Spring break in school year deal

Pupils will still have a six-week summer holiday

A fixed two-week spring school break is proposed for a new-look term timetable - rather than moving each year to follow Easter.

Agreement on a standardised school year has been reached by a teachers' union and local authorities.

The second biggest teachers' union, the NASUWT, has settled a dispute with councils over changes to term times.

The union says the deal could prevent "chaos and confusion" from different term dates in different areas.

The summer holiday would remain broadly similar to the current six weeks, with pupils returning early in September.

Equal terms

The NASUWT (National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers) has reached an agreement with the Local Government Association (LGA) over the shape of a new school year for 2005-06.

The intention is to produce terms that are of a more equal length - with the biggest change being the fixing of a two-week break in April.

The NASUWT's acting general secretary, Chris Keates, said the deal "should bring an end to the chaos, confusion and confrontation generated in many parts of the country by local education authorities pursuing a wide variety of different patterns of term dates".

This will also resolve disputes between the union and local authorities where changes are being adopted - and where there have been complaints about different systems operating in neighbouring authorities.

Breakdown

The school year being proposed by the union and the LGA would begin as near as possible to September 1 - and the first session would be until a half-term break in the third week of October.

There would still be a two-week break at Christmas and a week's break in mid-February. There would then be a seven-week stretch until a two-week break in early April, which would not necessarily include the Easter bank holiday weekend.

The next block of learning would run until a half-term break in early June - and the summer term would then finish in the third week of July, when a six-week summer holiday would begin.

Apart from fixing a spring break, there is little change from the current pattern.

This will mean there will be no impact on the debate about whether families are being over-charged when they take their holidays in the peak summer months.