School Day Consultation

SFI am writing to share with you some proposed changes to the structure of the school day at The Canterbury Academy.

The Department for Education has confirmed that all schools should plan to operate under a minimum expectation of a 32.5 hour school week.

As a result of this request from the Department for Education, we have needed to consider some changes to the timings and structure of the school day, in order to meet this expectation.

We are proposing to review the timings of the school day, so that that the day begins at 8.45am and ends at 3.15pm for all students in years 7-11.

Should this change be agreed, it will start from Tuesday 3rd September 2024.

We are also considering the move to having one breaktime and one lunchtime within the school day for all students in year 7-11. This is part of an ongoing review to continue to develop and improve the quality of service that our students can enjoy during break and lunchtimes.

Our break and lunch time plans will include increasing the number of venues in school where students can purchase food and drink items. The plans will also include offering hot and cold choices at every breaktime as well as every lunchtime.

Alongside the plans for additional venues and menu options at breaktimes and lunchtimes, we have also been reviewing the activities and spaces which can be made available to students at these times. We are looking to increase the number of social spaces open for each of the different year groups each day, as well as the number of clubs, indoor and outdoor activities, activities in the school library and the use of additional computer rooms for students to use every day at break time and lunch time.

The information regarding the proposed changes to the timings of the school day has been shared with Stagecoach, Kent County Council, our nurseries, other local primary and secondary schools and external after school club providers. We will continue to liaise with these partners to ensure that there will not be any disruption to any service as a result of these proposed changes.

We appreciate that the proposed changes may affect you as a parent, in terms of childcare or working arrangements, and that you may understandably wish to ask questions about this. We would be very grateful to receive any initial thoughts, feedback or ideas that you have about this, and we invite you to share these with us by contacting smowbray@canterbury.kent.sch.uk titling your email “New timings of the school day consultation”.

We would also like to invite you to a Parents’ Forum meeting on Thursday 25th April at 5pm at the Academy. This forum will be completely dedicated to feedback on these proposed changes, and we would be delighted to welcome as many of our parents as possible to join us at this meeting. If you are planning to attend please email smowbray@canterbury.kent.sch.uk, including in your email your child/children’s name and year group.

In addition to consulting with you on the proposed changes to the school day at The Canterbury Academy, we are also consulting on increasing our official capacity in the Sixth Form to 800 students. We have a large and inclusive sixth form offer, which includes a wide variety of academic and vocational qualifications. As a result of this offer, we are a very popular choice of destination for post 16 studies, and our sixth form students join us from a range of schools within east and mid-Kent, as well as from our own internal Year 11.

There is no official admission number for sixth forms, but schools are still required to list their capacity with the Department for Education. We have not updated our official number for some time, and this is why we are reviewing this and consulting on it as a proposed change.

The change of official number will have no impact on any aspect of the running of the Sixth form, and is simply an administrative change.

If you do have any questions regarding this proposed change of official number, we would like to invite you to share these with us by contacting smowbray@canterbury.kent.sch.uk, titling your email “Increased Sixth Form capacity consultation”.

Thank you very much for your ongoing support with these proposed changes. Results of all consultations will be shared by Friday 3rd May.

Yours faithfully,

Sarah Morgan
Head of School