The traditional long summer school holiday could become a thing of the past under proposals being drawn up by the government’s advisor on poverty.
Labour MP Frank Field told The Times on Saturday that the current school holiday timetable does “damage to those who are already disadvantaged”.
Field is to propose the school year be split in to four of five shorter terms with shorter breaks in an interim report as part of his Review on Poverty and Life Chances.
The current school term structure was said to be “out of kilter” with working mums and dated back to a time when children would help with fruit picking during the summer.
Field believes children from poorer background fall further behind their peers from more affluent families during a protracted period away from school.
The long summer holiday currently draws criticism from parents and consumer groups because travel firms increase their prices during what is the most popular six weeks of the year to travel abroad on holiday.
Suggestions that the school year could be broken up and staggered, so not everyone is on holiday, at the same time are not new.
This might solve the problem of inflated prices during a period of intense demand but the industry would be concerned about whether breaking up the summer break would dent overall demand.
And Field’s proposals for school holidays are not expected to be popular among teachers who see the long summer break as a chance to unwind and prepare for the new school year.