Petition · past parliament

Increase the legal school age & let students retake academic yr 19/20 in 20/21

Rejected 12 signatures

What the petition asks

We propose that the government allow schools to erase academic year 19/20 for it to be re taken in 20/21. In order to make this feasible, we propose that the legal age for school is raised due to this unprecedented situation.
This unprecedented situation with Covid-19 has left students with almost a term off of school.

This will adversely affect the emotional/social/intellectual development of:

1)Preschoolers preparing for Reception
2) Reception children just learning to read or add
3) Those just integrating into new high schools or colleges
4) Those preparing for the 11+

By allowing students to retake academic 19/20 in 20/21 would help in not hindering the education of a whole generation. In order to this we also propose that the legal school age is raised to allow this to happen.

Why it was rejected

There was already a petition about this issue. Duplicates are rejected so signatures collect in one place.

You may wish to sign some of these petitions:

Repeat the current school year from Sept 2020: Repeat the current school year from Sept 2020

Require schools to allow children the option to retake their year next year: Require schools to allow children the option to retake their year next year

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you find out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/192/the-governments-response-to-coronavirus/

Timeline

14 May 2020 Petition opened for signatures
8 Jun 2020 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 12
Status Rejected
Rejected 8 Jun 2020

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.