Isle of Wight council give go ahead to change school holidays

The go ahead has been given to changes in term dates on the Island for the school year 2019/20. It means the six-week summer break will be shortened by one week, with the autumn half-term (October) increased to two weeks. The green light was given tonight (Thursday) by a meeting of the Isle of Wight Council’s Cabinet – and follows an extensive consultation last year. Island school term dates are considered annually and will continue to be reviewed in the future. Overall 1,877 people responded to the consultation, with 59 per cent supporting a summer holiday reduction by one week, and 67 per cent favouring an extension of the autumn half-term (October) break by a week as opposed to the spring half-term. Cabinet member for children’s services, Councillor Paul Brading, said: “These changes reflect the majority of responses to our thorough public consultation which clearly demonstrated there is a desire to try a new approach. However, term dates are considered annually and will continue to be reviewed in the future. “Ultimately, our aim is to continue to drive up educational standards so that all of our schools are rated ‘good’ or better by Ofsted, and also to continue to increase attendance in our schools. And it has been one of our pledges to give families more choice over when they take their holidays, while at the same time making term lengths more even.” Councillor Brading said there was also agreement in principle, that other Island schools will structure their academic year around the same dates to ensure that there is no disparity between families with children attending different schools. Opinions of parents/carers, pupils, school staff (including teachers) and ‘others’ were collected as part of the consultation; with 68 per cent of responses offered by parents.