The school day

Timings of the school day for 2022-23

• 08:50 pupils arrive on site 
• 09:00 Registration 
• 14:30 End of school day (14:00 Friday)

Holly House School Length of School Day 2024

Length of the School Week Non-Statutory Guidance July 2023 DfE

Overview: In March 2022, the Government introduced a non-statutory expectation of a 32.5 hour minimum core school week by September 2023. In July 2023 the deadline to meet this expectation was deferred to September 2024

This guidance applies to mainstream, state-funded schools in England, however, the guidance does not include specialist settings, such as special schools like Holly House School, as the government does not think it is appropriate to set such an expectation for specialist settings because they ‘support a wide range of pupils with diverse needs’:

“Specialist settings Specialist settings, including special schools and alternative provision, support a wide range of pupils with diverse needs and therefore currently structure their school week in more varied ways than mainstream schools. Therefore, the expectation for a minimum school week of 32.5 hours does not apply to these settings. However, specialist settings should share the overall ambition to increase the length of the school week, where it is beneficial for their pupils to do so.”

For Holly House School many pupils are transported significant distances and the ‘day’ for them can be a long one. Their ability to engage and learn requires them to be alert and within their optimum zone of arousal. This is very important for pupils whose primary needs are centred around SEMH. This requires Holly House to carefully manage the start and end to the school day and account for the total time a pupil is managing their emotional challenges.

Pupils are able to extend their school day through the Extended Day Provision which provides activities enabling pupils to build and develop social skills and supporting positive relationships and gain important life skills. This opportunity can be linked to the residential offer provided by our residential school team