Summer holidays should be longer

I agree with this. All schools should remain open but with voluntary good quality activities in arts,sports etc with the emphasis on fun and learning skills. These should put on for a few hours each day but there also needs to be some wrap around support for working parents,These should be pad for by the government. We need to invest more in our children,

I went to a British private school in Hong Kong and we had 8 weeks off in the summer - all of July and August. It was a shock to find out that kids here have to go to school in July - school is supposed to finish in June! Local schools were similar, maybe slightly shorter. I think it was as much to do with summer being super hot there.

I don’t think our summer holidays as a family were well organised - I didn’t have many friends locally. I just remember endless days stretched out reading books and enjoying the bliss of nothing to do and wondering hour to fill the days and time to myself.

I agree that these days the time would be filled with screens sadly.

I'd definitely vote for the same amount of holiday overall, but spread more evenly across the year. 2 week half terms, two week Christmas. It takes my kids the first week to decompress then we are back again. A week to chill, a week to do fun things, then back bright and springy.

If I ruled the world then the timings for the holidays would also have to vary across the schools so that annual leave allocation pressure would be eased a little and hopefully holiday peak times spread more widely.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that neglect is lovely and shouldn't be dealt with. My point was that a lot of the discussion is coming from a place of privilege, and as @SallyD00lally points out, when this is raised the answer seems to be to brush it aside as something that the government just needs to sort out.

If poverty and child neglect and abuse were simple I expect they would have been dealt with by now. Given their persistence, I'd suggest these are complex problems, and one thing that helps the children stuck in those situations is their access to school. No, it shouldn't be an escape - but it is. Cutting vulnerable children off from that for a longer period so kids from happier homes can get cheaper holidays abroad seems to me to be a little selfish, but what do I know?

Teaching requires a degree and at least one year of post-graduate training. If we consider that teachers are in school for 195 days and have a statutory entitlement to 28 days paid leave, they are being paid for 223 days, or 44.6 weeks.

Starting salary is £30k. (£30,000/44.6) X 52 gives a starting salary of £34,977. Which other public sector roles which require post grad qualifications are you referring to for this comparison?

Wow, I had no idea - 3 months is a long time to cover for childcare - how did your Mum manage in the years up to when you were 14/16?

Anyway, you asked what do other countries do. As PPs already said, way lower childcare costs, much better school holiday club provision at local levels - that is also affordable, France almost shuts down for the month of August, shorter or no half term/term breaks, longer days/more days per week etc etc. Basically, it would require a whole society shift. Which doesn't mean it wouldn't be good, but does make it unlikely. Not sure how the summer holiday knowledge slide could be overcome either.

And school should not be an escape from parents or home. If it is, neglect needs dealing with, not education being adapted and school staff's contracts being changed to bring up everyone's children for them.

I believe @noblegiraffe is a maths teacher so should be aware than correlation == causation

These points were met with "Then perhaps the government should do this" and "Perhaps the government should do that".

For those with experience of school holidays in other countries - what is the general opinion or attitude of primary age children being home alone or having an older (but not that much older) child in charge?
I always think of The Babysitter's Club books written in the 80s and set in Connecticut USA.
A group of 13 year old girls set up a babysitter service (and later add two 11 year olds) often looking after whole groups of younger children at a time.
Re-reading them as an adult it actually reads more like a "you're the eldest so you're in charge" type situation while the parents are all out working - which is pretty much how it was in UK a couple of generations back.
Would that be acceptable in some countries - even now in 2025?
Leave the children at home with a 13 year old sibling/neighbour in charge.
Would people be horrified or not bat an eyelid?

I haven't read the entire thread, OP, so apologies if this has been said elsewhere, but long summer holidays significantly disadvantage poorer children on a number of fronts: they are more likely to fall behind in schoolwork, forgetting what they've learned, and to struggle to catch up; they are more likely to have no SAHP and be essentially stuck at home with elder siblings, or alone; they are less likely to live in areas where there are summer clubs or activities; they are far less likely to go on holiday during the break; and the housing they're stuck in is more likely to be of poor quality in poor neighbourhoods.

Summer holidays are not glorious fun for everyone. For some children, school is their only safe place. The case of Arthur Labinjo-Hughes and similar ones during lockdown underline that - home is not always a relief from school but the place that school offers an escape from.

Not everyone has 6 weeks off, my child school has 4 weeks and then 2 weeks in October. I wish people would realise that not all schools have the same term dates/holidays.

If Germany and Denmark also have six weeks, and don't have the same issues with child mental health and school engagement, that would suggest it isn't the length of time that UK students spend in school, that is the problem.

Lessons until 4pm then clubs. Prep has to be done at home after school. State secondary here finishes at 2.30.

Lessons are going on until 5 or are clubs/prep sessions part of the school day?

Independent schools often run for that long so have longer holidays. My DD finishes school at 5pm

What you have to remember is teachers & other school staff don't get paid for school holidays. So a longer summer holiday means reduced salaries

I’d be up for this. At my school we have our Inset as twilight sessions so what would be our Inset days are just added to holidays for us. I also work results days so have time back in lieu for that.

The issue with making the school day longer would be for the pupils. I’m not sure 8 hours of lessons will have effective learning going on.

What would be dropped from the curriculum if there were less school days?
Unless, the school days were longer?

We need term time only contracts and holiday childcare clubs to cover for more school holidays.

School year would reduce to 180 instead of 190 days. Working days are 253 to 276. We never had any support from grandparents or family members. Arranging childcare around us both working full time was almost impossible.

Literally all the other options on this thread (apart from sticking them in front of the Xbox) incur a financial cost somewhere.

Why? If you are adding in an extra holiday? You are just spreading the difference out over the year

Summer holiday are ~3 months in the US where workers typically get 3 - 5 weeks’ annual leave.

How much time kids get off in summer should have nothing to do with the annual leave allowance of the parents.

A longer working day would need to be paid for.