Extended summer breaks leave pupils 'sluggish and forgetful'

October 05 2010

Long summer holidays are a thing of the past at a school in Manchester following a move by its principal Guy Hutchence to radically reshape the academic year.

The school has dispensed with the traditional model of three terms and a long summer holiday in favour of five terms of equal length with breaks in October, Christmas, Easter, April/May and July/August.

According those in teaching jobs at the school, the move will benefit pupils at the newly-opened East Manchester Academy as they often return from an extended break "sluggish and forgetful", the Manchester Evening News reports.

Furthermore, Mr Hutchence notes that the case for a long summer break has become harder to argue.

"The traditional school year is based on the old agricultural cycle, when children were needed to help with harvest," he said.

"It is based on a way of life that doesn't exist in urban Manchester."

The end of the long summer holiday was also recently championed by Frank Field, the government's poverty advisor, who said in an interview with the Times that disadvantaged children are more likely to fall further behind their more well-off colleagues when away from school for a prolonged period.

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