. We surveyed staff a year on: nobody wanted to go back. It has been a resounding success,” Simon Elliott, CEO of Community Schools Trust, told the researchers.

Work-life balance

Jack Kellam, co-author of the report, says “the appetite is there” for a reduction in working hours, and that a number of schools and trusts have approached Autonomy’s four-day week consultancy service looking at the possibility.

“We’ve had growing interest from a number of schools in both the state and private sector,” he says. “If schools can’t do much on pay, they have to be able to offer something on work-life balance.”

And there are some other trailblazers out there, with St Philip Howard Catholic Primary School in Hertfordshire launching a scheme last year where staff have one day a week off timetable for planning, preparation and assessment and subject leader tasks.

Then there’s Dixons. At the 17-school trust based across Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Liverpool, schools are pioneering a nine-day fortnight for teachers from September, in a bid to increase recruitment and retention.

Teachers will have one day off every two weeks to do whatever they like and they do not have to be in school.

Pupils will enjoy a normal timetable and will notice little change bar a few slightly larger class sizes, says deputy CEO Miley.

Addressing inflexible working in schools

“Our principals are really excited about this and trying different models,” he explains. “We haven’t been prescriptive…we thought we’d give schools the opportunity to try before we decide on the most optimal model [or models].”

Done with clever timetabling and the senior leadership team picking up some of the teaching slack, rather than extra costs, it’s hoped the scheme will make Dixons a particularly attractive place to work.

The scheme is just one part of a raft of measures the school is taking to increase flexible working and reduce workload, including remote working and the use of artificial intelligence.

“We recognise that teaching is a very difficult profession and one of the biggest issues we have is that younger generations coming through are put off by the inflexibility of working in schools…so we’re trying to address that,” says Miley.

Whether through US-style four-day weeks, or other arrangements, more UK schools may soon opt to follow suit.

Irena Barker is a freelance writer

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