Change of School Hours

7th December 2018

Dear Parents/Carers,

The Governors and leadership team of the school have worked together to develop a much needed new structure to the teaching week at Mill Water.  The proposed re-structuring of your child’s school day is urgently needed to enable the leadership team to increase the amount of face-to-face interaction between all teaching staff.   Creating time within the school week for increased staff and leadership team collaboration and training will ensure the school continues to provide your child with the high quality teaching and support they currently receive.

The proposal is that, on Fridays school will begin at 9.00am and will finish at 2:15pm.
Monday to Thursday there will be no change and school will start at 9.00am and close at 3.15pm.
I plan to start the proposed weekly timings at the start of the Summer Term 2019.

The proposed timetable will enable all teaching staff to benefit from one hour per week of uninterrupted non-teaching time, which would be used productively in just some of the following ways:

  • Quality, uninterrupted training sessions for all staff; in particular, robust new staff inductions;
  • whole school training; enabling us to meet the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) needs for all staff and ever increasing specialist requirements;
  • increased time for team meetings at a class level, enabling teaching assistants to develop their role in supporting their class teacher in monitoring student learning, wellbeing and feedback on progress and behaviour;
  • providing supervision time for staff working with the most challenging and complex pupils.

We have produced a Frequently Asked Questions document which sets out the proposed teaching structure and answers what we expect to be some of the many questions parents may have regarding this change.  This is available online via our website.

Date for Diary

Parents are strongly encouraged to speak to the leadership team at school as part of the Parent Forum meetings.  These meetings will take place on Thursday 17th January from 1.45-2.45pm and again on Wednesday 23rd January from 6-7pm.  Alternatively, you can arrange a mutually convenient time to meet separately and discuss these changes and any individual concerns you may have. 

We are confident that the proposed structure will be a success for the school and your child and we look forward to working with you all towards that success.

Yours sincerely

Sarah Pickering
Headteacher

Consultation regarding change to end of day on Fridays
Frequently Asked Questions

  1. When will the new school day start and finish?
    From Monday to Thursday there will be no change.  School will start at 9.00am and close at 3.15pm. There will be a shorter lunch break. On Fridays, school will begin at 9.00am and will finish at 2:15pm.  This new timetable will be introduced at the start of the Summer Term 2019.

  2. Does this mean my child will be receiving less teaching time each week? 
    No.  Whilst the children will be going home one hour earlier each Friday, they will be gaining an extra 1 hour and 15 minutes in the classroom as a result of the shortened lunch break; meaning overall teaching time will increase slightly by 15 minutes a week.

  3. Why are these changes necessary? 
    Within the current structure of the school week there is no provision in the timetable to enable all staff to be out of the classroom at the same time other than in the 5 INSET Days, (only two of which are attended by all support staff).  This prevents the leadership team and teaching staff from having any regular meaningful provision for training, planning and reflection as a whole school.

  4. Why can’t staff come into school earlier or leave later one day a week to attend all staff meetings? 
    The school’s teaching staff already attend weekly meetings in school outside of normal teaching hours to ensure the children receive the best possible teaching.  However, many staff, in particular our teaching assistants, are employed to be on site from 9.00am to 3:30pm and for them to work beyond those hours would increase the staffing costs to the school.  Working within our budget, going forward, the school does not have the funding to meet the additional salary costs this would incur.

  5. How will the teaching staff be using the extra hour of non-teaching time each week?
    The new timetable will enable all teaching staff to benefit from one hour per week of uninterrupted non-teaching time, which would be used productively in just some of the following ways:
    • extended/additional whole staff meetings for communication with the leadership team; strategic planning and reflection; the raising and review of whole school issues and vision and discussion of general staff and teaching concerns;
    • quality, uninterrupted training sessions for all staff; in particular, robust new staff inductions;
    • providing medical update training as well as initial medical support and awareness training in a timely fashion;
    • whole school training; enabling us to meet the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) needs for all staff;
    • increased time for team meetings at a class level, enabling teaching assistants to develop their role in supporting their class teacher in monitoring student learning, wellbeing and feedback on progress and behaviour;
    • enhancing the whole school learning environment by providing time for staff to plan, create and evaluate learning resources and the use of specialist facilities;
    • providing supervision time for staff working with the most challenging and complex pupils.

  6. How will this benefit my child? 
    All organisations function best when the people within them are able to pause, reflect, learn and plan through their shared experiences. As a special school, the learning experience for the pupil/student comes from a class team of an average of 5 staff.  In the past many of our staff could give additional time at the start and end of the day to stay and discuss learning and wellbeing needs of pupils with their class teacher and jointly discuss and create plans to support this.  The impact of ‘frozen’ wages, inflation and the subsequent need to therefore increase income, has meant that the vast majority of our support staff now work additional jobs outside of school and whilst they remain willing and committed, they can no longer give this time to the school.  We know from teachers and support staff that this has placed a significant strain on their ability to meet and share information, receive updates and function as the effective teams they want to be. As a leadership team we do not want to let this situation impair the provision and outcomes we strive to achieve for our young people. Providing this valuable time for the teaching staff will positively impact on the quality of teaching, learning and assessment across the school.  Staff will be given time to work as one team to develop curriculum ideas and activities to ensure all students are offered a personalised curriculum to prepare them for their future.  We will also be focusing on the personal development of all of our teaching staff ensuring the school has and retains the best staff working for the best outcomes for all pupils.

  7. Has the school considered the difficulties this will create for many parents, in particular working families and those with other children to care for? 
    Parents can be assured that all concerns regarding this structural change on the lives of pupils and their families have been considered.  We acknowledge that this change will not be ideal for some families, but we are committed to working with any families who feel they will face particular difficulties to ensure they and their child are supported through the change process.  After careful consideration of the benefits to the wider school, weighed against the difficulties it may pose for some families, we remain committed in our conclusion that this will be a positive development for all.

  8. What other options did you look at for solving this issue and why have you concluded this is the best approach? 
    This decision has not been one we have reached lightly.  We have looked at how we could extend work hours, and whilst this would not be financially feasible, it would also have a detrimental impact on staff retention as many staff take the role as it fits in with the school pick up and drop off for their own children.  We have considered closing the school for additional INSET days, but again this does not provide regular meeting time for teams to grow and build the best provision around each child. Our prime concerns were to achieve the best outcomes for the students at minimum and ideally zero additional financial cost to the school.   To achieve those aims we concluded that the best option was to end the school day earlier or start the school day later on at least one day of the week. We chose Friday as we considered families and recognise that for working parents, Friday is often a day when flexible hours are available, an early finish is chosen and that it is also a day of the week when there are likely to be fewer after work meetings.

  9. Has the school confirmed with the transport providers that all children using the bus service will be collected at the new time every Friday? 
    Yes, if pupils cannot be collected on a Friday at 2.15pm, we would not be reducing the day.

  10. Who can I speak to at school about this significant change if my questions have not been answered here? 
    There will be two Parent Forum Meetings on Thursday 17th January from 1.45-2.45pm and again on Wednesday 23rd January from 6-7pm. If you would like to arrange a time to talk with a member of the Leadership Team and/or Governors, in addition to these meetings then please contact the School Office and we will endeavour to arrange a mutually convenient time with you.