SCHOOLS across Merseyside may scrap traditional Easter holidays within two years.
The move is part of a radical plan to standardised term times across the region.
After top-level talks, education officials from Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley, Wirral, Halton, St Helens and Warrington have agreed in principal to shaking up school holidays and term times.
It is hoped the change, expected to start in 2010, will make life easier for families who live, work and go to school across council boundaries.
Education leaders also want to cut the number of parents taking children on holiday during term time.
The three-term system would remain, but terms would be more evenly spread, with the traditional Easter holidays replaced by a set “spring break” during the first two weeks of April.
Currently, term times can vary each year, making it more difficult for teachers to make plans because the two- week Easter holiday is arranged to coincides with religious celebrations. Easter Sunday can fall anywhere between March 22 and April 25.
Liverpool council will pilot the changes next year, with the long summer break of just under six weeks remaining, and new terms always starting on a Monday.
A Liverpool council spokesman said: “If the year is standardised across the region, it should provide greater stability and improved work/life balance for staff, the children and their families.
“It will also help reduce the temptation to take children out of school for holidays during term time.”
Union leaders and parents today backed the idea.
Merseyside NUT spokesman Peter Glover said: “Coinciding holidays across the region is a good idea, but I am not sure it will improve attendance.
“Parents take kids on holiday in term because of cheap deals.”
Lynne Edwards, whose children Thomas, 15, and Daniel 13, attend Bebington high school, added: “I particularly like the Easter aspect, because you will know where you are.”
Cllr Peter Dowd, Sefton council’s cabinet member for education, said it would bring “consistency”.
He added: “By having a set spring break, it cuts out the risk of having long terms, when pupils can get tired.”
Consultation will start later this year.
What the changes will mean > > >