Calls for rethink on school term lengths

Parents of pupils in Staffordshire today called for education bosses to reconsider plans to introduce five terms into the school year after the proposals were scrapped.

They say the six-week summer break creates a childcare headache and would welcome regular fortnightly breaks instead. On Friday, the Express & Star revealed how the county council had rejected plans to introduce five terms.

The county had been considering becoming the first education authority in the West Midlands to bring in the set-up.

It would have seen summer holidays cut and a series of shorter breaks staggered throughout the year.

Mother-of-one, Elizabeth Smith, from Stafford, said her six-year-old son Paddy, would benefit from having shorter terms but also shorter holidays.

"The six weeks of holiday in the summer are always a bit of a nightmare for parents and the children.

"I send him to a sports club for these weeks, it still costs me a lot of money.

"It would be much better if it was just for a few weeks at a time."

"By the end of the summer term my son, who goes to Flash Ley Community Primary School, he is just exhausted," she said.

Steve Oldacre, of Burntwood, who has two girls who have recently finished school, said: "I think education bosses should look into it in Staffordshire again.

"It is too much having the six weeks off over summer.

"Luckily my two girls Stacey, aged 22 and Emily, now 17, who went to Chase Terrace Technology College, were into sports and so were into that over the holidays, but for other children who just like sitting on the sofa all summer holidays it can't be good for them.

"The amount we used to have to pay in childcare and lessons was in treble figures. It's just ridiculous," he said.

Research has shown many children fall back academically over the six-week summer holidays, with reading and writing affected.

Education chief Liz Staples said although they had researched the idea, it would remain as three terms for the foreseeable future.