Over the past year, school staff have become increasingly adept at making last-minute changes and adaptations: staggered start times, masks in corridors, one-way systems, teacher assessment grades and more.

It has not been easy. Each new change - some more palatable than others - has required planning, implementation, oversight, more changes and so on, putting teachers at all levels in various states of exhaustion as we approach the summer.

But we have made it work.

Over the edge

However, the latest idea up for consideration by the government could perhaps be what tips some teachers and school leaders over the edge of a very rocky cliff.

The discussion currently being held by education ministers is whether to pay for a compulsory half-hour extension with an academic focus or fund a longer 8am-6pm school day that would be voluntary.

No sooner had news of these considerations hit the media than teachers around the country were trying to figure out what these changes would mean for them.

The potential of longer school days and shorter lunch hours or more teaching time, but with no additional planning time, has led many to question whether the government have really thought this through.

Catch-up tsar: Extended school day should be compulsory

Covid recovery: Asking teachers to do more has a price

Background: Sir Kevan Collins wants teachers to increase learning time

Teachers have been working flat out for the past year and although the word “voluntary” is mentioned in relation to the extended school day, we all know that very often, teachers and support staff are the ones that are called upon first to plug the gaps when external agencies can’t be found to run clubs.

A step too far?

As someone who is in their second year as a headteacher, my first thought was, how am I going to sell this to staff? I have a great staff team, and I am sure many school leaders up and down the country feel the same about theirs.

Over the past year, I have asked a lot of my staff and they have all, without question, willingly supported the decisions I have made, despite many of them facing major anxieties regarding the challenges the pandemic has brought with it.

Leaders like myself have had to contend with ensuring that risk assessments take into consideration the safety of staff and pupils and, very often, it has been a balancing act between ensuring pupils’ learning is still able to continue as consistently as possible while at the same time ensuring that staff wellbeing is prioritised.

The ideas that the government is proposing could, once again, put leaders in a position where they have to think carefully about how they manage this balancing act.

A lack of detail

Half an hour may not seem like a long time but, in a primary school where children already struggle to stay focused the later it gets in the afternoon, this is a concern. Are we saying that schools must now stay open until 4pm or start classes at 8:30am?

Furthermore, where is the evidence that this will benefit the education of our children?

The school day in countries such as the Netherlands, Singapore and Switzerland last for five or six hours with an hour lunch break - sometimes even longer - and their children are doing OK academically.

So, again, the question has to be asked, what is this proposal based on?  

Some might say that we should accept whatever the government proposes as it is ultimately for the benefit of the children. My response? Everything schools have done over the past year has been with the children in mind.

Let leaders lead

We have worked hard since September putting plans in place that have ensured children continue to make progress and can close the gap on any learning not covered during the two periods of national lockdown.

Leaders have never stopped ensuring this has been at the forefront of their minds and we never will.

The government seems to ignore the fact that schools know what they’re doing. They know what’s important. They know how to cater for the needs of the children in their communities, what works and what does not.

What we would like, more than anything, is to be left alone to get on with the business of teaching our children without all these government interventions that omit to realise that a one-size-fits-all approach just does not work.

Amanda Wilson is a primary headteacher