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No plans to alter school holidays in Isle of Man

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Education chiefs have confirmed they have no plans to alter the structure of the school year.

It comes as plans have been announced by the UK Government for all English state schools to be able to decide their own term dates.

The Department for Education said terms should be decided by ‘heads and teachers who know their parents and pupils best’.

But the island’s director of education, Martin Barrow, described schools having holidays at different times as being ‘unworkable’.

‘The DEC has no plans to substantially alter the structure of the academic year, as is being mooted in the UK, or to allow individual schools to set their own holiday dates,’ he said.

‘Our holidays are agreed and published up to the end of the summer term 2015.’

He said that if ‘at some point in the future’ there was any consideration given to altering the holiday pattern, ‘it would only be done in consultation with all those affected including parents and staff’.

Mr Barrow added: ‘It is very unlikely that the island would ever move away from having a single holiday pattern for schools as different holiday dates for different schools would cause great difficulties to families with children at two or more schools and would be unworkable.’

The plans put forward in the Deregulation Bill would mean that English schools that are not academies would not have to accept the term dates set by local authorities.

Schools can already vary the shape of the school day, but from September 2015 they will also be able to change the length of their terms.

It means that more state schools could switch from the long six week summer holidays.

Schools would still have to operate within a legal limit of a minimum of 190 school days each year.

Head teachers have warned that parents with children in different schools would still expect local schools to agree common dates so that families could plan holidays together.

Academies already have a greater degree of flexibility.


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