AN EXTRA 15 minutes of teaching a day and an early finish on Wednesday afternoons will be phased in at Ilkley Grammar School from September.

Pupils at the Cowpasture Road school will finish school five minutes later on most weekdays, but leave school at 2.15pm on Wednesday under the new arrangements – which the school says will give it more time for maths and English lessons.

The school has also published a new three-year Academy Development Plan, setting out its overall aims and ambitions.

The new school day will begin as usual with registration at 8.20am, but adjustments to registration and lunchtime will give extra time in the school day for lessons.

The end of the school day from September will be 3.05pm on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, and there will be an early finish for students every Wednesday at 2.15pm for the academic year 2015-2016.

From 2016 onwards, the early finish will be on alternate Wednesdays only.

The school says the additional teaching time will provide the opportunity to create a six-period day, which will give the school the flexibility to increase the time allocations for the core subjects of maths and English, whilst not impacting too heavily on other subjects, especially at Key Stage 4.

Some individual lessons will be slightly shorter than under the current arrangements, but with “important” increases to the number of maths and English lessons in Years 10 and 11 and at Key Stage 3, says Ilkley Grammar.

The school says this is particularly crucial given the changes to GCSE maths, English Language and Literature from September 2015, as these qualifications have been made more demanding in terms of their content and their size.

Deputy Headteacher, Carly Purnell, said: “Schools have been advised to increase the number of maths lessons due to the more challenging syllabus.

“We would not have been able to accommodate this in the current 5 period day curriculum without seriously impacting on a number of other subjects.

“The new model will also provide the flexibility for double and single lessons.

“It will also increase the number of lessons in GCSE options blocks in preparation for more challenging courses in other subjects from 2016.

“It will also increase the number of science lessons in Year 9.

“Biology, chemistry and physics can be taught as separate sciences with an equal number of lessons.

“The early finish for students one day per week will then provide the time for regular staff professional development.”

Ilkley Grammar’s new Academy Development Plan sets the three key priorities of enhancing experiences, developing learning and securing impact, as well as exceptional leadership and management.