Families may not be able to spend holidays together - says parent as Chesterfield school goes against council holiday dates

St Mary's Catholic High School has announced different holiday dates for 2024/2025 academic year from those set by the council.

The council suggests holidays for schools across the county, but each educational institution is allowed to make some changes and go against the recommendations.

While the council has suggested the school year should start on September 4, 2024, pupils will return to classrooms at St Mary's Catholic High School slightly earlier, on September 2.

Easter break will start on Saturday, April 5 in majority of Derbyshire schools, but at St Mary's, it will be a week later – on April 11, 2025.

Pupils will return to school on April 28 rather than 22 like in other schools. The academic year will end on July 18 – rather than on July 25 as suggested by the council.

After the term dates were announced some parents have been left concerned about holidays not aligning between siblings attending different schools – with many feeder schools sticking to the council dates.

One of the parents affected, who wished to remain anonymous, said: “This is going to have a significant impact on local families with relationships to the school. Several of St Mary’s main feeder schools are sticking with the council dates, creating a situation where siblings will be off at different times. This will also impact anyone working in education with children either at the High School or at feeder schools who are aligning with them.

“As the majority of schools are aligning, the options for holiday camps are few and unlikely due to the low numbers requiring this provision, and camps that are available will come at additional costs during a time when budgets are already stretched. This is also problematic where both parents work in education and cannot take the time off.

“Whilst the High School have every right to choose their term dates, there seems to be little rationale and consideration for this. The only rationale given is to allow Catholic families time off over the holy dates, however this seems like clutching at straws given this year they are in school right up to Good Friday.

“In my situation, one parent is a teacher and we have another child in another school, so as a family we cannot have a two week holiday together and I will have to utilise holiday allowance to look after our child. This reduces the amount of holiday I can take to spend as a family.

"While we can probably work around this, there will be a lot of families who cannot or won't realise until its too late. This communication appears to largely be under the radar from the schools deviating so many parents will also be unaware of this issue they may be facing. Parents at the feeder school my child attends are unaware of this. It raises the question are parents at other feeder schools aware?"

Following the concerns a spokesperson for the school’s headteacher said: “St Mary’s Catholic High School always liaises with its main Catholic feeder schools regarding term dates, which we did regarding the dates for Easter 2024/2025.”