10-hour days and 4-week summer break at London's first free school
Children at London's first free school face 10-hour days and will get only four weeks' summer holiday.
The Aldborough E-ACT primary school in Redbridge opens in a former community centre on Thursday with a major shake-up of the traditional school day. One of 24 free schools opening across Britain this autumn, it is the first in London.
Its reorganisation of the timetable is intended to boost attainment and help parents with child care problems.
It follows Education Secretary Michael Gove's call for a holiday system shake-up. Pupils will arrive at 8am and leave at 6pm, and to make up for the two weeks lopped off the traditional six-week summer break, two half-term holidays will each be extended to two weeks.
Principal Nicola Percy, who moved from Brunei totake up the post, said: "You do see a dip in children's performance when they come back after the long summer break.
"It is a historical model from the days when children had to bring in the crops.
"It is a model that children and teachers have got quite comfortable with. But parents struggle with child care over the summer and are very willing to give this new model a try."
The school is being set up by education charity E-ACT. Mark Greatrex, director of development at E-ACT and chairman of Aldborough governors, said: "Pupils get incredibly bored over the summer holidays and parents struggle with child care costs. We are trying to break it up a little.
"This is the main structural innovation that we are able to do because we are setting the school up from scratch."
He added that Aldborough will not adhere to national conditions of service for teachers, in order to enable them to take part in the school's breakfast club and after-school activities.
The charity has not been able to introduce the change at the 11 academies it already runs because it would be "impractical" to change the
conditions of so many teachers who are at an existing school, said Mr Greatrex.
Teachers at the new free school will all be provided with tablet computers similar to iPads to track the progress of children every day.
E-ACT decided to set up a free school in Redbridge because of the lack of primary school places in the area, added Mr Greatrex.
"Until parents join the system they don't realise there is a big shortage of places," he said.
"It is only when you apply to a school and you can't get in that you start to kick back.
"In April we got a massive surge in the number of parents supporting the free school bid, because they had been rejected from the school of their choice."
