Suffolk: Complaint sent to Unity Trust over half-term change

On April 17, parents of children who attend schools that are part of the Unity Schools Partnership (USP) regarding the changed to the school term received a reply from USP CEO, Tim Coulson.

The USP is in charge of 32 schools in Suffolk, and one in Essex.

They are going to extend the October half-term by five additional days and extending the school day by 10 minutes.

This decision will affect 13,870 pupils across Suffolk and 14,407 across the Trust.

This decision caused anger with parents, who set up a petition which had 500 reponses, with Haverhill parents voting overwhelmingly against, with 82% slamming the changes.

Mr Coulson responded to this, saying that their poll received 2,349 responses, with 1,287 in favour and 1,062 against.

Stephen Husband, who started the petition, and has children at Haverhill Primary School and younger children in nursery, said: "I see two problems with these stats.

Stephen Husband, a concerned parent who started a petition against the extension of half-terms. Credit: Stephen Husband (Image: Stephen Husband)

"The first is that Unity has 32 schools with 14,400 students, meaning that the response rate was only 16%.

"This is a pitiful attempt to gather opinions of all Unity parents.

"The second problem is that, although the majority who responded did vote in favour, this was only marginally.

"45% responded with not wanting this to go ahead.

"If this was a vote for the most popular flavour of crisps, then fair enough, but this was a vote for our children's education.

"45% means that 4.5 in 10, nearly half of all kids in a school, will be negatively effected by this.

"Through the consultation and the awareness campaign started by worried parents, Unity now have a substantial amount of feedback.

"A trial of this is not needed, they need to go back to the drawing board and plan this in the right way."

An official complaint has now been sent to Unity.