A primary school in Wales has taken the unusual step of giving pupils Friday afternoons off, because they’re “too tired”.
Neyland Community School in Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, will finish at 12.25 on Fridays from September, rather than at 3.20.
School officials insisted the move was not to save money, but to give the kids “greater family time” – and said they hoped it would “raise standards and improve outcomes for learners across the school”.
And while some parents have been supportive, with one mum saying it was a “really good idea” because “by Friday afternoon the kids are burnt out and don’t take anything in”, others have expressed concern about the impact the decision will have on working parents.
One dad told Metro: “This is ridiculous. Both my wife and I work so this will mean one of us having to take Fridays off too to look after our kids.”
But the school said that to avoid putting extra pressure on parents, they would provide free afternoon activities until 3pm.
A spokeswoman for Pembrokeshire County Council said that teachers wouldn’t be given Friday afternoons off.
“Teachers will have no change in their current contracted working hours – just in the way they work them,” she said.
“If we cannot utilise Friday afternoons in this way then teachers will end up being regularly taken out of class for training. Naturally this results in disruption for the children and supply teacher costs, both of which we really want to avoid.”