School summer holidays in England should be cut to four weeks, report says

School’s in for summer? Under the recommendations, pupils would see their holidays cut short, with more time off in winter. Photograph: Anthony Devlin/Getty Images

England should ditch its school calendar “stuck in place since Victorian times” and replace it with shorter summer holidays and longer half-term breaks to improve the lives of pupils and teachers, according to a new report.

The report on tackling post-pandemic education inequalities, part of a project funded by the Nuffield Foundation to be published next month, is to recommend an overhaul of the school calendar that could see summer holidays in state schools reduced from six weeks to four, while half-term breaks in autumn and winter could each be extended from one week to two.