From September 2024 (following consultation with stakeholders), St Teilo's School will be operating an asymmetric week. It has been introduced to further raise standards in both teaching and learning, as well as improve well-being for both pupils and staff.
Teaching time is increased on a Monday – Thursday, so that the school day on Friday finishes at 1.15pm. By Friday lunchtime the pupils have completed all their lesson time and have the option of going home for the afternoon. The school continues to provide free childcare activities on the Friday.
Reasons for the implementation of an asymmetric week:
Professional Learning Opportunities
The asymmetric week will allow the school to increase professional learning time for staff and provide dedicated time for continuous upskilling of the workforce. This arrangement will trebled the time spent on professional learning (an additional forty hours a year), which we expect to significantly and positively impact on classroom practice.
Pupils will have more time with their teachers, as meetings and collaborative work is timetabled to take place on Fridays, and we try not to take teachers out of classrooms.
Staff working patterns will change to work to the asymmetric model. For half of the Friday afternoons, teachers have full afternoons for professional learning training, which could involve having outside providers, or in-house training, or working collaboratively on professional learning enquiries, or in professional learning communities for different areas of expertise. We will be sharing good practice with one another, as well as with our Federated School, Mary Immaculate Catholic Primary School. We sometimes work with other schools, in particular with the Tenby cluster of schools and Greenhill school to support transition and the continuity in provision.
The demands of staff training are ever increasing, with the implementation of major education reforms, including the New Curriculum for Wales, ALN transformation and new assessment measures. The asymmetric week will give the staff time to develop our school curriculum, pedagogy, assessment, policy, and practice.
Improving well-being
We hope for the asymmetric week to be good for children’s well-being; providing an extra-long weekend, and more family time for many pupils. Pupils who stay behind on the Friday afternoon report that they enjoy the social time with peers. A child’s right to play is one of the UNCRC Children’s Rights and is accepted universally. Article 13 of the convention states: Every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child.
On afternoons where there is not professional learning time scheduled, most staff can leave school and benefit from time with their families, helping to support their work life balance and well-being. Whilst being an incredibly rewarding career, teaching is also very demanding and challenging profession. Overwhelmingly staff already working with an asymmetric week report that this time has been beneficial for their health and well-being. A well-motivated and supported staff can reduce any issues around recruitment or retention. We aim to avoid any of these challenges of recruitment and rentention felt across the profession by fully supporting the development and well-being of our staff.
How does the Asymmetric Week work on Fridays ?
School starts at 8.40am
Finish time - 1.15pm
Important information to know
Lunchtime arrangements are as normal - all pupils can have a hot meal in school
Free activities for pupils 1.15pm – 3.14pm provided by school staff (staff hours are altered slightly to factor this provision in)
No additional costs to parents
Flexible pick up times on Friday afternoon. The flexibility that pupils can be collected at any time throughout the Friday afternoon (they do not have to wait until the end of the day), parents can turn up at the gate
Teilo Tots runs as normal