To approve the school term and holiday dates for community, voluntary controlled, community special schools and maintained nursery schools for 2020/21, as set out in the calendar identified at Appendix 1 to the report.

*PLEASE NOTE This decision was originally published on or near the date of the decision and so call in no longer applies. It has been re-published as part of the change in committee management system that we use.*

School employers are required to set the term dates of their school year. Employers are: the local authority in community, voluntary controlled and community special schools and maintained nursery schools; the governing body in foundation and voluntary aided schools; the academy trust in academies and Free Schools. The Education (School Day and School Year) (England) regulations 1991 require all maintained school to educate their pupils for at least 380 sessions (190) days in each school year. These regulations do not apply to academies and Free Schools; the academy trust is responsible for deciding the length of the school year but it is hoped that for consistency across North Yorkshire all schools will adopt the recommended term dates. In addition to these teaching days each school has five professional development (PD) days for teaching staff. As in previous years the Authority has proposed three of these days. The remaining two days will be identified by each school from the calendar.

A consultation to determine a school calendar for 2020/21 was launched on 1 February 2019 and closed on 28 February 2019. All maintained schools and academies, teachers’ associations, trade unions and other local authorities across Yorkshire and the North East were consulted. The draft calendar is broadly in line with proposals from our neighbouring LA’s in which the majority of cross border pupils reside.