The Education (School Day and School Year) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2025

Made: 23 June 2025

Laid before Senedd Cymru: 25 June 2025

Coming into force: 22 July 2025

The Welsh Ministers, in exercise of the powers conferred on the Secretary of State by sections 551(1) and 569(4) and (5) of the Education Act 1996[^f00001], and now vested in them[^f00002], make the following Regulations:

Title and coming into force

1

• (1) The title of these Regulations is the Education (School Day and School Year) (Wales) (Amendment) Regulations 2025.

• (2) These Regulations come into force on 22 July 2025.

Amendment of the Education (School Day and School Year) (Wales) Regulations 2003

2

Regulation 5 of the Education (School Day and School Year) (Wales) Regulations 2003[^f00003] is amended as follows—

• (a) for paragraph (1) substitute—

(1) This paragraph applies to any school session falling within the school year 2025-2026 which is devoted (wholly or mainly) to the provision of training (including training attended by both teaching and non-teaching staff and training conducted jointly with other schools) or preparation and planning, in relation to one or more of the following— (a) reducing the impact of poverty on the progression and attainment of pupils at the school; (b) the operation of the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018[^f00004] for pupils at the school; (c) the curriculum to be provided at the school under Parts 2 and 3 of the Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021[^f00005]; (d) the assessment arrangements to be made under Part 4 of the Curriculum and Assessment (Wales) Act 2021.

, and

• (b) in paragraph (2), for “each school year” substitute “the school year 2025-26”.

Signed

Lynne Neagle — Cabinet Secretary for Education, one of the Welsh Ministers — 23 June 2025

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

The Education (School Day and School Year) (Wales) Regulations 2003 (“the 2003 Regulations”) make provision about the length of the school day, which is ordinarily divided into two sessions with a break in the middle, and for schools to meet for at least 380 sessions during any school year.

These Regulations substitute a new paragraph (1) in regulation 5 of the 2003 Regulations to provide that no more than two sessions in the 2025-2026 school year will count as sessions on which the school has met, if those sessions are devoted (wholly or mainly) to any of the matters prescribed.

The Welsh Ministers’ Code of Practice on the carrying out of Regulatory Impact Assessments was considered in relation to these Regulations. As a result, a regulatory impact assessment has been prepared as to the likely costs and benefits of complying with these Regulations. A copy can be obtained from the Leadership Branch, School Practitioner Division, Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.

Footnotes

[^f00001]: 1996 c. 56; section 551(1A) was inserted by the Education Act 1997 (c. 44), Schedule 7, paragraph 39; section 551(2) was amended by the School Standards and Framework Act 1998 (c. 31), Schedule 30, paragraph 166 and Schedule 31 and S.I. 2010/1158; section 569(4) was amended by the Education (Wales) Measure 2009 (nawm 5), section 8(5); section 569(5) was repealed by the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 (anaw 2), Schedule 1, paragraph 4(30)(c) but at the date of the making of these Regulations that repeal is not yet in force. For the meaning of “regulations” see section 579(1).

[^f00002]: The functions of the Secretary of State were transferred to the National Assembly for Wales by the National Assembly for Wales (Transfer of Functions) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/672) and then to the Welsh Ministers by the Government of Wales Act 2006 (c. 32), Schedule 11, paragraph 30.

[^f00003]: S.I. 2003/3231 (W. 311); relevant amending instruments are S.I. 2006/1262 (W. 119), S.I. 2008/1739 (W. 171), S.I. 2011/149 (W. 33), S.I. 2012/248 (W. 41), S.I. 2019/1131 (W. 196), S.I. 2020/848 (W. 187), S.I. 2021/1476 (W. 378), S.I. 2022/61 (W. 23) and S.I. 2023/37 (W. 4).

[^f00004]: 2018 anaw 2.

[^f00005]: 2021 asc 4.