30/04/2024
Parents/carers will shortly be invited into a meeting at their child's school to discuss the proposed changes to the school day.
Falkirk Council are proposing that:
Pupils in school all day from Monday to Thursday, with a lunchtime finish on a Friday.
The council says that the reduction to the school week would allow the council to remove non-class contact cover requirement and associated cost.
For secondary pupils, the change would be from 26.6 hours to 24.75 hours per week. Pupils would lose 20 days of teaching over the year.
This is against the recommendations of the Scottish Government which is seeking to make the minimum teaching hours 27.5 hours and has warned Falkirk Council these proposals would not be acceptable.
Falkirk Council is saying that other Local Authorities have this model of the early Friday finish which they do, however they have shorter lunches and earlier starts to make up the hours which is NOT what FC are proposing.
Other authorities which run the model of finishing early on a Friday are currently seeking to INCREASE their teaching hours not reduce them.
As we have no Parent Council the outgoing chair is deeply concerned at these proposals and urge you to attend any consultations and make your voices heard.