London school trails 11-hour school day
20 January 2025
All Saints Catholic College in Notting Hill, west London, ran two non-compulsory extended school provision (ESP) pilots for year 7 and 8 pupils over the 2024 summer and autumn terms.
The pilots study involved the school day extending from 7:00 AM to 6:00 PM on Monday to Thursday for 120 over the ten-week summer term and included 85 pupils over the four-week autumn term.
This included one hour of homework support after school and extracurricular activities such as sports, drama, cooking, creative arts and oracy. Breakfast and dinner were provided to participating students.
The project, which cost £20,000, found that an 11-hour school day boosted behaviour, homework completion and a “sense of belonging” amongst students.
A report on participants of the trial revealed:
- Homework sanctions were down 12 per cent
- Stars which were awarded during regular school hours for good behaviour were up 16 per cent
- A “targeted review” of 10 students with the highest number of “negative behaviour logs” in the six weeks leading up to the trial found a 60 per cent reduction in incidents during the summer pilot.
This year, the school will open the initiative to a larger number of students. Head teacher Andrew O’Neill said, “What excites me most about the ESP is its scalability.
“This is not limited to our school – it has the potential to inspire a new approach to education across the broader community and beyond.”
He added that a 20 per cent reduction in bad behaviour logs in the four weeks after the pilots showed an “ability to instil lasting behavioural changes”.
Research by the Education Policy Institute think tank concluded that additional time in school was “associated with a small, yet positive, effect on overall attainment in both primary and secondary school”. Findings show that an additional hour of weekly school time resulted in a single-subject GCSE grade improvement of 0.17.
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