Urgent request for iinformation on pupil dats

[Jean Walker]

Could anyone quickly find out for me how many days a year pupils attend school in various countries? I am having a heavy debate with our shadow minister who is contending that our state PISA/TIMMS results are a consequence of fewer school days than other states and I'd like some ammunition, especially feom countries who did well such as Finland, Sweden, Korea and Japan.

[David Wilson]

Jean:

I've spent a while scouring the Web and the only thing I've been able to come up with so far, and that relates to Europe only, is the Eurydice document Organisation of school time in Europe (2004/05 school year) downloadable from:

http://www.eurydice.org/Doc_intermediaires...and_struct.html

You won't find a straight answer there to the question how many days in the year schools are open - just term and holiday dates. There's also the issue whether it's a school day when only the staff have to come in for in-service training - if I recall correctly we in England have 5 of those annually.

Is this any help?

David Wilson

http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/

[Graham Davies]

Didn't the 1944 Butler Education Act specify "sessions" rather than "days" - a "session" being a morning or afternoon? I seem to recall this vaguely from my training back in the 1960s, but my memory may be failing... Was it 400 sessions?

[Mike Tribe]

There's no official maximum or minimum in Spain, although the ministry recommends 175 days as a guideline.

[Mike Tribe]

There's no official maximum or minimum in Spain, although the ministry recommends 175 days as a guideline.

I have no idea how I managed to post this twice....

Edited February 17, 2005 by mike tribe

[David Richardson]

Here's the data from my daughter's school:

Autumn Term: 16th August 2004 - 21st December 2004

Holidays: 22/9 (INSET day), 18/10 - 22/10

Spring Term: 10th January 2005 - 10th June 2005

Holidays: 21/2 - 25/2

14/3 - 15/3 (INSET days)

29/3 - 1/4 (Easter)

21/4 (INSET day)

6/5 (INSET day)

[David Wilson]

"sessions" rather than "days" - a "session" being a morning or afternoon

Quoting Length of school day/year at:

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/at...x.cfm?code=main

"Schools must open for 380 half-day sessions (190 days) in each school year, beginning with the first term to start after July. This is consistent with the 195 days a year required by a teacher's statutory conditions of service: the additional five days are for in-service training."

Pupils in England are registered at the beginning of each morning and afternoon session on the days they attend school.

After a very time-consuming search, I was able to track down a site offering access to information about school year length in days in twenty countries, from Australia to Wales. Follow the instructions at:

http://www.inca.org.uk/faq_organisation.asp

Hope this helps.

David Wilson

http://www.specialeducationalneeds.com/

[Jean Walker]

Thank you all very much - this is really appreciated. What a great resource you all are.

[Jean Walker]

PS If I've done my sums correctly that means Sweden has 179 teaching days and 5 INSET days, which is interesting because that's fewer teaching days than many other countries, but you always do well in International tests (naturally) which is evidence of the point I want to make that number of teaching days is a simplistic corellation to outcomes. We have 190 in Tasmania compared with 196 in Victoria and that''s being put forward as the reason why we did less well in the TIMMS/PISA tests!!