Summer holidays should be longer

6 weeks seems long enough to me. I don't like the very occasional years when the new school year starts in August, but other than that it's fine. When DC at primary school I organised the hols on the basis of a ten day hol in the middle and various activities for the rest of the time. Art Club, a week of marshal arts, tennis, cricket. Playdates, cinema trips. Used most of mine and DHs leave over the summer with days off around the main summer holiday. DC did go to an independent school f oh rca while and the extra 2 weeks at the beginning would have been impossible without schools own clubs. Ultimately, those clubs were pretty rubbish and quite boring compared with the more mainstream holiday clubs.

YABVU and I don't have kids.
They are on holidays more than at school.

In my country primary school children will often be home alone, its just accepted that that's how it must be sometimes.
My DS is in his last summer at nursery, next summer when he's 8 he'll have to stay home. I'm lucky in that I also have a 14 year old (will be 15 then) and she will be sort of looking after him - I don't expect her to stay home with him all the time but to be around at least some of them, and she has offered to do summer school with him for a few hours a day (for pay, of course). But she'll also be applying for a two week summer job, and sometimes she'll be going away with her friends, so at least some of the time he'll be all alone except for the 4 weeks I get off.

The children need the long break from school, so yeah it is preferable because otherwise they don't get enough of a break. The children aren't home alone all day though, they're out playing with friends, going to each other's houses, going to the park, going swimming in the lake (older ones).

I agree! Adults need to have more annual leave to accommodate this

I agree the summer break feels short - my children don’t break up till 23 July this year which is ridiculously late! They need a long enough break to completely switch off and not even have to think about the looming return to school for a few weeks. There never seems enough time to fit in seeing family, catching up with friends, going on a holiday etc - my parents always want the children to stay for a week and a couple of days is all there’s ever time for.

But while I’m envious of the longer summers in other countries I do like the more regular half terms and proper breaks for Christmas and Easter we have here so I wouldn’t want to be shortchanged of that balance by putting it all onto summer. I went to a private school where we had nine weeks in the summer, four at Christmas, three at Easter and the usual half terms, so all my children’s holidays feel a bit measly to me.

As PPs have said, lots of those countries have shorter holidays throughout the year. And everybody I know in those countries with children complains about how hideous the long summer holidays are - how bored the children are by the end of them. They often send them off to holiday camps for weeks at a time because they can't get the time off work. They are envious of our holiday schedule with more breaks throughout the year. The grass isn't always greener!

But you go back in August.
Do you get extra in October or Christmas?

I have spent a couple of years in ROI and listen to Irish radio everyday, it’s not easy to cover at all, but they manage because they have to, it’s the same with school days. There is always talk on the radio about the difficulties around it.

There are pros and cons to each system.

When I lived there I had 3 children starting at 2 different times and finishing at 3 different times, Noon, 1.30pm and 2.25pm. One was in nursery but state funded hours, we could never get extra hours as they just didn’t have availability. There was very little in the way of afterschool clubs available, what was available had waiting lists. All children also had homework every day, not just a bit of spelling and reading but English, history, science, Irish, French etc… every single day! All workbooks were taken home each day, many kids had wheely suitcases instead of backpacks because they have so much to carry. And parents pay for these school books, they are not provided for free as in the UK, you must pay for the correct text and writing books in various sizes depending on subject. All stationary is also provided by the parents and there would be a strict list of what you could and couldn’t use. Some schools would request other equipment too. Parents also pay for insurance to ensure their children are covered for accidents in school. There was another payment but I can’t remember what it was.

There were no school lunches at my DCs school, though I’m not sure if this is all schools or just the one we attended, it was not a small school, roughly 450 pupils, the school did not have a kitchen or canteen, children had a snack in the morning and early afternoon that they brought in, no lunch break.

Also many schools in Ireland will not take children at 4yo even though the official rules are the September after they turn 4, many schools will say no, they prefer the children to start older, children there can start up to age 6yrs. The school we attended would not take children who turned 4 from June onwards, they had to wait until they turned 5.

There are also lots of single sex schools too so you have difficulties getting siblings to different schools at the same time, then there are events and holidays from multiple schools to juggle.

What I did find that was great, was there was a lot of summer camps, clubs and far more variety in extra curricular activities all together. The 2 summers we were there we paid for the 2 week summer camp offered by the school and run by the teachers, basically a normal school day but playing games and we paid for it. This was the cheapest summer camp. Then we paid 2/3 weeks of other camps but these were during school times, they did not cover a full working day so parents still had to arrange pickups. There was a whole range of things to book.

The GAA is amazing and dose camps throughout the whole country, lots of kids do these but I couldn’t tell you costs or times as we never did them. What I can tell you is Ireland is far more expensive than the UK.

We now have 5 weeks in Nottinghamshire with 2 weeks in October . Its a nightmare due to Inset Day and phased starts, or building not being ready - it's always closer to 6 weeks and just as things are back to normal and work is ramping up, it's a two week rainy half term in October to cover. When I was with my partner, we took alternate leave - never had time off together. I work in the charity sector so not making mega bucks. Kids are now 10 and 14 so will mostly be hanging out at home and I work from home but I have to work so we won't be "making memories" it will be survival . When they were younger it was a mad juggle of kids clubs, my leave , Dad's leave, me staying with my Mum so they would cover but not be exhausted. Childcare is expensive or inaccessible I'd love there to be clubs they could go to but they aren't sporty so there aren't. My kids aren't unhappy due to the lack of holidays - they are unhappy because they go to crowded , badly maintained sometimes violent schools despite us living in a nice areas (potentially because it;s a nice areas we don;t get any deprivattion investments) , they are forced to be continuously asseesed against a terrible uninspiring curriculum . Teachers and the education system is so wiped out there is zero extracurricular unless you pay through the nose for it, and then they come home to a Mum slowly losing her mind trying to provide the basics who survived homeschooling while working full time. If you increase the Summer Holidays I will actually have a breakdown and stop work!

Aye we break up end of June. No point having half term in May in Scotland.

4 in summer and 4 in October would be a better mix. Spreads it out more evenly.

Yeah.. no thanks.
I work full time. I want shorter and less holidays. Kids dont need to just be kids any more than the thousands of hours they get to be kids already. Mine need to grow up a bit actually. And preferably start paying their way. Freeloaders. 😂

England has February AND May for half term breaks.

Half term is February in Scotland not May.

Not enjoying six weeks of entertaining them. Bloody exhausting. Roll on mid August when kids are back!

Yes I agree, when I was a kid we use to get 8/9 weeks off in summer holidays. We use to finish before the last week of June and go back in September

I was just responding to the other poster, she asked me for an example!

It used to be 7 weeks in our LA, thankfully they added on one of those weeks to the October break which used to be only one week(!!) And that has now meant six weeks in the summer - too long!!

No we don’t get a May half term.

We don’t feel the need to go away all the time as most of the country gets 3 months of hot weather with sunshine.

This is an aside but fwiw I don't go away because of weather? I like to see new places and things. Weather really isn't the main thing at all. Our last holiday was to somewhere colder!

Why are you trying to pit professions against each other?

I could say my children were screwed over when DH and I couldn’t see them in school events or missed parents evenings if they clashed with our own.

I think the 6 weeks holiday is reasonable but I wouldn’t want it shortened. Our secondary to further education system would need a complete overhaul if this was the case.

Noble is also right with her data about our children being the unhappiest in England compared to other nations so something does need to be done. Sadly, no government priorities education and parents care whilst their children are in school but then it’s a distance memory!

The summer camps would be optional, for those that need them.

Not really. This would be off timetable, and allow children to engage in activities centred around play.

Obviously I think it’s much nicer for children to be at home but I appreciate many parents wouldn’t be able to find another 2 weeks of childcare.

That chart is wrong for France- its 8 weeks not 9.

Also, very difficult to compare the 2 systems as the French start school the September of the calendar year they turn 3, have longer school days (primary for mine is 8am-4pm) but no school on Wednesday (primary only).

There are many other differences that I cba to list.

The last job I had, I had a total of 35 days leave (DH had 30) and the DC 16 weeks holidays.

Holidays are covered by a mixture of annual leave, grandparents (a LOT of DC I knew were shipped off to grandparents for weeks on end from a very young age) and holiday clubs. My DC did the sports clubs but hated the state run holiday clubs.

8 weeks is ok for us cos of grandparents helping but is a nightmare every year for some of my friends.

My DS once had 11 weeks off after year 7 and it was awful as he got so bored (so many parents complained the school changed it the next year).