Schools are anticipating disruption and empty desks when lessons resume for four days after the Easter holiday before breaking up again for two weeks.

Some parents have said the timetable is ridiculous and many headteachers have received requests from families who want to take their children on holiday.

Under the new six-term timetable introduced by Oxfordshire County Council in September, Easter bank holiday no longer falls within the school break.

The council is urging parents not to take children out of school during term-time and said it would be monitoring the situation.

Mandy Rutt, whose son Bradley, eight, and daughter Ellie, four, attend West Oxford Community Primary School in Ferry Hinksey Road, said: "It's daft having two days off and then going back. It breaks up everybody's routine and makes it difficult for working parents."

Fiona Hedges, who teaches at an independent school, said her Easter break will be disrupted because her holiday does not coincide with her two sons, who also attend West Oxford Primary.

She added: "We would have liked to have gone away, but decided not to because of this."

Wheatley Park School headteacher Kate Curtis has received several requests for authorised absence, including one from a religious family who want to observe the Easter week.

She said: "Returning after Easter will, of course, be disruptive, but the six-term year has given us a more balanced pattern to the year."

Chris Dark, headteacher at Peers Technology College in Oxford, said: "I understand the idea of trying to balance terms because everyone's dead on their knees by the end of a 15-week term. But if you break up the holiday in this way, it disrupts the routine and I don't think it lends itself to good learning."