England and Wales diverge on standardised school term dates

The proposal for all English schools to have the freedom to set their own holiday dates is contained in the Deregulation Bill and would allow governing bodies to set term dates and school hours at community, voluntary controlled, community special schools or maintained nursery schools in England. Acadamies and Free Schools already have thos power, but other schools are subject to common dates laid down by their local authority.

Association of School and College Leaders general secretary Brian Lightman said:“ Most schools choose to follow the local authority calendar because they know that it’s better for parents who have children in different schools and teachers who want their holidays to coincide with their children’s.

“The problem will come if no one is responsible for creating a coordinated calendar for an area and it turns into a free for all. Somebody needs to take the lead locally on deciding term dates and it makes sense for this to be the local authority, even if schools aren’t required by law to follow it.“

National Union of Teachers general secretary Christine Blower said a plethora of different term dates would “cause chaos for families”.
‘Holiday companies will almost certainly just expand the period over which they charge premium rates so there will be no benefit to families, or indeed the general public who will have fewer weeks of less expensive holidays,” Ms Blower said.

Meanwhile in Wales, a new bill was introduced on 1st July aimed at standardising term dates between the country's local authorities. As well as harmonising termd ates, the School Standards and Organisation {Wales} Bill 2013 also intends to replace the General Teaching Council for Wales with a new registration system and body to be called the Education Workforce Council. This new body will require those who work in education from teachers to support workers to register with the reformed and renamed body to bring greater coherence for the wider education workforce. If adopted, it will also remove the appointment of HM Chief Inspector and HM Inspectors of education and training in Wales under section 19 of the Education Act 2005.

The bill was welcomed by Welsh edudcation minister Huw Lewis. He said: We want to raise standards and performance in Wales across the board. Nothing is more important than making sure our children and young people have the best educational opportunities we can deliver. It’s for that reason I welcome bringing forward this important Bill. This Bill will make a significant impact on the education sector in Wales and I am delighted to commend it to the National Assembly for Wales today.”