Every now and then, a debate starts about the value or otherwise of an extended school day.
The debate now - as the government considers it as an option to help children catch up following the lost learning they have suffered over the past 12 months - has never been more important.
Four years ago, we moved our academy trust’s five primary schools to extended school days, because we wanted to provide increased opportunities for our children in extracurricular enrichment - such as arts and sport - and academic catch-up.
Our overwhelming finding has been that longer school days, if used effectively, raise pupil achievement and offer wider opportunities, whether for cultural activities, sport or academic enrichment.
Longer school days: Maximising prime learning time
The Education Endowment Foundation agrees - its research concluded that pupils can make an additional two months of progress a year through the extension of the school day. It also found that disadvantaged pupils benefit even more, making closer to three months’ additional progress. There are also often other positive impacts for low-income pupils, such as increased attendance at school, improved behaviour and better relationships with peers.
Our academies’ day is longer by 40 minutes than the norm - that’s an extra three hours and 20 minutes of school time each week, or an extra 19 additional days of school a year.
In particular, we wanted to maximise prime learning time: the mornings. Starting the day just a little earlier - at 8.45am - means that we can run three sessions before lunch, followed by two after lunch, while still allowing for additional reading and assembly at the end of the day
We use the extra time for more project-based learning, extended science lessons, booster lessons and extra subjects, such as philosophy for children. This allows us to give adequate time to the core subjects, while also continuing to enrich children’s experiences in sports, science and the arts. We just hadn’t been able to fit it all into the normal day before.
Making sure staff are compensated
Clearly, we are asking staff to do more, too, so it’s important that they are compensated. As a result, we have extended the half-term break to two weeks in October and May.
This has been a benefit for our staff’s work-life balance: teachers and support staff are able to rest and recuperate during the longer half-term. Remaining days are added to the Christmas holidays, so staff get at least two weeks off then.
To overcome the risk that we would be inconveniencing families and working parents with the two-week half-terms, we run free holiday clubs for children.
Overall, it’s been an excellent initiative and we wouldn’t - and couldn’t - go back to normal hours now. Our parents and staff are hugely supportive of it. And, above all, we have seen such huge benefits for our pupils in terms of catch-up, booster sessions, extra subjects and extracurricular opportunities.
Shortly before we lengthened our schools’ day, the Policy Exchange think tank reported that only 38 per cent of state primary schools offered a longer day, compared with 81 per cent of independent schools of the same age range.
The gap is still wide, and must change if we are to help children catch up. It’s only a matter of time.
Jo Coton is chief executive officer of NET Academies Trust
