Four term school year good for ski season

Ruapehu Bulletin, Volume 13, Issue 602, 5 September 1995, Page 2 (Supplement)

Four term school year good for ski season

By

john

Bache

School holidays are a major fea ture of the ski season, boosting business, and lift queues, in the Ruapehu region. 1996 will see the introduction of a four-term year for New Zealand's schools

with subsequent changes in the winter holidays. Some schools are already trialing the system this year, but most are still operating under the old system of three terms, with holidays in May and August and a short midterm break in July. The Ministry of Education has issued guidelines

to schools for 1996, with a suggested 4-term calendar for them to follow. There are separate timetables for primary and secondary schools. The suggested 1996 calendar for primary schools is: Term One, 29 January - 29 March; Term Two, 15 April - 28 June; Term Three,

15 July - 13 September; Term Four, 30 September - 16 December. The suggested 1996 calendar for Secondary schools is: Term One 29 January - 29 March; Term Two 15 April - 28 June; Term Three 1 5 July - 6 or 1 3 September; Term Four 30 September - 5 or 12 December

Secondary schools have the choice of a two or three week break at the end of the third term. If they opt for a three week break, school will be in for a week later in December. "Each school can vary these dates within reason, so long as they work the right number of half days in a year. That number is 380 half days for Secondary schools, and 394 half days for Primary schools" said an Education Ministry spokesman. "This will allow rural communities which rely on family labour during seasonal peaks to structure the school year to best meet their needs. "We suspect that for these reasons, the primary and secondary schools in rural areas will opt to work to the same dates." All well and good, but what impact will the 4-term year have on the ski industry ? Well it' s basically good news. With the majority of schools expected to follow the Ministry ofEducation's guidelines, the school holiday "busy" period will now be spread over five or more weeks (allowing for those schools that don't follow Department guidelines), rather than the current four weeks. Mid-term break will be replaced by mid-year break - a two week break from 29 June to 14 July. What were once the August holidays will become the September holidays, with a week of moderate visitor numbers expected from 7-13 September (Secondary schools), followed by two weeks of frenzied activity on the ski slopes when both secondary and primary schools are on holiday from 14-29 September. Tertiary institutions such as universities and polytechnics set their own timetables, and it is unclear whether their holidays will fall at the same time as the school holidays.