Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of schools in England that have reduced their school day opening hours in the last 12 months.

All schools in England have the autonomy to decide the structure and duration of their school day, which includes the flexibility to decide when their school day should start and finish. The Department has not made an estimate of these decisions taken by individual schools in England.

Maintained schools are required to be open to educate their pupils for at least 380 sessions (190 days) each school year. Maintained schools cannot lawfully reduce the length of the school week if this takes the total number of sessions below that.

In the event that a school decides to make changes to its school day, it is expected that the school should act reasonably when making such decisions; giving parents notices and considering the impacts on those affected.