Issue details

Proposed decision:

To alter the school academic calendar 2022-23 for local authority-maintained school to allow for the additional bank holiday on 19 September 2022.

Reason for Decision:

In England, local authority-maintained schools operating according to the School Teachers’ Pay and Conditions Document (STPCD) must open for 195 days.

Of these, a maximum of 190 days involve teaching children and young people. The remaining five days are non-teaching days when teachers may be asked to undertake other duties related to their role as a teacher. These are often known as in-service training (INSET) days.

The school term dates for Kent community, voluntary-controlled, community special or maintained nursery schools are determined by KCC and the local authority is the employer.

Proposal

In the DfE guidance National Mourning Advisory Education Guidance under section 15 - Bank Holidays, it states:

The bank holiday announcement will not mean teachers will be required to teach an additional day. The DfE will reduce the minimum number of sessions for this school year via regulations and change the definitions in the schoolteachers’ pay and conditions document for the current year.

In essence, teachers will teach one less day for the academic year 2022/23, down from 195 to 194 (including INSET days), or down from 190 to 189 (excluding INSET days) across 1,258.5 hours as opposed to 1,265 hours of directed time. An extra day of holiday will therefore need to be allocated by KCC as the employer.