Trust abandons trial holiday calendar

Tall Oaks Academy Trust in Gainsborough has scrapped its experimental holiday calendar it introduced to alleviate cost pressures and reduce term-time absences.

This is as a result of a rise in pupils taking days off.

The trust introduced the plan to cut the traditional six-week summer holiday break short by one week, providing pupils with an extra week’s holiday elsewhere.

However, the trust found that pupils took more days off because some parents had children at different schools.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that holidays are a “complex exercise” which “must be coordinated with other schools to prevent disruption to parents and teachers who have children at different schools

Other issues that Tall Oaks came across during the pilot included problems securing supplies of free milk and fruit when other schools were closed. It also meant new pupils joining from other schools had a much-reduced summer holiday.