A Scottish council has confirmed it may consider introducing a four-day week in its primary and secondary schools to cope with planned funding cuts.
North Ayrshire Council said it was one of a number of future options being considered
Carol Kirk, the council's education director, said, "The option to deliver the statutory 25 hours of education per week over four rather than five days is also being explored by other local authorities in Scotland."
If implemented it could save the council more than £2m.
The council may also consider starting primary education a year later, when pupils are six-years-old, although no decisions have been taken on the proposals.
Bloody awful idea for those parents who have to pay for childcare. That whole day would cost as much as the other 4 afternoons put together. And I don't know that many people could even negotiate the 4 day week for themselves let alone afford it.
My feeling is that if they can get the current schooling into 4 days surely they can do that and give the kids 20% more teaching.
I can't imagine teachers being too keen on losing 20% of their salary either. Or will they be paid and do non-teaching work?
Overall I simply can't see it being capable of beng applied. Not without huge cost implications - inlcuding for the very councils that want to save money.
Foxy, surely the school can provide reasonably priced child care in return for a fee on the 5th day.
Wealthier parents can afford to pay if they wish, the less wealthy can claim tax credits for the professional care provided.
Sound strategic thinking I would suggest.
Sound like the best idea for years.
The state provides education for 25 hours for free, over 4 days.
Imagine how much saving on fuel there would be.
A massive 20% reduction on heating & lighting straight off.
A 20% reduction on car fuel emmisions for the school run.
Sounds like a "WIN WIN" idea to me.
Teaching is way more expensive than child minding tho. And an additional advantage wot I just thought of, some kids might benefit from having "fun" in an environmental they might otherwise fear or despise.
Actually thinking about it schools arent used for 16 hours a day maybe there is an argument for shifts.
i think that reducing the number of days worked just makes the problem worse we all work 24/7 so why not schools then you could put your child on the school shift that suited your work pattern and if you increased the school working week surely all the kids that need more could get more oh and then teachers would have proper jobs and have to earn there great saleries that sounds like value for money to me
Kids have far more energy than adults so I've never subscribed to the idea that they 'need' a shorter day than us. Get the school to take them from (start of my day) and let them out at 4 (end of my day - just as an example) and give them the same lunch time - 45 minutes. That will give ample time for plenty of teaching and other activities and prepare them for the real world. Provide sufficient staff to allow all staff to have one of two periods each day for 'preparation' and that should be everyone satisfied.
Just wondering ....at what time during this rigorous 24/7 preparation for real life school week do the kids get to be kids?.....you know play and learn how to relate to each other all that pointless stuff they'll never use in adult life
Or more importantly polish my boots and clean my chimneys.
or better still as some could sugest here, just let them stay at home all day doing what kids want to do. how mad is that?
funny there is another thred going about pensions. i wonder how the pension would be for a teecher now only working for days a week or are some saying they should be paid for five when they only work for for?
i have wondered why we are in all this debt now i understand that some of the peeple runnign this country are also writing in this forum.
:doh:
shall we let kids do as they pleese then ben? what about all the public service teechers then ben what happens to there jobs? no doubt you would want to carry on paying them and keep giving them there hard erned pensions as well.:doh:
cup of tee anyone?
sorry but i canot understand much of what was writen above myself. most is just gobblygook as my gran used to that is why i am getting confused it must be listening to all the gobblygook writen on here.
the chimney and boots coment above would suggest to many that to send children to school is being very hard on the poor kids bymaking them go to the very nasty grown ups who force them too go.
maybe i have read that wrong maybe and if so i must then give my self some extra lines to do and appologixe hugely for making any coment at all on here.
Nah Starlight I think your OK, what some seem to be alluding to is the idea of taking the kids back into the Dickensian are of shoving them up chimneys and having them in cloth caps and rags in front of Lyons tea houses buffing shoes for a "ha'penny please sir". Typically taking the idea to the unfounded extreme. It's more the idea is that the school week should be what it says...a school week.
Most of us realise that teachers do a lot of work, unseen and unappreciated behind the scenes and out of the public eye, which go unrecognised by many not involved in the industry. What is being suggested is that teachers should be fairly treated and work to the same parameters that others do within the workplace. Such as having the same set working hours and holidays etc. This way the teachers needn't do unpaid and unseen work out of hours they can leave work at work. This would also provide an easier and more constructive system for working parents too manage childcare provision in a more sensible way.
Hyperbole with humourous intent.
still most of it.
humor is only good when others can under stand it. a lot of cryptic non sence on here it seems.
Its simply not practical and secondly I can already see 4-5 ways to milk this for everything its worth at everyone else's expense of course. Thats only referring to my personal situation add on everyone else's personal situations and there are probably 100's of ways to milk it.
