PLANS to overhaul the length of school days and holidays has been given a cautious welcome by headteachers in Worcestershire.

Education secretary Michael Gove believes the changes would improve pupil performance and help working parents.

He claims the current three term system with a six-week summer holiday was outdated as it had been designed for a 19th Century agricultural economy and risked leaving British children trailing their peers in Asia.

The reforms could allow state schools to choose to stay open until 4.30pm and introduce a shorter, four-week summer holiday for pupils from September next year.

Alun Williams, headteacher at Nunnery Wood High School, said there was an argument to be made for a review of the current system, but reforms needed careful co-ordination.

He said: “We shouldn’t discount the thought that what we do at the moment might be improved and changed.

“The summer holidays are very long - almost as long as the MPs’ holidays. But any changes should be based on sound principles that improve education and if they create additional staff needs, these should be funded.

“Gove is right that the system is historical. We’d much rather see a system where holidays are more evenly spaced and more consistent in length.

“Young people in Britain spend more time in school that most countries but ethics are different in different countries and it’s wrong to make the assumption that more time at school means better quality necessarily.

“It’s something worthy of debate and discussion. As an academy, we could make those changes now but as with any change there needs to be careful co-ordination with feeder schools and bordering counties.”

Vivienne Cranton, headteacher at Gorse Hill Primary School in Tolladine, echoed Mr Williams’ comments She said: “There’s something to be said for shortening the summer holiday as far as the children are concerned.

“In teaching, there isn’t a lot of time for reflection during a school day. My staff work from 8am to 6pm anyway.

“It may be that six weeks [for the summer holidays] is a little too long but what it does provide is time for reflection for professional practices, a break and preparing for the coming school year.

“We do run holiday clubs at Gorse Hill so we don’t have a full summer break normally. It would take careful planning.”

She added while Asian schools were successful in rote learning (a memorisation technique based on repetition), many overseas students attended British universities to develop their research skills which were taught to UK pupils throughout their school life.

Many independent schools and some academies and free schools already operate longer days.

Others have varied the structure of the school year to increase the number of terms.

Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), accused Gove of basing his proposal on “insidious rhetoric”.

She said: “Despite official figures showing that the average teacher works more than 11 hours of unpaid overtime each week; despite most teachers having to prepare and mark work in the evening and at weekends and despite many teachers voluntarily coming in during school holidays because they care about the future of their pupils, the secretary of state says that schools should be open longer. No facts, no evidence, just more insidious rhetoric.

“If Michael Gove wants to have a proper debate about working patterns in schools, ATL would be happy to get involved.”