YORK primary school heads have welcomed plans to introduce a ten-hour school day - starting with breakfast and ending with after-school activities.

The option, being considered by Education Secretary Charles Clarke, could mean parents would be able to drop their children off at school at 8am and not pick them up until 6pm.

Pupils will be offered supervised breakfasts before lessons and the choice of sports or art activities at the end of the school day.

Mr Clarke is due to announce further details tomorrow at a conference of the charity 4Children, formerly known as Kids Club network.

A number of schools in York already operate breakfast clubs and after-school clubs.

One is Westfield Primary School, Acomb, where head teacher Mark Darnett welcomed the idea of providing "wraparound" care.

He said that, of the 700 children at the school and nursery, up to 45 attended the breakfast club and paid £1.20 a day for a choice of cooked breakfasts, toast and cereals.

The club is a huge success, and eases the pressure on working parents as well as ensuring children are in school on time when lessons start at 9am.

The club was originally funded by the school, but a year ago it received a £15,000 grant from Kraft Foods paid over three years to help provide staffing and facilities.

Mr Darnett said: "I think it's a great idea. The breakfast club is really well attended, and parents sometimes attend with the children, especially in winter.

"We also run an after-school club from 3.15pm to 6pm, which is also well-attended and runs in the school holidays as well."

Ken Taylor, head teacher at Tang Hall Primary School, York, said it had tried to run a breakfast club, but stopped through lack of demand.

However, the school does have a thriving after-school club called Squirrels, which runs till 6pm and has about 30 regular attendees.

Club manager Sue Lowery said: "When the school first opened (in 2001) we had two children on the books, but now we get between ten and 14 people attending and it's not just for our school, but two members of staff go out to Heworth School and collect children from there."

Councillor Carol Runciman, who is City of York Council's executive member for education, said this kind of system offered parents flexibility.

She said: "There's absolutely no doubt that some parents will need that sort of facility, whereas others,who maybe don't work, may not."

Updated: 11:04 Tuesday, September 07, 2004