Parents 'short changed' by cuts in school times
Parents are angry about changes that see students at an English Schools Foundation school out of school during what they consider to be school hours.
South Island School has introduced a new timetable where students start school at 10am on Tuesdays and finish at 1.30pm on Fridays to allow for teachers' professional development. The school day normally runs from 7.55am to 3.10pm.
Parent Mary Mason, whose children are in Years Eight and Ten, said: 'They're losing three hours and 40 minutes a week as far as schooling is concerned. It's supposed to be self-education time but the teachers don't set the children any work at all.'
She added that the hours posed a problem for parents if they could not supervise their children at those times.
Another parent, Mark Taylor, who has complained to the school's principal John Wray, said the late start on Tuesdays meant children slept in because their teachers had not allocated any extra work.
But Mr Wray said no class time was being lost because time was made up by reducing assemblies and shortening lunch breaks.
The parents also criticised the school's move to increase lesson time to two hours.
Glyn Davies, who has children in Years Nine and 11, said: 'Anything more than an hour and people just switch off.'
Chair of the parent-teacher association Stephen Fong Keng-Kong said parents had been consulted and the majority was comfortable with the changes.
