Children spend ‘ridiculously low percentage’ of time in schools, says Sir Martyn Oliver
The timing and length of school holidays needs ‘a good old look at’, the chief inspector of Ofsted has said, as he also took aim at the ‘ridiculously low’ amount of time children physically spend in school.
Speaking to the Financial Times, Sir Martyn Oliver highlighted that the summer months are potentially a poor time of year to arrange crucial exams. He said: ‘It’s pretty hot usually in May, June and July, just at the point you’re asking children to sit down and take an exam . . . so I think there is a need to have a good old look at it’. Speaking in the context of banning mobile phones from schools, Sir Martyn also said that the 32.5 hour school week meant children were physically in school for a ‘ridiculously low percentage’ of each year, and that it was important that the ‘precious’ time should be used for studying and socialising, without the distraction of devices.
State-funded mainstream schools in England are expected to offer a minimum school week of 32.5 hours, for 38 weeks a year (although the guidance is non-statutory, in the 2022 Schools White Paper the government set out that they would expect all schools to meet this expectation by September 2024 at the latest). Schools in England and Wales typically have breaks of at least two weeks at Easter and Christmas, three ‘half-term’ breaks of at least a week, and a break in the summer of around 6 weeks – though the exact timings vary from one local authority to another. In contrast, many European countries do not specify a minimum number of hours for children to be in school, and do not have ‘half-term’ breaks, but instead longer holidays at Christmas, Easter and in the summer. For example in Italy the school summer holidays typically last around three months, from early June to early September.
It is not the first time Sir Martyn, who has headed up the inspectorate since January 2024, has taken aim at current school holiday arrangements. Speaking on LBC radio in February last year he said that six week summer holidays had a negative impact on the ‘most vulnerable disadvantaged children’, with the long break in routine leading to ‘dysregulation’. A 2024 report by The Nuffield Foundation also recommended shortening the summer break. Lee Elliot Major, professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter and one of the report’s authors said: ‘Spreading school holidays more evenly across the year makes complete educational sense: improving the wellbeing of pupils and the working lives of teachers at no extra cost, balancing out childcare costs for parents, and potentially boosting academic results for many children.’
The length and timing of school holidays in England is widely believed to be historically linked to children being given time off school to help with the harvest, and Sir Martyn referenced this in his remarks to the Financial Times, saying: ‘It’s interesting to think that the holiday period was very much determined around harvesting fields . . . some things are pretty bizarre.’ However, this is probably not the whole story. By the time of the Elementary Education Act 1880 – which made school attendance compulsory for all children aged between five and ten in England and Wales – the industrial revolution had led to far more children living (and working) in cities than in rural areas. Another theory points to the influence of the American educational reformer Horace Mann, who in the 1840s proposed that a long school break offered a respite for both teachers and children, and that not having a long break could even lead to children suffering ‘nervous disorders’. His idea was taken up across the USA, where the summer break remains between 10 and 12 weeks long to this day, and is thought to have influenced school calendars across the industrialised world. Whatever its origins, the broad outline of the school year in England has endured for nearly a century and a half, and it will remain to be seen if Sir Martyn’s latest remarks bring the prospect of reform any closer.