22 March 2016
States schools will close a day earlier than planned this Christmas after the decision to give all public sector staff a day in lieu of Liberation Day 2015, which fell on a Saturday.
Education Minister Deputy Rod Bryans said “We’ve worked with the unions to find the most suitable day for our teachers to take their day and we’ve agreed that the most sensible option is to bring forward the end of term by 24 hours. I hope students and staff enjoy the extra day’s holiday and families take the chance for some extra quality time with their children so that everyone returns in the New Year refreshed and ready for learning.”
All States primary and secondary schools will close for Christmas on Thursday 15 December this year, including Jersey College for Girls and Victoria College. Private schools such as Beaulieu, De La Salle and FCJ, are not part of the agreement and do not have to follow the same term dates.
Pupils at States schools have to attend for 187 days per academic year. Teachers work an extra three ‘inset’ days, which are used for training or professional development. One of these is the day of the International Air Display each year.
In 2017 one of the three training days could change to enable schools to be more innovative in their staff training. Head teachers have been given the flexibility to move the inset day currently scheduled for 18 April 2017.
Chief Education Officer Justin Donovan said: “Good teachers can learn from each other but they don’t have many opportunities to do this at the moment. Giving them more control over this one day means teams can visit colleagues in other schools to share ideas and best practice. This will benefit their students and is exactly what we aimed to do when we launched the Education Business Plan. I am glad this has come to fruition.”
All term dates for Easter 2017 will be finalised by the end of the summer term this year to ensure parents have plenty of notice.
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