Four-Day School Week: A Solution for Teacher Retention Struggles

Schools urged to trial four-day week to ease pressure on teachers in England and Wales

Calls for a formal trial of a four-day school week in England and Wales have intensified as concerns mount over the long-term viability of the teaching profession. The 4 Day Week Foundation has written to the Department for Education (DfE), urging ministers to allow state-funded schools to participate in structured pilot schemes designed to reduce workload and improve staff retention. Supporters argue that the current five-day structure is unsustainable, given the dramatic post-pandemic rise in teacher burnout, mental-health strain, and staff turnover.¹

The campaign emphasises that a four-day week does not entail a reduction in teaching time but a reorganisation of the working pattern. The proposal would preserve statutory instructional hours for pupils while providing teachers with a protected day for planning, preparation, assessment, and administrative duties — tasks which increasingly overflow into evenings and weekends. Advocates note that the demands placed on teachers have evolved far beyond classroom instruction alone: safeguarding responsibilities, behaviour interventions, pastoral obligations, data tracking, and compliance processes now consume an unprecedented number of hours.² This expansion of non-teaching duties has produced a crisis of morale that is now reflected starkly in national staffing data.

Teacher recruitment and retention shortages are no longer cyclical fluctuations but entrenched structural failures. The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) continues to warn of an acute and widening gap between the number of teachers needed and the number applying.³ The pipeline of new entrants has fallen below replacement levels, particularly in specialist subjects, while mid-career departures accelerate. Workload remains the single most cited factor driving teachers out of the profession.³ Many school leaders now face the prospect of curriculum narrowing, larger classes, and reduced specialist provision simply because there are not enough qualified staff to sustain previous levels of teaching.

It is in this climate that proponents believe a four-day school week should be trialled — not as a radical restructuring, but as a pragmatic response to a workforce close to breaking point. They point to evidence from the UK’s landmark private-sector four-day-week pilot, the largest in the world, where employers recorded reductions in burnout, stress, and sickness absence, alongside improvements in productivity and staff retention.⁴ Significantly, in sectors that rely on high emotional labour, such as healthcare, social care, and education, the benefits were particularly pronounced.

Some academies and multi-academy trusts have already experimented with flexible-week models, including four-day weeks for staff, staggered schedules, and nine-day fortnights.⁵ Early feedback highlights improved morale and retention, yet these experiments remain rare, unstandardised, and difficult to evaluate at scale without official endorsement. Advocates therefore argue for a national framework enabling rigorously monitored pilot schemes.

The challenge for working families

Yet supporters of the proposal must confront a significant practical concern: the effect on working families. For millions of households, especially those dependent on full-time employment, the removal of one day of compulsory schooling would immediately create a gap in childcare provision. Families without flexible working arrangements would need to secure an additional full day of paid childcare — a costly prospect in a country where childcare fees are among the highest in the OECD.⁶

For some parents, particularly single parents or those in shift-based roles such as healthcare, logistics, education support, and emergency services, securing reliable childcare for a fifth weekday may prove extremely difficult. Many childcare providers already operate at capacity, struggle with staffing shortages, and face rising costs.⁷ The sudden creation of a “non-school weekday” could intensify demand at a time when the sector remains fragile and uneven in its distribution across regions.

There is also the matter of cost. The average UK family already pays thousands of pounds annually for wraparound care.⁶ An extra day of provision may push some families into financial stress, deepen existing inequalities, or force a parent (usually the mother) to reduce working hours — a consequence with implications for gender equality, household income, and economic participation. Families living in rural or deprived areas, where childcare options are limited, would be disproportionately affected.

Supporters of the four-day model argue that these challenges justify, rather than preclude, carefully designed trials. They propose that pilots should include parallel evaluation of childcare capacity, local authority support structures, and possible wraparound funding solutions. Without real-world data, the debate remains abstract; with it, policymakers could identify which communities benefit most, which would require additional assistance, and whether the long-term gains for teacher retention outweigh the short-term logistical pressures on families.

Government caution and educational equity

The government remains cautious. Current DfE rules require a five-day school week totalling approximately 32.5 hours.⁸ Ministers warn that altering this framework risks creating inequalities between schools and regions, and that extending school days to compensate for a lost day may be challenging for younger children. A parliamentary petition calling for a national trial surpassed 100,000 signatures, yet the DfE reiterated that it has “no plans” to change the statutory requirements.⁹

Critics also argue that a reduced school week could widen attainment gaps if disadvantaged pupils lose access not only to teaching time but to vital pastoral structures, nutritional support, and predictable daily routines. Advocates again respond that pilots would clarify whether such effects occur — and how they might be mitigated.

A structural crisis demanding political clarity

The four-day-week proposal is therefore more than an administrative suggestion; it has become a litmus test for political seriousness about addressing the teacher workforce crisis. The status quo relies on extraordinary levels of unpaid labour from teachers, and on families quietly absorbing the spillover of systemic strain. Supporters argue that without structural reform, the educational system will continue to erode, to the detriment of pupils, staff, and society itself.

Whether the government permits controlled trials will reveal whether it recognises the crisis as a structural emergency requiring innovative solutions — or whether it remains committed to defending a model already failing both its teachers and the families who rely upon the stability of the school week.

¹ Reported in The Guardian, 1 December 2025.
² Documented in DfE Teacher Workload Surveys and Ofsted workload reports.
³ National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER), annual Teacher Labour Market Reports.
⁴ Autonomy (2023), “The UK Four-Day Week Pilot Results.”
⁵ Schools Week, coverage of flexible-week and compressed-week pilots in academy trusts.
⁶ OECD childcare cost comparisons; UK childcare affordability studies, 2023–2024.
⁷ Early Years Alliance reports on childcare provider capacity and staffing shortages.
⁸ Department for Education, minimum school-week hours guidance (England).
⁹ UK Parliament Petition 727514 and official government response.

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