A number of changes have been made to the opening and closing school times throughout the island.

This is following a roll-out of consultations to parents, in which questions were asked about what the preferred times would be to start and end the school day.

The five public high schools in the island have all undergone consultations, with two of these five still ongoing.

Five primary schools in the island have also either completed consultations or are still undergoing them - Scoill Phurt Le Moirrey, Onchan, Andreas, Rushen and Braddan.

These consultations have been or are being done through proposal letters, email voting systems and face-to-face meetings.

The most popular course of action has been for schools to start the school day earlier than 9am and finish it earlier than 3:30pm.

For example, Ramsey Grammar School has agreed to begin the school day with registration/assemblies at 8:45am, have a 50-minute lunch at 12:45 and then end the day at the earlier time of 3:15pm.

QEII has also changed to the same times, while it is unclear whether St Ninian’s decided to make any changes.

Meanwhile, Castle Rushen and Ballakermeen’s consultations are still ongoing.

In response to a written question asking why schools had decided to start the school day earlier, the Minister for Education, Sport and Culture Daphne Caine said: ‘Following internal discussions between senior school leaders and the Department, schools have reviewed their school days over this academic year (2023/24).

‘As a result of these operational reviews, a number of schools have made the decision to alter the school day schedule following consultation with the Department, staff, governing bodies, students and parents/carers.

‘Changes in the school day vary from school to school. Where there are reductions to the school day this does not necessarily mean that learning is lost.’