Signal for Falkirk Council to change school holidays

A consultation which ran from November last year to January revealed that of the 9427 responses received 6275 were from parents, guardians or carers, and nearly 80 per cent of them were in favour of the proposal.

Pupils were also entitled to give their opinion and 972 made their feelings known, with 67.5 per cent of them in favour.

Employees too were consulted and of 2,137 responses received 79.3 per cent were in favour.

A report to Falkirk Council also reveals that there were 43 responses from Parent Councils, with 27 of them saying yes to the proposals.

The consultation ran alongside Stirling and Clackmannanshire councils.

Stirling’s results are not yet known but Clackmannanshire was overwhelmingly in favour of the change too.

If implemented, the proposals would mean new school year/term starting on the second full week in August rather than the third full week, while the October holiday would start on the Monday of the first full week in October and would last for two weeks.

Any changes will not come into effect until 2021 at the earliest.

The full results and the timing of any changes will be discussed at the first meeting of Falkirk Council’s emergency executive committee on Thursday, May 14.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you