The Education (School Day and School Year) (Wales) Regulations 2003 (“the 2003 Regulations”) apply to schools maintained by local authorities and to special schools (whether or not so maintained). They make provision (among other things) for a school day which is ordinarily to be divided into two sessions (with a break in the middle), and for schools (other than nursery schools) to meet for at least 380 sessions during any school year.

These Regulations insert a new paragraph into regulation 4 of the 2003 Regulations to reduce the minimum number of school sessions which must be held in the school years 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 from 380 to 378. These Regulations also substitute a new regulation 5 in the 2003 Regulations which, in broad terms, provides for up to four sessions in the 2010-2011 school year to count as sessions on which the school met if they were devoted to the provision of training, or preparation and planning, for teachers in maintained schools.