Birmingham teachers & parents react to three day school week proposals
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Inflation and rising energy bills - potentially surpassing 15% next year - are the main causes cited for schools to consider reducing the number of the days pupils are in person.
High inflation rates have seen real term wages drop by 2% in the West Midlands and higher interest rates are causing concerns for homeowners paying a mortgage.
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Hide AdBellfield junior school, in Northfield, Birmingham, already has 4.5 school weeks, closing early at lunch time on Fridays.
But many teachers around the country have raised concerns about proposals to reduce the school week further - to three or four days. They fear it could hit the quality of education and the challenge of dividing the workload between fewer days in school.
What have Birmingham teachers and parents said about the three-day school week?
Diana Quiqley, Birmingham-based EFL teacher , spoke to BirminghamWorld about her concerns of the impacts of decreasing the number of days at school.
“Reducing the week is a false economy. It will lead to people not being able to pass their exams and have fewer qualifications,” said Quiqley.
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Hide Ad“It’s going to put more pressure on teachers as they won’t have the time needed to do the teaching that they need to do. What they will do is cut people’s wages so teachers will be even more demotivated.”
She said : “School is a safer place for people where they are looked after. What are working parents going to do? Are they going to stop working so their kids can be looked after?”
Steph Fisher, mother of two in Northfield, also spoke to BirminghamWorld about her worries about the proposals.
She said: “School is about learning and it’s also childcare as I need to work. If the kids weren’t in school five days a week I wouldn’t be able to do my job as I do now. It would pose a massive childcare issue if they reduced the hours that kids were at school.”
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Hide AdSteph Fisher and her husband are both key workers and so their children only experienced home learning for a short time during the pandemic.
The physiotherapist acknowledged that she would need to put her children in after-school clubs or utilise a childminder if all schools decided to shorten their week which has great financial costs.
Could a shorter school week make the cost of living crisis even worse for families?
In 2021, it was found that 19% of children under 16 in the UK come from low-income families (relative).
The physiotherapist believes that reducing hours adds to the stress and increased pressure on teachers which will make them desire to leave their professions.
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Hide AdShe said: “There is a cost of living crisis and we don’t want to pay teachers less as they’re also in a cost of living crisis. By cutting their hours they would have to find another job to top it off. It would seem silly that teachers need two jobs to make ends need. It also has a knock-on effect on everyone else not earning as parents would have to cut their hours to look after their children.
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