Length of school day/year

Main text
Legislation
Further information

Schools must open for 380 half-day sessions (190 days) in each school year, beginning with the first term to start after July. This is consistent with the up to 195 days a year required by a teacher's statutory conditions of service: the additional up to five days are non-teaching work days. The local authority (LA) is responsible for setting holiday and term dates in the case of community and voluntary controlled schools. The term dates for foundation and voluntary aided schools are decided by their governing bodies

Before making changes to the start or end times of daily school sessions, the governing body or LA must go through the consultation procedure outlined in Statutory Instrument 1999 No. 2733: The Changing of School Session Times (England) Regulations 1999, for which there is accompanying guidance. The DCSF recommends wide consultation and, if any changes are made, that ample notice be given so that parents, teachers and others can plan accordingly. These regulations apply only to community, community special and voluntary controlled schools. They do not apply to foundation, foundation special, or voluntary aided schools whose management of such change is controlled only by the general legal principle that they should act reasonably and therefore should consult reasonably.

Yearly number of sessions
Any school in England must by law meet for 380 half-day sessions (190 days) in each year, unless it is prevented from meeting (e.g. by a domestic emergency such as a flood or fire, by bad weather etc). Schools must make up lost days where it is reasonably practicable.

The Power to Innovate has been set up as schools and LAs wishing to test innovative approaches to raising standards may find that they want to challenge existing legislation. If that is the case it may be possible to exempt a school or LA from that legislation for a time-limited period using the Power to Innovate.

In order to apply for the Power to Innovate you will need to know which specific piece of legislation you will want to apply to be exempt from. You will also need to:

provide evidence to show why you believe your proposal could raise educational standards
consider the likely effect of the proposed pilot on all the children who may be affected by it
consult with all appropriate people who may be affected by the pilot
consider how the pilot will run for a time-limited period
plan how you will monitor and evaluate the pilot.

The governing body decides when sessions should begin and end on each school day. Sessions must allow enough lesson time to deliver a broad and balanced curriculum that includes the national curriculum and religious education. Schools are free to decide the length of each lesson but current recommendations per week are as follows: