1. These Regulations may be cited as the Education (Schools and Further Education) (Amendment) Regulations 1990 and shall come into force on 1st January 1991.

2. Regulation 10 of the Education (Schools and Further Education) Regulations 1981(2) is hereby amended as follows -

(a)paragraph (3) is revoked;

(b)for paragraph (5) there shall be substituted the following paragraph -

"(5) In a school which meets on six days a week there may on two of those days be only a single session and, in relation to a day on which there is only a single session, paragraph (4) shall have effect as if the period of three hours there mentioned were a period of one and a half hours.";

(c)for paragraph (6A) there shall be substituted the following paragraph -

"(6A) Where, in the spring term in the 1990/91 academic year, a session is devoted wholly or mainly to the provision to teachers employed at that school of training related to the introduction of National Curriculum assessment arrangements for pupils at or near the end of the first key stage and to the reporting to parents of the results of assessments made under those arrangements, that session shall be regarded for the purposes of this regulation as a session on which the school has met:

Provided that this paragraph shall not have effect in relation to more than two sessions."; and

(d)for paragraph (7) there shall be substituted the following paragraph -

"(7) In this regulation -

"academic year" means a period of 12 months beginning on 1st September unless the school has a term beginning in August in which case it means a period of 12 months beginning on 1st August;

"National Curriculum assessment arrangements" means assessment arrangements specified in or under the Education (National Curriculum) (Assessment Arrangements for English, Mathematics and Science) Order 1990(3); and

the reference to the first key stage is to the period set out in paragraph (a) of section 3(3) of the Education Reform Act 1988.".

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend regulation 10 of the Education (Schools and Further Education) Regulations 1981, which relates to the duration of the school year and day, in two ways.

First, the requirements as to minimum hours of secular instruction are revoked (except in the case of nursery classes and schools). Secondly, the regulations provide that where, in the spring term in the 1990/91 academic year, a maximum of two school sessions are devoted to the training of teachers at the school for the introduction of National Curriculum assessment arrangements for pupils in the first key stage, each such session shall be treated for the purposes of the regulations as a session on which the school has met.