Nigel de Gruchy, general secretary of NASUWT, warned that the proposals from the Local Government Association (LGA) would mean 'a lot of pain for no gain'.
The six-term year emerged in a report from the Independent Commission on the Organisation of the School Year, which was set up by the LGA. Its recommendations included six terms in a school year, with two before Christmas and no term of more than 38 days long; a two-week break in October to relieve teachers' stress; a Christmas break of no less than two weeks; four terms after Christmas limited to a maximum of six weeks; a summer break of at least five weeks; and five 'flexible' days that could be used for holidays or term days according to regional needs.
The Commission urged all local education authorities in England to set new term dates next year to enable schools to plan for a six-term year by 2005-2006. Its chair, Chris Price, said he was confident that the 150 LEAs would support the change to a standardised school year and would outline how they will implement it by next Easter.
Graham Lane, chair of the LGA's education executive, claimed the planned changes in the school year would 'raise standards in the classroom and reduce stress amongst teachers'. But Mr de Gruchy warned that cutting the summer holiday and increasing time off in winter would make it harder for parents to keep their children occupied.
He said, 'When parents have been balloted over proposals to change the school year, such as in Croydon and West Sussex in recent years, they have voted overwhelmingly against the idea. If people are really interested in reducing stress upon teachers and pupils, there are far more effective ways open to them.
'Changes to the school year would produce even more workload, as the whole planning cycle would once again have to be changed. This will do nothing to tackle teacher recruitment and retention.'
David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said that in the absence of wide support for a six-term year 'it would be crazy to force schools to undergo major upheaval. Individual local education authorities would be most unwise to go down this route'.
He added that if there were 'significant reasons' for abolishing the three-term school year, then the initiative should be taken by national government rather than local government.