Consultation – adjustments to the school day

Many of the enrichment activities after school will be open to students across different year groups, so students will be able to socialise with friends who aren’t in the same group during the day.

Yes, but this is not connected to the changes to the school day timings.Many of you will be aware that, in previous years, students in Year 11 have been able to leave the site at lunchtimes. In response to safeguarding advice, this won’t continue for future years. This decision is unrelated to the changes proposed above, although we do hope that the earlier finish of the teaching day and the offer of a range of clubs and intervention and revision activities after school will give students flexibility about how they use their time and help make their final year as successful and enjoyable as possible. We will be consulting with our current Year 10 students to consider ways we can improve their experience at social times in Year 11.

There will be a range of enrichment activities available after school every day, so if you prefer, your child will be able to stay in school and remain supervised until 3.30pm every day

We would be delighted to hear from anyone who would be interested in helping with enrichment activities. Just contact the school with your ideas and we’ll take it from there. We would complete a DBS check for all volunteers before they started.

We’ve listened to your feedback and now we will be starting just 5 minutes earlier – so students should be able to adapt without too much difficulty.

We’ve checked the time against all our regularly used bus routes and the new start time works just as well (better in some cases). We acknowledge of course that bus times change on a regular basis and this is beyond our control. We would ask that any families with concerns about a particular bus route get in touch with us to discuss.

No, there is no impact on the cost of staffing or running the school. All colleagues will continue to work the same number of hours at the same rate of pay. It’s about trying to use the resources we have as effectively as possible to support the students’ experience. There is no other motivation behind the change.

We don’t believe so. In a complex site like this, students need time to get from one lesson to another. In the past, this has been absorbed into the lesson time; by making the movement time explicit, students are clear how long they have to get to their next lesson and the start of the lesson is prompt and orderly. The teacher can plan a focused lesson for 55 minutes. Our experience suggests that students get at least as much learning this way and transition between lessons is calmer and less stressful, especially for students with additional needs.

We are keen to support families as far as we can but recognise that the issue of how much time students spend on screens is a complex one. A great offer of enrichment should mean most students stay on after school at least some days, so overall the change isn’t necessarily a significant one. In practice, changing timings by at most 40 minutes is unlikely to make a big difference one way or another on how students balance their time across a week: students have many hours of free time and many influences on how they spend it. We aim to make it as easy as possible to complete their school day and homework (supervised in school if this helps) and hopefully do some additional activities; and then give students and their families some flexibility over how they spend their time. For some students, this might be as much structured activity as they can comfortably manage and they might benefit from the opportunity to finish early some days and get some down time. Some will have external commitments later in the day and a break before these begin is something they have told us they would welcome. Others will be able to do things like collect siblings from primary school or have a part time job.

Yes, we aim to keep the Library open at break and lunchtimes as we do now. The only difference is that some of the adult-led clubs won’t happen in the same way at lunchtime but will move to after school.

• There would be five taught lessons each day, each of 55 minutes with 5 minutes movement time beforehand. Currently, there are three 55 minute lessons with movement time before and two of 60 minutes. Our experience suggests that having movement time beforehand allows for a prompt and purposeful start to a lesson and that the overall learning experience is at least as positive as for a 60-minute lesson.

• Form time will be 20 minutes, reduced from 25 minutes.

• Break time will be 15 minutes – no change.

• Lunch time will be 30 minutes, reduced from 40 minutes (but split, so waiting time is much reduced)

• Enrichment activities lasting 50 minutes will be available each day.

We anticipate that students will attend at least two enrichment activities each week. That would mean a student was in school for 32 hours 25 minutes each week. Where students and/or parents wish it, students can of course be in school for longer, up to around 34½ hours per week.

No – we don’t want to force anyone to do enrichment activities, but we hope to encourage high levels of attendance for all students in the following ways:

• Above all, by having a varied, high quality offer with a wide range of activities to suit all students.

• Listening to what students would value and enjoy.

• Allowing colleagues to play to their strengths and follow their own interests, so activities are fun and engaging.

• Educating students about the benefits of attending different clubs and activities, whether to build social skills, keep healthy, improve wellbeing or support their academic progress.

• Building links between activities and taught subjects, post-16 choices and careers.

• Offering targeted support where any barriers are identified for specific groups or individuals.

• Insisting on a culture of acceptance across the board, where anyone can have a go at anything and feel welcome.

We already have good attendance at lunchtime and after school clubs and whatever happens we are keen to get engagement levels even higher and reach all students. We’re confident the proposal would help deliver a step-change in participation levels across the school.

The new arrangements mean that students will no longer need to queue if they bring their own lunch to school, which will also reduce queueing time for other students.

We expect that, although the start time is a little earlier, traffic is likely to be less busy at this time, so journey times should, in general, be reduced.

Yes, there will be staff from the inclusion team available from 8.15am to help students prepare for the school day ahead. In many cases that will mean preparing them to join Period 1 at 8.30am but where additional bespoke arrangements are needed, these will continue or be put in place in consultation with parents/carers.