Why is there a 41-week school year in 2024?
Queensland Teachers' Journal, Vol 128 No 4, 9 June 2023, page no.27
While the school year is usually 40 weeks long, every now and then there has to be a 41-week year, and the next one is in 2024.
The Department of Education School Holidays Policy (https://education.qld.gov.au/about-us/calendar/school-holidays-policy) states that:
“Queensland state schools provide for 40 school weeks each year, with the rare exception of a 41-week year on a cyclical basis. Student holidays are based on an annual two-semester timetable as follows:
- summer holiday: six weeks during the Christmas period
- Easter holiday: two weeks before, following or inclusive of the Easter public holidays
- winter holiday: two weeks at the end of semester one
- spring holiday: two weeks in the middle of semester two.
Schools situated north of 16 degrees south latitude and west of 144 degrees east longitude begin the summer holiday one week before schools in other parts of the state.
The four school terms are set to ensure they are as balanced in length as possible, averaging 10 weeks for each term and avoiding unduly long terms.”
For many years, QTU members urged the government to consolidate three student free days that were spread throughout the year into an extra week in students’ Easter vacation period, to allow more consistency in term duration and to bring Queensland into line with school vacation times in other states.
After a review of school terms and student-free days, the state government announced changes to school holidays which came into effect in 2012.
The change meant an extra week of student vacation for the Easter vacation (an increase from one to two weeks) and the scheduling of flexible student free days in the two-week period, giving schools the choice to decide when they would be, as long as they were out of school hours.
Prior to this change, the school year consisted of 41 weeks, with the rare exception of a 42-week year on a cyclical basis.
Teachers last worked a 41-week school year in 2018.