Headteachers debate changes to long summer break

Delegates at the National Association of Head Teachers annual meeting opted for more research into the best school timetable before making a final decision. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA

The long summer school holiday has been derided as a relic from an agricultural age and the bane of working parents – and now headteachers want to research the impact of ditching it in favour of shorter but more frequent breaks through the school year.

The result could bring relief to parents paying peak-season holiday prices during July and August, the subject of controversy since the government's recent ruling blocked pupils taking family holidays during term-time.

At its annual meeting in Birmingham, the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) considered adopting a policy of dividing the school year into more terms, but delegates opted for more research into the best school timetable before making a final decision.

The union – which mainly represents primary and special needs school leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – debated an election-year manifesto for 2015 including a call for "more frequent, shorter holidays (adding up to the same overall number), staggered across the country on a regional basis to reduce the holiday price premium".

The move was also seen as cutting stress for teachers, by giving them more breaks between terms, while ending the problem of the long summer gap interrupting pupils' progress.

Academies, voluntary-aided and free schools in England already have powers to vary the school year, although few choose to make radical changes because of the disruption to parents and teachers with children in other schools.

One of the few is the David Young Community Academy in Leeds, with aschool year of seven terms, each around five weeks long, and holidays of two to four weeks. The first term starts in early June, and the seventh finishes in late May.

From September this year the Department for Education extends the same powers to all state schools, although local authorities can already vary the timing of holidays and terms. Maintained schools will still be required to be open for a minimum of 190 days a year.

NAHT delegrates heard that varying holidays and terms between regions would help tackle the summer holiday price premium and spread out travel pressures.

The union also called for research into the impact of changing school admission policies to give priority to children from low-income families who are eligible for free school meals and the pupil premium.

Russell Hobby, the NAHT's general secretary gave an impassioned speech to delegates in Birmingham, saying "the dice are stacked against those who serve the most challenging communities. If we are honest with ourselves, there are also ways to allow selection to creep in unnoticed."

Offering disadvantaged children priority in applications "at a stroke … would limit the house price barrier to good schools and secure more firmly the comprehensive principle of education".

Last week a group of selective state grammar schools in England announced they would give priority to children eligible for free school meals as a "tie-breaker" when oversubscribed.