CONTROVERSIAL plans by two New Forest schools to extend the school day and offer longer holidays in return have been unveiled.

Fawley Infant and Blackfield Primary have devised proposals to keep pupils in the classroom for an extra 25 minutes and extend the May and October half-term breaks by one week.

The two academies, which are run by the same management team, say longer breaks will offer parents greater flexibility to organise family holidays.

But the plan has come under fire from the National Union of Teachers, which says small children have limited concentration spans and are unlikely to benefit from more time at school.

And working parents fear longer half-term holidays will create extra childcare problems.

Mum Helen Barber, who has two children at the primary school, revealed that parents had launched an online petition aimed at blocking the scheme.

She added: "The teachers will have an extra two weeks holiday a year. That's great for them but I can find no evidence - and the school has not provided me with any evidence - that children will benefit from longer school days.

"An extra 25 minutes will not provide them with the same quality of learning as the two weeks they will lose."

"The carrot they're dangling in front of us is the prospect of cheaper holidays, but that's no good to parents with children at other schools that aren't thinking of making the same changes."

However Claire Lowe, executive principal of both academies, said the scheme would enable families to go away at times when holidays were generally cheaper.

Sher added: "Another reason is that none of our terms will be longer than six weeks.

"That will enable us to teach children more efficiently, avoiding some of the problems that occur at the end of a long term, when pupils are often very tired.

"But despite the extra two weeks holiday children will actually spend 37 more hours at school over the course of the year."

Dismissing suggestions that longer half-term holidays were being introduced for the benefit of the staff she added: "This is absolutely not for the teachers - and it really is a consultation. I genuinely want to hear parents' views, no matter what they are."

Families are being invited to attend two forums due to be held on November 8 and 9.

The consultation period will close on December 1 and a final decision will be made in February next year, with any changes being implemented next September.

Under the plans pupils will start the school day at 8.35am instead of 8.50am and the afternoon session will be extended by ten minutes.

In a letter to parents the schools say: "We see this as a benefit to both teaching and learning and it will also support parents, giving them greater flexibility to to organise their family holidays.

"The additional 25 minutes will have minimal impact on the children emotionally and physically but the increased learning time is needed to meet the needs of the new mastery curriculum.

"Teachers will have more time in the classroom with the children."

But an NUT spokesman said: "Extending the school day is not necessarily a positive move. Small children have a limited concentration span, which means there's a limited period of time in which they are receptive to learning.

"Increasing the amount of time pupils spend in school does not necessarily lead to a sustained improvement in their performance."

Cllr Peter Edgar, the county council's executive member for education, added: "I'm not aware of any other schools in Hampshire that have done anything as drastic as this. It will be an interesting experiment."

A Department for Education spokesman said academies had the freedom to shorten or lengthen school days and terms as they saw fit.