PARENTS in Bournemouth are to be consulted over plans to change existing term dates to the Standard School Year scheme in line with other authorities across the country.

Schools bosses in Dorset have already voted to adopt the new term structure from 2008, subject to agreement with Bournemouth and Poole.

It follows a smaller joint consultation carried out by the three authorities before Christmas in which 86 per cent of the 7,200 respondents said they are in favour of the change.

Now Bournemouth will conduct a much wider local consultation involving schools, parents, governors and any parties involved with education in the borough.

"The current pattern of the school year was established more than a century ago and has long been considered inappropriate to learning in the 21st century," said an education spokesman at the Town Hall. "There are no consistent arrangements - different summer holidays, Easter holidays, half terms and professional development days are set by different local education authorities and schools.

"The length of the spring and summer terms are determined by the timing of Easter, which can fall anywhere between March 22 and May 25.

"Terms of uneven length disrupt curriculum planning and delivery.

"Because of varied holiday patterns, parents increasingly take their children out of school on holiday in term time."

Under the Standard School Year proposals, each local education authority in England will ensure that the school year is consistently and predictably divided into six blocks of roughly even length, more evenly distributed throughout the year. There would be two learning blocks of approximately seven weeks before Christmas followed by four blocks of around six weeks afterwards. The spring break would be fixed and taken around the first two weeks of April irrespective of Easter.

The new term structure is being promoted by the Local Government Association.