Schools Shutting at Lunchtime on Fridays

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Education – in the Senedd at 2:05 pm on 1 May 2019.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 2:05, 1 May 2019

I would absolutely agree that each school making these decisions has to look into the context in which they are delivering education, and that varies from community to community, let alone from local authority area to local authority area. What's really interesting in the work that was done by the Public Policy Institute for Wales is that one of the advantages of the asymmetric week that they found in the report was that, actually, they identified improvements in pupils' well-being, including the ability to engage in extracurricular activities that perhaps they would not be able to otherwise, to be able to spend more time with their families, to be able to spend a bit more time relaxing, rather than being—we often hear from parents about the constant pressure children feel in our academic settings—and it actually allows children to undertake personal appointments that would otherwise mean they were missing the school day. So, there are some advantages that the PPIW work highlighted, but the disadvantage of issues around transport, particularly in a rural area, is also something that they've identified. The Welsh Government does not have a stated policy on the asymmetric week in the sense that it is for individual schools to judge what is in the best interests of their pupils. And the Member is absolutely right; it has to be in the best interest of their pupils to make any changes to what is regarded as a traditional school day.