We are looking at our school times in response to the government asking all schools to work 32.5 hours a week (this includes lunchtime) by September 2024. Currently, juniors start at 8.45 am and infants at 8.55 am although their classrooms are open and staffed from 8.45 am if parents want to drop them earlier. As a step towards 32.5 hours we are going to ask you to bring your infant children into school to start at 8.45 am this term. All children will then have the same start and finish times.
Following this we will be looking at how we find the remaining 75 minutes to bring our hours up to the new expectation of 32.5 hours per week by September 2024. It is worth noting that Woodside children can in fact already access this time by attending some of our many clubs and activities and that Woodside is open to children for the full 190 days a year while many schools are not. However, we are seeking to comply with the directive in the way that most benefits our children and which we can afford. We are currently looking at the possibility of finishing at 3.15 pm instead of 3.00 pm or having one day a week when all children attend some kind of activity after school until 4.15 pm. This would ensure that all children benefit from our high quality extra-curricular programme.
(This message was originally posted 20.7.23)