INCREASING budget pressures could lead to a local primary school closing early for pupils on Fridays from September.

A letter sent to parents of Cottingley Village Primary School asks them to have their say on a proposed move to a four-and-a-half day school week.

Although the Government has previously insisted it is protecting school budgets, teaching groups say other pressures, including rising pension and National Insurance contributions, the soon-to-be introduced apprenticeship levy, and the reduction in Educational Services Grant, means schools will soon have to make major cuts.

A spokesman for the National Union of Teachers told the Telegraph & Argus that many schools were considering measures like this, but believes that reducing school weeks by a few hours would not be enough to balance strained budgets.

A letter sent out to parents by Cottingley head Nichola Geale says: “We believe that changing the school day would both save the school a lot of money and also allow us to improve teaching and learning.”

It goes on to say the changes could see the school day starting earlier, from 8:30am or 8:40am, instead of the existing time of 8:55am and finish “Friday at lunchtime for all pupils.”

Teachers would remain working in school until the end of the day.

Both the school and Bradford Council has declined to comment on the letter.

According to School Cuts, an unofficial website that calculates how education funding changes will effect each school in the country, Cottingley Village Primary is likely to see the amount spent on each pupil drop by £406 by 2022, with the calculation based on the presumption of a Conservative government.

Ian Murch, Bradford spokesman for the NUT, said: “In the recent past, schools have been under pressure to make days longer as part of the drive to improve results. A lot of schools have longer days than they used to, so I don’t think cutting a day a week by a few hours would have a dramatic impact on learning.

“It will make much needed savings, however, the savings from this would be quite small, so I don’t think it would have a huge impact on the budgets.

“It will save some money, but I don’t think moves like this will come anywhere near to solving budget pressures. As a union we are constantly going to schools in Bradford where they say they are considering getting rid of staff. This issue will come back to with some urgency after the election. Schools will need to be protected from the worst effects of the changes in funding.”