EDUCATION secretary Gavin Williamson did not rule out the prospect of the school year being restructured to reduce the length of summer holidays.

Conservative MP Imran Ahmad Khan said: “I was interested reading the Institute of Economic Affairs’ recent report entitled ‘Back to school and after’, which outlines a number of policies that would help resolve critical issues facing our schools.

“Summer holidays are one key area. It appears they prove counterproductive for pupils.”

He added: “I wonder if the minister would kindly look into the proposal of restructuring the school year to reduce the length of summer holidays, a policy that would greatly benefit pupils and parents?”

Mr Williamson responded: “We’ve asked Sir Kevan Collins to look across a whole and broad range of different ways of giving children a boost in terms of being able to not just catch up in terms of any learning that they’ve lost, but actually more fundamentally make major changes to actually how we drive educational attainment over a generation and more.

“And of course all of this is something that Sir Kevan will be looking at.”