The High Court has handed down judgment in a case concerning when special schools may offer shortened school weeks: R (CHO) v Governers of Lonsdale School [2026] EWHC 166 (Admin). Mainstream schools are expected to offer a minimum number of hours per week, but the Government guidance does not apply the same expectation to special schools.
Here, a special school had closed on Friday afternoons, not because the children’s special educational needs or disabilities meant that they would benefit from shorter hours, but because of recruitment and resource pressures. Evidence suggests that other special schools are taking similar steps. Hannah Slarks and Oliver Jackson acted for a child against the school, local authority and Secretary of State for Education, arguing that it was unlawful that special schools could be subject to cuts in these circumstances, while mainstream schools are protected from them.
The case is also of significant wider application for its examination of when a judicial review claim will be academic. The defendants argued that, as the school had restored a full timetable two weeks before the final hearing, the claim had become academic. The Court accepted the claimant’s submissions that this was wrong: “the mere fact that a judicial review concerns past conduct which has concluded does not automatically mean that the claim has become academic”.
Hannah and Oliver acted for the claimant. They were instructed by Polly Glynn of Deighton Pierce Glynn.
