Concern over plans to reduce school hours in Falkirk

Parents in Falkirk have expressed concerns at council proposals to cut the time children spend at school.

The local authority has launched a consultation over plans to close all local schools at 12:30 on Fridays from August next year.

The council, which is currently looking to fill a £62m budget gap, said the move would save about £6m.

A petition opposing the plan has gathered more than 2,000 signatures.

Under the plan, children in primary school would spend 2.5 hours a week less in the classroom.

Secondary students would have their weekly hours cut by almost two hours.

Eight other councils – including Edinburgh - currently close their schools on Friday afternoons.

However this is balanced out by extending the school day over the rest of the week.

Falkirk mother-of-two Liane Tait, who started the petition, said: “If someone starts in P1 when this goes ahead and they finish at S6 they are going to lose a year of teaching time.

“The poor kids are going to have to cram that in and the teachers are also going to have to cram in the National Curriculum into a shorter amount of time.

“This really concerns me.”

Falkirk Council said any alternative proposals would “undoubtedly” mean a further reduction to core teacher numbers within the current school week.

It said the plan, which will be voted on in September, has been developed by a lead group of headteachers and senior council officers.

A similar proposal was made by the council in 2015, but did not go ahead.

Ms Tait said she was also concerned for children who were already struggling at school.

She said: “Children with additional needs or additional health needs, how are they going to manage with this?

“In terms of childcare, of course that is a big worry for lots of families.

“I appreciate it’s not a council problem to provide childcare but I know in my local area there’s very little childcare available.”

State schools in Scotland have to be open for 190 days a year. But the actual number of learning hours is not currently set in law.

Typically a primary school pupil is at school for 25 hours a week and a secondary pupil is in for 27.5 hours a week.

Last year the Scottish government ran a consultation on making this a legal requirement.

It has still to introduce legislation.

Any move to cut school hours in one council area on economic grounds would almost certainly lead to a huge row with teachers unions and the Scottish government.

Even without legislation on school hours, the government has other ways of protecting the amount of time a school is open to children – it could make some of the money councils get from the government dependent on maintaining minimum hours.

The row over possible cuts to overall hours by Falkirk is a distinct question from whether schools should close early on Fridays.

This already happens in around a quarter of council areas but there the shorter day on Friday is balanced out elsewhere in the week.

There are various pros and cons. Some parents may struggle for childcare on Fridays.

But some teachers say there can be advantages: For instance allowing Fridays to be a day of more relaxed activities at school after four harder days.

The council said that the new model would provide the same number of periods and teacher contact across the week for secondary pupils.

It said primary schools will continue to have access to their core teachers for the same amount of time as they do currently and that “the overall curriculum offer will be unchanged.”

It added: “The new model allows us to maintain the current curriculum structure, the overall number of learning episodes/periods and the breadth of curriculum offer (the range of subjects and different courses available) to our pupils.”

Ms Tait said: “I absolutely sympathise with the council, they’ve got a really difficult position here.

"Surely there must be another way than reducing the kids’ education.

"I hope Falkirk Council really listen to what the parents are saying.”