The Cabinet Member with the Children and Young People Portfolio introduced the report of the Group Director of People (previously circulated) requesting that consideration be given to setting school term date arrangements (also previously circulated) for Darlington maintained schools for the Academic Year 2023/24 and to publishing those arrangements by the end of September 2021.

The submitted report stated that following consultation with officers from Local Authorities across the North East and Yorkshire regions, a preferred term date model for the Academic Year 2023/24 was drafted; 42 schools within Darlington, including academies and free schools, and their respective Governing Bodies, had been consulted on the proposed school term dates; from the 33 responses that had been received to that consultation, 31 schools had expressed their preference for the dates in the model calendar; and outlined the additional comments that had been received from three of the schools.

Particular reference was made to the recommendation from the Department for Education, and agreed by Darlington Head Teachers, that the term dates for future years would be set by the Governing Bodies with Local Authorities suggesting a calendar, co-ordinating the consultation exercise and publishing the agreed results.

Reference was made at the meeting to the imbalance of the two half terms around the Autumn half term holidays and the reason for this.

RESOLVED – That the proposed school term dates for Darlington maintained schools for the Academic Year 2023/24, as detailed at Appendix 1 to the submitted report, be agreed for publication.

REASON - The draft dates are the ones preferred by the majority of schools and Governing Bodies that responded to the consultation, which ended on 2 July 2021.