Letter to Parents: Proposed changes to the school day from 1 September 2025 at Outwood Academy Shafton
Fri 10 Jan 2025
Proposed changes to the school day from 1 September 2025 at Outwood Academy Shafton
Dear Parent/Carer
I write to inform you of some proposed changes to the structure of the school day for all secondary pupils across our Trust
In summary, the proposed changed school day is as follows:
- The start of the school day will not change. Students will need to arrive at school by 8:20am as they do now, ready for a prompt 8:25am start to lessons.
- The school day will end at 3:00pm each day, with optional enrichment activities ending at 3:45pm. Further details about the enrichment offer will be communicated in September.
Should the changes be approved, they will be effective from 1 September 2025.
Many secondary schools already have a much longer school day than our school does. As a result, some students in other schools have had a lot more time learning by the time they finish their compulsory education. We would be using the additional time to invest in more lesson time for pupils and a much improved Personal Development curriculum. We believe that these changes will be beneficial to the school community, and will have a positive effect on your child’s education.
In summary, the benefits for our students would be:
- 6 lessons per day and tutor time. Lessons would be slightly shorter and would now be 55 minutes long
- Tutor time in year groups (this is already the case in some of our academies)
- An extended Personal Development and RE curriculum for all year groups including in year 11 (currently LIFE lessons). Our pupils tell us that they would like more time to explore careers, work experience opportunities, learn about personal finance etc. This would all be factored into this new curriculum
- An additional flexible option choice in year 10 and year 11. This would provide extra support for pupils needing personal support to achieve their target grades in maths and english or be available as an extra qualification or certificate for students
- Two periods per week for PE in Key Stage 3
- The same broad Key Stage 3 offer as currently but with time in some areas to study topics in more depth and, therefore, be better prepared for GCSE studies
- Consideration of our Personal Development (LIFE) lessons being taught by each child’s tutor to support strong tutor relationships and ensure appropriate sensitivity when difficult topics are explored.
How the school day might look: Please note this is an example only and there will be some variance from academy to academy with lunch and break times.
- Arrival on Site 8:20am
- Start of the School Day 8:25am
- Period 1 8:25am - 9:20am
- Period 2 9:20am - 10:15am
- Tutor/ Break time 10:15am - 10:50am
- Period 3 10:50am - 11:45am
- Period 4/Staggered Lunch (30 Minutes) 11:45am- 1:10pm
- Period 5 1:10pm - 2:05pm
- Period 6 2:05pm- 3:00pm
- Optional Enrichment 3:00pm- 3:45pm
The information in this letter has also been shared with staff and governors, the local authority, local primary and secondary Headteachers and transport services. We will work together so that there is minimal disruption and any changes to school transport will be communicated to you as soon as we receive them.
We appreciate that these changes may affect you, in terms of childcare or working arrangements, and in terms of your child’s education. For this reason, I would like to invite you to give your feedback by completing a short form which can be found here. Paper copies of the form are available from the school Reception. Responses should be submitted/returned to the school by Monday 28 April, 2025. Please note that you do not need to respond about school transport as we are looking at this separately.
We will share the results of the consultation by Tuesday 6 May, 2025.
Yours faithfully,
Alison McQueen
Principal