Summer holidays should be longer

Nobody who works full time has 12 days 🙄 The statutory minimum is 20 days + 8 bank holidays. Its not just NMW earners which only get 20 days + B/H, that's standard at all levels in many companies

No. As I have said repeatedly I think 6 weeks over the summer is a decent balance

But you're arguing for more ..

@FortheloveofCheesus the OP doesn't care about those children, just her own, she has made that very clear.

I love the two weeks in the end of October / beginning of November. The Autumn term is so long that it’s good to break it up.

A friend took her children to Australia to see friends for their October half term - it was tightly packed but they managed it within the fortnight (and it was Spring in Australia).

And lets not forget the social inequality. A long break in the summer might be lovely for little Tabitha and Hugo, who'll be taken off for two weeks somewhere sunny, then might sound another week at Grannys, exploring her vast garden and the nearby woodland, who have good bikes to ride, plenty to eat and the money to be taken swimming/on day trips. Their mum and dad are more likely to have a house full of books & good quality board game,, they will continue to read and play games that maintain maths skills.

Other less fortunate children will have struggling parents, who have to buy the cheapest possible processed food and may lack the cooking equipment and skills for anything else. There might be few books at home, and mum and dad are juggling two jobs each and shift work, they don't have a car to drive to the library or bikes to ride there, and the bus is slow & expensive. Low income jobs tend to give only the bare minimum of paid holiday (12 days plus 8 bank holidays), so they are more likely to be left for long days with no supervision or only disinterested older siblings or cousins, while parents work.

Imagine the gap that opens up over that summer, between the luckier children and those less fortunate.

It depends. Some are effectively compulsory - e.g. periods of full-time, daytime teaching have core hours, just like school education. It's the other 50% of the role, e.g. developing research income etc., the parts of an academic job that most people don't know about but which keeps you employed and employable, which takes place in your own time.

after 6 weeks ours were ready to go back for the structure, routine and social side of school
even though we did a lot with them and didn’t struggle with childcare

So you don’t have specified compulsory days and hours, which is different to the scenario you described.

Dh and I both work and already struggle with the summer holiday as is but we just about manage. If it was extended we would likely have to give up our lovely two week uk holiday, instead would have to take the two weeks separately . The kids would be gutted and and as a family would miss that time with us all together.

Camps are not the answer. Dropping a 5 year old at a day camp run by inexperienced teenagers, where she knows no one, is completely heart breaking.

For one it would help if the government stopped pushing the retirement age later and later. Where are all the grandparents to help, you ask? Still working at 66 years old.

Why would anyone want two weeks in Oct? One week that time of year is bad enough, the weather's always dreadful so you can't just do the park / beach / countryside or turf them out into the countryside.

Academia. My contract used to read something like, "Your nominal working week is 37 hours and the working year 45 weeks. However you are expected to work the hours required in order to meet role requirements. This means regular weekend and out-of-hours work is expected".

For 20+ years I've worked every weekend, during most holidays and late into the night most evenings. Teaching during the daytime, grant applications and research during the evenings and weekends. Oh, and then we started recruiting lots of overseas students, so teaching in the evening now, too.

I am salaried, if I had to increase my working days my salary would increase. Can you provide examples of careers where enforced additional working days do not lead to an increase of salary.

Reduced holiday means an increase in the number of days worked by school staff, all school staff would need to be paid for these additional working days.

As a kid, i remember the summer holidays were long. They shortened them by having week long half terms in Feb and May. One year, half term in Feb was ONE day!!! Usually the length of the half terms in Feb and May was a week between them.

At school in the 80s and 90s, in Leicestershire, we broke up for the summer holidays around 28th June - 4th July. As traditionally, factories closed down the first two weeks in July. Hence the term ‘Leicester Fortnight’. I think the factory workers had another week or so to book elsewhere in the year. We went back to school around 21st Aug then had the August bank holiday and the day after off.

Most of my friends and myself went on holiday usually a few days of breaking up as cheaper. Got back about now. Most of the time in July was spent going to friends’ birthday parties. What happened in Oct 1980 to cause half of my class to be born in July 1981??? Then the first week in August, there was a playscheme at my high school. You could do loads - paint t-shirts, play games, make clay figures etc. Then after that, the next 2.5 weeks we were bored.

The standard academic year and mindset needs to change - it helps nobody, except the minority who can afford or have the circumstances to accommodate a long summer holiday. If I was Education Queen for the day, I'd announce:

-No long summer holidays. Instead every child has an annual leave allowance, like a workplace (except more weeks, obviously). Annual leave taken in one or two week blocks, requestable via an online lottery with an October deadline.

-A similar arrangement for teachers. An uplift in salary because they would now be working 52 weeks a year, just like any other public sector employee.

-There would need to be isolated blocks for statutory exams, GCSE etc., but these would be the only fixed, unbookable periods. This said, my longer term goal as Education Queen would be to get rid of end-of-year exams and Ofsted.

In my experience the last couple of weeks of the summer term is pretty relaxed. Most schools do day and residential trips around that time of year when the weather is nice. It’s free babysitting. Our local sixth form college has a skills week where all the pupils do some sort of work experience (either a college offering or something they organise themselves).

Children in Ireland get a ‘Junior Certificate’ then a ‘Leaving Certificate’ at school.

Irish Examinations:
Irish examinations, particularly the Leaving Certificate, are known for their emphasis on essay writing, particularly in subjects like Irish and English. The Leaving Certificate Irish exam has three parts: oral, paper one, and paper two.

English GCSEs:
While some GCSE subjects still include controlled assessments, the trend in England has been towards more exams and fewer coursework components. There can also be differences in specific topics covered, particularly in science subjects.

Irish Examinations:
The Junior Certificate is taken a year earlier than the English GCSEs, so the academic standard is often considered lower, internationally.

English GCSEs:
Some argue that the reformed GCSEs in England, with their increased focus on exams, are more challenging than the older O-levels.

Well it certainly isn't going to do any harm? Wouldn't you benefit from an extra two weeks of work, or would you say no thanks?

I agree wholeheartedly with OP, was brought up in Ireland and loved the long summer holidays.
I think our system is fooked up, we need two parents working full time and our kids loose out, the state has become de facto parent, it’s sad really. Years ago when the shortened holiday time, the reason given was kids were losing out academically, but across the pond in Ireland kids were doing better with better (at the time) O levels and A levels and had higher and more degrees. Same applies to early years, our system and education is more detrimental to the child.

I had three months. In junior school they can start later, but my school had secondary as well, and we had the same holidays.

Edit: I misread your post as you asking how long the holidays were for ages 4-6.

Solve social inequality first then OP before coming up with silly suggestions.
You appear to be very anti school. Why don’t you home school your own children and then you can give them as many holidays as you like if you’re so concerned that they have to attend school too much. Or go live in Italy. The idea that attending school is affecting children’s mental health is ridiculous. If that is the case then there will be another issue at play eg bullying. Definitely not because they’re doing too much learning!

I say this as a teacher who loves the time off to spend with my own children. If anything the holiday needs to be less.

The main reason for this is safeguarding. Too many vulnerable children spend time out of a stable environment leading to involvement with many problematic influences. In younger years specifically, the number of children who actively do not want to be outside of school for an extended time is growing. Schools are safety for them.

As do teachers, who do work in evenings and weekends unpaid.

And salaried people shouldn't be doing overtime for free either - my overtime is either converted to TOIL or they pay it at 1.5 or 2x a certain rate that they calculate from my salary. I would not work for free.