Several schools are planning to tweak their summer vacation timings because of the unpredictable weather.

One school said from next year it would not announce summer vacation in advance and another school is thinking of having the summer break in two phases.

In 2024, several schools started their academic session early, to make up for classes that they might lose out on because of the heatwave.

But that was not enough, they said, because of the vagaries of weather.

“We have decided that from next year we will announce the summer vacation at a later date and not in advance,” said Ian Myers, principal, Frank Anthony Public School.

Many families go on vacation during summer and it makes it difficult for parents to make holiday plans in advance.

“But we are making this change for the advantage of students and so that they do not lose out on working days,” said Myers.

In April, many schools switched to online classes after the school education department asked the government and government-aided schools to start their summer break because of the heat spell.

Some of the schools reopened school for in-person classes but that was barely for a couple of days before they closed again for the scheduled summer holidays.

St Augustine’s Day School Shyamnagar is planning some changes which they intend to discuss with parents after the summer vacation and get feedback from them.

“We are deliberating on having the summer break in two phases, one when there is a heat spell in April and the second later in May-June. We could open in between the two phases for classes,” said Rodney Borneo, principal, St Augustine’s Day School Shyamnagar.

Borneo said that this could be complemented with following a six-day week from October to March and four days a week in summer.

“This would give us enough reserve days if we have to close school because of a heat spell. We are also deliberating on evening school. But we intend to discuss these ideas with our parents after the summer break,” said Rodney.

The school this year had started their session in March.

Principals said that shutting down school all of a sudden because of the weather eats into the mandatory number of working days in an academic year.

“We will have to go according to the weather pattern because we cannot have regular classes in hot weather. We plan to cut down on the one-month winter break from the current academic year and increase the summer break,” said Terence Ireland, principal, St James’ School.

The school usually closes on December 15 and reopens on January 15.

“We could open early in January and close late in December,” he said.

Mahadevi Birla World Academy said that from next year they will follow summer timings, which they introduced this year, where school will start early in the day and close before noon.