A school in the UK is facing backlash for changing the Friday hours

What do you think?

A school in the UK decided to change their Friday hours and finish early. Their reason for doing so was to save money and so that the teachers could get paper work done. However, this news has not gone down well with parents who think that the teachers just want a half day every Friday. According to The Sun, Danemill Primary School in Leicester, sent a letter home to parents suggesting that the pupils should finish at 1:05pm on Fridays, from October. The parents are annoyed because it will mean that some of them will have to take time off work to mind their children for the extra few hours that they should have been in school. One dad, Graeme Harford, 39, has said:

“My wife works full time in Leicester and I work for myself so if we can’t get child care I’ll have to pick them up. That means losing half a day’s pay on a Friday. I understand the school wanting to save money but having a Poets Day every week isn’t the way to do it. Kids go to school to be taught, why can’t teachers plan lessons at home? They have 13 weeks holiday every year after all.”

Poet's Day, as Graeme has dubbed it, is slang for a doss day. The initial letter sent home to parents from the Principal said:

“Effective from October 24, 2017 the school day would end on Friday afternoons at 1.05pm, lunchtime and Wrap Around Hours will remain unchanged on Fridays. It is good practice to provide teachers with Planning and Preparation Time (PPA) and this is covered by our Learning Support assistants during the week. The implementation of this new timetable will allow teachers to have their PPA together on Fridays afternoons and your child will continue to have quality first teaching during the rest of the week. This means you will be able to pick up your child from school at 1.05pm on Friday afternoons. However we appreciate this may initially cause problems for some parents and carers and we will offer a limited number of enrichment activities for the children on Friday afternoons, these sessions will be free of charge in the first instance and will finish at 3.20pm."

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