Consultation on changing the timings of the school day
Dear Parents, Carers and students of years 7-10,
We have been asked by the Local Authority if we would like to change the timings of the school day
from September. This is a consultation and will only go ahead if the Local Authority can provide the
school buses for the timings proposed. If there are not the buses available, then the timing of the start
of the school day will not change. The consultation is open to the school governors, staff, parents &
carers and students who will be at Longhill High School from September.
From September all schools need to provide 32.5 hours of supervision during one week. This includes
mentor time, lessons, break time and lunch time. We are currently 25 minutes short of this time and so
from September we will be adding 5 minutes to the length of the school day. This will be added to
mentor time where students complete work such as literacy, well-being activities, attendance work,
current affairs work and the year group assembly.
We have the option of requesting the school day to start at the same time as it does now, or to move to
a later time. We are aware that Longhill High School has one of the earliest start times compared with
other secondary schools meaning some of our students who have a long journey to school have a very
early start to their day. Research also shows that secondary school students work better with a later
start to their school day.
However we also realise that by having an earlier finish to the school day compared with other schools,
some of our students are able to collect younger siblings from primary school which may no longer be
possible if we finish later in the day. Some enrichment activities may also not benefit if PE clubs and
fixtures are in the darker hours during the winter months, or if this change causes students to walk
home in the dark due to the later finish.
Please could you download the file below to see the options and use the following link to access the survey. If you do select option 5, please could you add details.
https://forms.gle/S98KHEdVmPf2kYfP8
Apologies for the tight turnaround – the deadline for the survey to be completed is Friday 24th March.
Once our proposals are sent to the local authority, they will then inform me whether our suggested
timings can be served by the school buses. I will then pass on this information as soon as I am
informed.
Please feel free to contact me if you have any queries.
Many thanks,
Bill Holland
Acting Headteacher