My Lords, I am conscious that the issue of school term times and summer holidays is particularly acute, especially for the leisure sector. I have heard a lot of people say that it is absurd that we still have long summer holidays because people went out to help with the harvest. When I was a teenager, that is precisely what I used to do during my summer holiday. I worked on a farm for four to six weeks. When I went back to visit the farm 25 years later,
almost all the jobs that I had done had been mechanised. That is part of what has happened. Farmers do not need the labour, and they did not need that much labour then.
I am also conscious that the speech that Mr Gove made about reducing the length of summer holidays has rung a number of alarm bells. This clause does not give the department the power to reduce summer holidays, and the department has no plans to reduce summer holidays. It is very much intended to push down to the local level where the length of holidays should be agreed. Schools’ term dates are already determined locally, but in many cases an individual school’s flexibility is constrained by the fact that Section 32 of the Education Act 2002 places responsibility for determining term dates on the local authority. This measure will enable all schools to vary term dates to help pupils, rather than simply following tradition, where there is a compelling need to do so.
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Thousands of schools, educating over half of all registered pupils, are already responsible for their own term dates. Three-quarters of secondary schools and over a third of primary schools are already responsible for their school year. There is a school in every local authority in England with this freedom. This has not resulted in the problems that have been raised in this debate. There are all sorts of other reasons, which have been mentioned, as to why schools within a local area wish to consult, including with the local authority, about arrangements. In practice, the majority of schools have continued to follow their existing term dates, but a small number have made changes where there are a compelling reasons to do so. These may include the religion of the majority of pupils and the question of Muslim holidays, for example. These may be small but not unimportant adjustments. Schools involved have reported a real difference to pupils, especially in disadvantaged areas, as well as helping parents. I had not realised that, for example, a school in Leeds—the David Young Community Academy—has decided to go to a very different pattern, which believes it has a clear advantage in having a succession of shorter breaks and much more support for students. That is not the pattern that is needed in many other areas but there are schools in particular areas where changes in the pattern may nevertheless help.
I can assure noble Lords that the Government have considered the impact on business and the leisure industry, and judge that there will not be a negative impact on business overall. Local authorities have told us that they will continue to co-ordinate term dates. We have not held a formal consultation on this but the Department for Education informally sought the views of a range of interested parties on the measure, including head teachers on the department’s Bureaucracy Reference Group, the Local Government Association, the Association of Directors of Children’s Services, the Association of School and College Leaders, the National Association of Head Teachers, the National Union of Teachers, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, the Family and Childcare Trust, Mumsnet—of course, Netmums, and the Federation of Small Businesses. I hope that that is a relatively representative cross-section
with whom to consult. There was broad support for the proposals, with points raised including whether it was right that schools should be able to decide when to change their term dates and that teachers would adapt to this. Indeed, I am told that in at least one case, a school in Cornwall has managed to assist those parents who often work in the leisure industry by putting together a number of what I would have called “Baker days”, but I gather are now called something else, at the end of the summer half-term break, which created a two-week holiday slot for parents who, in the summer, work full time in the leisure industry.
The experience of this so far suggests that there will be no marked change in the pattern in most instances. There will not therefore be the disruption that the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, fears. Officials from the Department for Education have consulted with the British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions and others from the tourist industry. I am happy to assure the noble Lord that the Government have agreed that their advice to schools will make clear that: schools should be considerate of the needs of parents and impacts on others by working with each other and the local authority to co-ordinate term dates as far as possible; and that all schools must act reasonably when setting term dates, including considering the impact of changes to term dates on small businesses that rely on tourism from families with school-age children. I refrain from taking that any further into the issue of taking children out of school during term time to take them on holiday.
This measure gives governing bodies of community and voluntary controlled schools the flexibility they need to make changes to term dates to help pupils and parents. As I have argued, there are some instances in which pupils benefit from a different pattern of terms and holidays. As is now the case with academies and voluntary-aided schools, they will set term dates within practical constraints and co-ordinate through the local authority. In the vast majority of schools it is likely that no changes to term dates will be proposed, but where changes can help pupils’ education governing bodies will be able to do so following sensible local conversations with businesses, parents and others, taking into account religious and cultural exceptional cases, and the needs of pupils in particular areas, thereby taking a number of local exceptions into account. I hope that that provides the reassurance that the noble Lord, Lord Clement-Jones, is looking for, and assure him that we are very much conscious of the needs of the tourism industry, as we are of the needs of education, and that we have got the balance right.