More than a third of schools use traditional school hours; almost two-thirds do not

More than a third of primary schools (37%) use what we call the traditional school-hours model:

  • School starts between 8:30 and 8:45 a.m. and finishes between 2:30 and 3:30 p.m.
  • Children eat lunch at home or attend lunchtime supervision at school.
  • Children have Wednesday afternoons off.

Almost two-thirds of primary schools (62%) no longer use traditional school hours:

  • A quarter of primary schools (26%) use a continuous schedule: a short lunch break at school, Wednesday afternoons off (and often the younger pupils also have Friday afternoons off), with the school day often ending at 2:45 p.m.
  • Likewise, a quarter of primary schools (24%) use the five-equal-days model: five days with identical school hours, no afternoons off, a short lunch break at school, and the school day often ending at 2:00 or 2:30 p.m.

The situation is stabilizing

In the 2011–2012 school year, more than three-quarters of primary schools (77%) still used traditional school hours. That percentage is now 37%.

Over the past two years, the situation has changed slightly: in the 2017–2018 school year (two school years ago), 41% of primary schools still used traditional school hours; this school year, the percentage has declined slightly to 37%.

Reasons for moving away from traditional school hours

The main reason for primary schools to move away from traditional school hours is that the (relatively) long lunch break caused problems. Many schools had difficulty finding enough parents or other volunteers to supervise the children at school during the lunch break. And because the children were supervised by many different people during the break, there was too much disruption among the pupils.

Another important reason for switching to a different school-hours model is that parents themselves indicated that they would prefer different school hours. With a short lunch break at school (children no longer go home for lunch), parents only have to drop off and pick up their children once a day, allowing them to organize their day more flexibly.

You can download the report here.