Sir Martyn Oliver has called for a rethink over the length of school holidays and warned that the longer summer break can cause “dysregulation” in some pupils.
Responding to a phone-in question on the radio about why school holidays in England were so short, Ofsted’s chief inspector suggested that the question should rather be whether current term times are long enough.
And he also suggested the issue of rebalancing the length of school holidays should be looked at again.
“In English state schools, there are 195 days that schools have to be open. Five of those are for teacher development and 190 days actually educating children - child facing...190 days of children going in out of 365. I think the question should be is that long enough?”
Summer holiday length can cause ‘dysregulation’
Last year, the Welsh government consulted the sector on extending the half-term holiday by a week and cutting the summer break.
However, plans to do so, which would have come into force in the 2025-26 school year, were paused until the next Welsh parliament.
Sir Martyn told LBC radio that the six-week summer holiday can cause “dysregulation” in pupils, especially those who are vulnerable or disadvantaged.
He added: “After a six-week holiday in the summer, that is when you’re often dealing with - we call it ‘dysregulation’ - when pupils are out of the routine of attending school regularly.”
“Once you have a big break, it makes it quite difficult,” the Ofsted chief continued.
“I think it probably is time to think about school holidays again. Some areas of the country have got slightly shorter summer holidays and equalled out the holidays so that you don’t go one week, two weeks, six weeks.”
‘Quite challenging’ to adjust holiday dates
This week, the government confirmed that the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme, which supports low-income families, is set to continue for the next financial year.
The Conservative government had considered shortening the summer holidays as part of the Covid-19 catch-up plan.
However, Sir Martyn’s predecessor Amanda Spielman warned at the time that similar experiments in the past had not been successful.
Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said that adjusting holiday dates can be quite “challenging”.
For instance, a teacher may have children in a school which changes its dates, but works at a school following a different term calendar, Mr Di’lasio added.
“It is also likely that parents will have mixed views, with some liking long summer holidays and others happy to have shorter holidays.”
Need to rebalance school calendar, report says
A recent report advocated for a “rebalanced school calendar” to be trialled in some areas due to challenges over the long summer break, including a lack of childcare and “holiday hunger”.
Lee Elliot-Major, one of the report’s authors and a professor of social mobility at the University of Exeter, told Tes that the length of summer holidays causes “so much disruption” to education.
“Reducing the long summer break and spreading school holidays more evenly across the year makes complete educational sense,” he said.
“It improves the wellbeing of pupils and the working lives of teachers, and balances out childcare costs for parents, with the added potential benefit of boosting academic results for many children.”
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