Since September 2011, governing bodies of all maintained schools have been free to structure their school days, subject to satisfying a few conditions. 

In the current climate, school leaders are seriously considering creative ways to maximise their school's funding while, at the same time, keeping the school safe and ensuring that pupils receive their full entitlement within the prescribed directed time for staff.

Recent media attention has highlighted a growing interest among school leaders to consider reducing the school week as a means of keeping the school safe and, at the same time, saving money.

This paper simply sets out the considerations that headteachers, school leaders, and governing bodies must and should consider if the prospect of reducing the school week to keep it safe and save money trumps the reasons for continuing to operate a more conventional school week model for staff, pupils and parents at their school and in their communities.