The last week of the summer term can usually be written off as excitable children see the imminent approach of a long six-week summer holiday from lessons. But recently there has been talk of changing the school calendar and swapping three long terms for five shorter ones, bookended by a four-week summer vacation. One Bradford school pioneered this system and ten years down the line is still a champion of it. Education reporter Lyn Barton looks at what a radical shake-up of school terms has to offer.

Easter is the problem, according to John Lewis, headteacher of Dixons CTC.

"The whole of the school year is dictated by where Easter happens to fall," he says.

"This year it is very early and last year it was very late, so you have a choice of ridiculously short spring terms or a short summer term simply because of where Easter is."

The traditional school calendar consisting of three long terms is at the mercy of holidays like Easter which change from year to year.

However, when the CTC threw open their doors a decade ago, they did so under a radical new system which consisted of five eight-week terms, punctuated by a fortnight's holiday and a month-long summer vacation.

Ten years down the line and Mr Lewis says it is a system everybody should be looking towards.

"The issue of working hours and terms is very important for the college," says Mr Lewis.

"The existing three-term year did not make any real sense educationally."

Eight weeks is an optimum length of term: "It is long enough to get things done and not so long that teachers and pupils get over tired.

"We then have a fortnight break rather than a half-term and that is long enough for people to get refreshed and have a genuine break."

The five-terms system also fits in well around course modules for GCSE and A-levels, said Mr Lewis. Another advantage - although one that would be short-lived if all schools adopted a five-term year - is being able to take advantage of cheap off-peak breaks.

A number of local education authorities were consulting on the possibility of adopting a five-term system and although Bradford has ruled out doing it for the time being, the possibility exists in the future.

The move was motivated by fears that a six-week break was too long in the light of the fact that in many families both parents work and childcare arrangements are tricky for such a long holiday.

Also it was feared the break caused children to lose the momentum of their education.

And the system was thought to be out of date as it hailed back to when children were needed out in the fields in August to help bring the harvest in.

Teaching unions in Bradford have said they will need a great deal of convincing to support a change to a five-term year.

Ian Murch, of the NUT, said a shift made no logical sense and most countries had long summer breaks at school because children's minds wandered when the weather was good outside.

For the NASUWT, Ian Davey said his members would be utterly against a move as the six-week summer break was vital for teachers and pupils to recharge their batteries.

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