“When[Merrylands East] did it,the few families who didn’t like it were able to transfer to other schools,” says Julia Finn,the member for Granville. “Now there’s a situation where if you’re in-area for that school,and if those hours don’t work for you,you can’t move schools. You have to move house or get another job.”
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As Merrylands East shows,schools already have the ability to change their hours. Few,even in the private sector,have followed suit. That flexibility is more likely to be embraced at high school level,when students are in less need of supervision,so schools can be more creative in running timetables that build in earlier or shorter days.
For primary-aged students,after-school care – which has vastly improved in quality over the past decade – already offers parents flexibility from around 7.30am to 6pm,albeit for a fee. Perrottet has offered parents a $500 voucher per child to improve affordability. Some families have also struggled to access places,although that’s less of a problem since parents began working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
But many schools already offer free homework clubs after school,or breakfast club in the morning,as well as extra-curricular activities such as music. Under the COVID-19 tutoring program,there has also been before and after-school tutoring.
As one private school principal put it,“I’m not clear what[Perrottet] is suggesting – it’s not clear to me that if you’ve got working families,that school from 7-12 or 10-4 is any better than 9-3,” she said. “We do a lot of optional extra-curricular activities,there is an amazing flexibility of the school day anyway,with the lessons happening in the middle. How much more flexible do you want?”
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But Georgie Dent from The Parenthood welcomes the conversation. “What is really fantastic is that we seem to have some recognition of the challenges within the current structures and systems we have,when it comes to families being able to make ends meet,and get their children to school and early learning as and when is needed,” she said.
“Looking at these issues structurally is a really positive step,and the truth is there probably isn’t going to be consensus on a particular set of hours that would work for every family. The idea that there is a really neat way for people to fit their working hours in and around their children,it just doesn’t exist.
“It is really complicated,depending on who you work for,the kind of work you do,how many days a week your work,what shift you do,there are so many variables in the way Australians work,and there are few examples of working that match school hours.”
Dent would like the conversation to focus not only on ways to create flexibility in the school system,but also on the issues that begin before school,and which shape a family’s entire experience of the work-school juggle.
They include better paid parental leave for men,so women do not become the default primary carer – a responsibility they then keep until their child grows up. They also include an affordable,equitable childcare system and an affordable,accessible after-school care system. But employers need to take responsibility,too.
“Workplaces that openly and fully recognise and respect caring,the norm in our workplaces remains someone that doesn’t have caring responsibilities outside of their job,” Dent says.
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