‘I love the four-day week’: a south London school is part of a quiet revolution

A quiet revolution is underway at a small independent school on the edge of a National Trust park in Morden, south London.

Classes are held in yurt-like tents, or ‘dens’, spread across the three-acre site, everyone speaks on a first-name basis, mental health is a cornerstone of the curriculum and, perhaps most controversially, students only have to come to school four days a week.

The Liberty Woodland school, for children aged four to 16, is one of the few schools in England to experiment with the traditional timetable for students and teachers, in response to concerns about children’s mental health and a shortage of teachers.

The school week in Liberty Woodland may be shorter, but the days are longer. Instead of the usual Monday to Friday from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm, the school day starts at 8:30 am and ends at 4:40 pm. There is no school for the students on Fridays. However, teachers are expected to do their best to support children online with any outstanding work, and to continue planning and marking.

The school opened its primary school in 2019 and five years later a small secondary school opened, with costs rising to just under £7,000 per term from January after VAT is added, in line with Labour’s manifesto.

Students described feeling overwhelmed at their former schools by the large class sizes and strict codes of conduct. Their families often chose Liberty Woodland for its emphasis on wellness.

A 14-year-old student who previously attended a mainstream high school believes Liberty Woodland has helped his mental health. He likes the International Baccalaureate curriculum, which he says allows him to study more deeply. He also likes to be home on Fridays.

“I like the four-day week,” he says. “Even though we have longer days, it has helped to have that one day less, when you are at home, in your own environment….”

Another boy from year 9 was one of the 1,500 students at his old school. “I had experiences with poor well-being. My parents started researching different schools… we came across this school.”

The school says the four-day week model is designed to provide students with “greater opportunities for independent exploration and personal development. This approach not only promotes independence, but also promotes a more balanced and fulfilling educational experience.”

“Most people do their work in the morning (on Friday),” says an eleven-year-old student. ‘You don’t do that have to do it on Friday. This can be done on Saturday or Sunday. Sometimes I play video games with friends.” Others enjoy playing football or horse riding.

“It’s an opportunity for children to explore their passions,” says the school’s headmaster and founder, Leanna Barrett, who previously ran a chain of woodland nurseries. “The world has changed drastically. I feel like the school hasn’t kept up with that. We need to find a better work-life balance.”

Faced with a crisis in recruiting and retaining teachers, schools across England are increasingly offering a range of incentives to make the job more attractive.

All Saints Catholic college, a state secondary school in west London, gives teachers two free periods a week to let them sleep in, while Dixon’s academies trust, which runs 16 schools and one college, recently introduced a nine-day period for teachers. .

A petition to parliament calling for a four-day working week, with the same number of school hours spread over four instead of five days, received more than 40,000 signatures. Reports from the US suggest that more than 2,000 schools in 26 states have switched to a four-day week.

Since Covid, school attendance in England has fallen and more pupils are on reduced timetables, often due to anxiety and illness. Meanwhile, the government is struggling to attract enough graduates to become teachers because of wages and workload.

Joe Ryle, the director of the 4 Day Week Campaign, which calls for a reduction in working hours without a pay cut, said: “A four-day week for teachers could solve the serious recruitment and retention crisis in our schools. Unless we address work-life balance for teachers, the government’s promise to recruit an additional 6,500 teachers in England will be meaningless.”

However, a four-day week for pupils in English state schools may be a step too far. A Department for Education spokesperson said: ‘We will not reduce the amount of time children in England spend in school.

“Every hour in the classroom helps break down the barriers to opportunity for young people and our plan for change sets out our mission to give every child the best chance in life, breaking the link between background and success.”