Results of a consultation on proposals to change school year dates and cut short the six week summer holidays in Wales are due soon. The controversial plans have sparked strong feelings.

All education unions in Wales wrote a joint letter to the previous Education Minister Jeremy Miles opposing the plans. A petition calling on the Welsh Government to halt the proposals now has nearly 5,000 signatures.

Those in favour say having a shorter summer holiday with two week half terms say the long summer break is damaging for the most vulnerable pupils. Critics say schools shouldn't be used as a tool for addressing social policy problems on the cheap and the long summer holiday and long autumn term are both hugely valuable in and of themselves. You can read more about why teachers are opposed to the plans for shorter summer holidays here

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Education unions have warned that morale is low in the profession with teachers dealing with heavy workloads, post pandemic pressures and increasing behavioural problems among pupils.

Social mobility Professor Lee Elliott Majors from Exeter University is among those who support the Welsh government’s plans. He has argued, among other things, that “abuse, neglect, and mental health do not take a break over the holidays” and school is a vital place of safety as well as learning for children and you can read his views about the plans here.

Now the Nasuwt teaching union has responded to his views saying schools cannot cure all society’s ills. The union says funding should be made to open school buildings up for activities in the holidays - but not run by teachers.

Here Nasuwt national official for Wales Neil Butler gives his response to the proposals and Professor Elliott Majors’ arguments in favour:

Professor Lee Elliott Majors’ argument for reducing the summer break for schools in Wales essentially rests upon schools as a safe haven for children because: “abuse, neglect, and mental health do not take a break over the holidays.” A powerful argument indeed for having no breaks at all.

It is part of a growing trend that sees schools as the answer for all of the ills of society. The teacher as police officer, social worker and health professional.

To all of us in Wales the safety, health and wellbeing of our children is paramount so this emotive argument has to be addressed head on. School buildings are valuable resources that can and should be used by communities during break periods for extra-curricular funded activities employing staff specifically for this purpose.

Where have the youth clubs gone? A range of activities could be going on in our schools during break periods to keep children occupied, learning, entertained and safe.

Shifting around a few weeks in the academic year is moving the deckchairs on the Titanic. It would have little impact on child welfare but it would have a major impact academically and in the wider economy.

Looking after children comes at a cost. So if the Welsh Government is concerned about child safety during break times spend the money to get these activities going.

Professor Lee Elliott Majors is a respected academic from Exeter University where they will enjoy a summer break of 15 weeks this year. He references Belgium as a country looking at reform where they enjoy a Summer break of nine weeks.

Indeed Wales joins England, Germany, the Netherlands and Denmark in having six weeks. Make it shorter and Wales would have the dubious honour of having the shortest Summer break in Europe - and this at a time when Wales faces a recruitment and retention crisis for teachers.

Teachers are not police officers, social workers and health professionals, they are educators. So where is the educational argument for reform?

Professor Lee Elliott Majors admits that there is a lack of evidence but he does reference a United States study which does reference learning loss for children from poorer backgrounds during the summer break. The most recent American research that the Nasuwt is aware of is from Professor Paul von Hippel at the University of Texas who concluded that summer learning loss had historically been underpinned by poorly interpreted and outdated test scores.

He found that the more recent data showed that the attainment gap between low-poverty and high-poverty learners grows no faster during the summer than during the academic year. In their June 2023 article, Megan Kuhfeld and Karyn Lewis of the North Western Evaluation Association (Oregon, USA) note that “there is little evidence from recent data to support the earlier finding that the summer period contributes meaningfully to widening test score gaps across poverty levels.”

The joint education unions in Wales have been repeatedly asking the Welsh Government for the evidence for summer learning loss disparity between learners from different social backgrounds. We have been repeatedly disappointed.

For a long time, the USA has had various summer school programmes to target any perceived attainment lag. They have recognised that the issue is what learners’ access during the summer break rather than the break itself which currently is at around two to three months there.

This mind-set fits in with the findings of the Welsh Government’s own Beaufort Research in Wales where it was stated that “if learner attainment and supporting more vulnerable learners were key rationales for change, targeted interventions should be used for these learners and their families, rather than changing a current model that was deemed beneficial to many.”

Such an approach would benefit Additional Learning Needs (ALN) children, who show the most learning loss. The research stated that “the quality of support and nature of specific ALN are more important factors in addressing the learning loss than the school calendar.”

Perhaps the most shocking statement from Professor Lee Elliott Majors is that this would be a “zero-cost reform.” The Welsh Association of Visitor Attractions has stated that the loss of a week in July to be replaced by a week in October would see an 80% loss in revenue for that week and the Royal Welsh Show has calculated that it would lose £1 million - How is this zero cost? The impact on the Welsh economy would be considerable.

In Wales we have a new First Minister and a new Education Minister. It is time for some fresh ideas for education. Reforming the school year is an old idea that resurfaces every 20 years or so.

The Beaufort research showed that there is little enthusiasm for it so the Welsh Government needs to accept that and move on. Put simply the Welsh Government has bigger fish to fry.

There is a recruitment and retention crisis, there is a learner behaviour crisis, the New Curriculum is failing, and New Qualifications are on the way which will add to teacher workload. The Welsh Government needs to get to grips with the real problems facing education in Wales today. The Welsh Government need to stop trying to fix what isn’t broken.