Report

A longer school day: the attainment benefits of an extra hour a week

Think tank: Education Policy Institute

Author(s): Louis Hodge; Oana Gavriloiu

October 10, 2024

This report from UK think the Education Policy Institute explores the relationship between time in school and attainment outcomes at the end of primary and secondary school.

This new report published by the Education Policy Institute, funded by the Law Family Educational Trust, finds a modest positive association between the time pupils spend in school each week and academic attainment in England.

It finds that the majority of schools are meeting the previous government’s expectation that schools should deliver a 32.5 hour week by September 2024.

Through linking this new data to other data available in the National Pupil Database (NPD), it also explores, for the first time in England, the relationship between time in school and attainment outcomes at the end of primary and secondary school.