Schools given freedom from bureaucratic rules to have control over school day
All schools are now able to vary their school day to benefit their pupils.
Up until this September, if a local authority maintained school wanted to change its lunchtime, for example, by five minutes or extend its school hours, it had to go through a bureaucratic process which in some cases took up to three months. Foundation, foundation special, voluntary aided schools and academies were free from these restrictive regulations and so could already vary their school day.
Under the changes, which came into effect on 1 September 2011, the same freedoms are now extended to local authority maintained schools.
Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:
"We want to give teachers and heads more power over how they run their schools. It shouldn't be central government or detailed regulation that determines the time a school day starts or the length of the school lunch break. Academies have already benefited from this freedom and used it to help their pupils with catch up lessons or extra-curricular activities. We want all schools to benefit from this freedom if they choose to do so."
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... (DfE - 12 September)