This project aims to generate evidence on how early school closures on Fridays affect working parents, particularly working mothers, and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and businesses more broadly, and to ensure these insights inform debates around gender inequality, labour participation, and local education policy.

Schools in Edinburgh work half day on Fridays. Anecdotal evidence suggests that it has disproportionate socio-economic consequences, especially for working mothers, who often reduce working hours or shift to part-time roles to provide care. Prior research has shown negative impact of moving part-time on career prospects, a shift disproportionately made by mothers balancing caregiving responsibilities. Furthermore, there is also growing concern among SMEs, in Edinburgh whose workforce cannot support operations during normal business hours due to childcare responsibilities. This creates economic inefficiencies and gendered workforce attrition, especially in female-dominated or care-intensive sectors.

We are developing a card game for contextualising high level problems and risks to gather evidence about the impacts of the school working hours that are unique to Edinburgh, on families and businesses. By providing a space where these challenges can be surfaced, articulated, and addressed collaboratively, the game serves as a practical tool for inclusive, bottom-up policy development grounded in the everyday realities of affected communities.

If you are a parent of a school child or a business owner/manager who has been impacted by this schedule in Edinburgh, and would like share your experience for this study, please sign up here.

If you have any questions, please contact Agnessa Spanellis – Email: Agnessa.spanellis@ed.ac.uk.

The project is led by Agnessa Spanellis in collaboration with Debora Gottardello and Augusto Rocha.