LISTEN: West Dunbartonshire Council Cuts School Day To Save Cash

A Scottish council is cutting school hours because it is strapped for cash. Classes at primary schools across the West Dunbartonshire Council area will not start until 9.30am every day. School assemblies and "golden time" for kids would be the first non-teaching activities to be dropped.

Making the school day shorter would save more than £1million.

Our reporter Connor Gillies has more:

A spokesperson from West Dunbartonshire Council, said: "Funding to West Dunbartonshire Council has reduced by 22% over the past five years and further reductions are predicted in future. The Council opposes these cuts but must take tough decisions to balance its budget."

"One of these decisions is to change the primary school week from 25 hours to 22.5 hours per week. This will match the 22.5 hours per week that teachers are currently contracted to spend in the classroom. A number of other Councils are currently considering similar changes."

"In the current timetable the 2.5 hours in question are currently provided by teachers who are not the pupils usual class teacher, and may in some cases include periods of ‘golden time’ or assemblies. The new timetable would be shorter but the teaching time with the class teacher remains protected and will deliver our pupils a high quality of education."

"The Council will begin a consultation with parents in March to see how best to introduce this change. That could include increasing capacity in breakfast clubs and starting the school day at 9.30am, or ending the school day at 2.30pm each day. Alternatively it could be keeping the current hours of 9am to 3pm from Monday to Thursday and finishing the school day at lunch time on Fridays. Other patterns are also possible."