Education Secretary, Michael Gove revealed yesterday how the new free schools could use their freedoms to make radical changes to the school day and school year. It was suggested that some schools may even choose to shorten the summer holidays, extend the school week to  6 days  and expect children to spend more time in class.

In a speech to the Policy Exchange yesterday, Education Secretary, Michael Gove announced the results of the second round of free school applications. 281 bids have been received by the Department for Education to open these new, government-funded institutions run independent of local councils. These schools will be free to set their own staff pay and conditions and will be given the freedom to experiment with the school year.

In his speech, Mr Gove outlined the specific intentions of Free School Norwich, a school from the first round of applications which is due to open its doors in September this year. Mr Gove revealed that the school will offer, “affordable extended school provision which will be available on the school premises for 6 days each week, 51 weeks of the year.”

The school plans to reduce its summer holiday to just 4 weeks and will only close its doors on Bank Holidays and the Christmas week. Tania Sidney-Roberts, lead proposer for the primary Free School Norwich said, “We want to achieve an environment where parents will be able to go out to work because we will provide the wrap-around care at the school, in an environment which is familiar to the children.” According to Ms Sidney Roberts this key aspect of the proposal - on-site, affordable, all-year-round extended school provision – is in direct response to demand by local working parents.

The West London Free School is probably one of the most famous of the proposed new schools. The school, led by writer Toby Young, is also due to open in September. The school has already made clear that it will expect pupils to stay in school or at extracurricular clubs until 5pm between Monday and Friday.

Shadow Education Secretary, Andy Burnham has criticised the programme, "pouring time, energy and resources into a free schools programme which will be irrelevant for most parents, and is diverting funding out of mainstream schools into wealthier areas".

However, Mr Gove responded to these criticisms by offering the positive example of Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney. This school opened in 2004 and has already taken advantage of the freedoms by operating longer school days and opening at weekends. Sir Michael Wilshaw, the executive principal of Mossbourne Academy has encouraged pupils to work until 6 or 7pm and some even have their evening meal at school. The Hackney school has seen 86% of its pupils obtain five A*-C GCSE’s, the national average is around 50%.

It is expected that 10-20 free schools will open in September this year and further 100 could open in 2012.