Summer holidays should be longer

The reality is the whole system needs an overhaul. We have a system that pushes low paid parents back to work once their DC turns 3. But provide childcare 30 hours a week term time only and provide parents with 4 weeks annual leave a year. Holiday clubs and wrap around care (where they exist) are expensive and often short hours. Parents are set up to fail, kids are set up to fail. Of course many children are going to be unsupervised or on tech all day as low paid parents often don't have a choice. I don't think children spending their childhood following an outdated curriculum is really the solution.

That’s what I get , I’m sure people get less but that entirely my point. Parents can’t cope with the holidays as it is!

Thats a pipe dream though!

Most services have already been cut, and are being cut again. Most councils are seriously in debt.. how do you suggest these services are funded?
Cant raise taxes as people are already up in arms.

The six weeks would be best spread out to other half terms and shaved off, would give working parents less competition to get the same time off as their collegues too. Six weeks is ridiculous its simply for the teachers, its not for the kids at all.

@noblegiraffe that is exactly what I think and have said here!

Perhaps this poster is including bank holidays?

This. Sadly we do have to cater to the lowest. Many of my students will be barely fed during summer. And not anything worth eating. This isnt a lack of funds, it is a complete lack of effective parenting, lack of skills, lack of effort and most likely huge amounts of undiagnosed issues in the parents too. it costs nothing to walk to the park and play out. So why do so many children not leave the house for weeks?

i once read on mumsnet our childcare issue is because summer holidays are too short. Longer ones and then more camps would be economically viable. But again, that non-working barely surviving section of society would have so many children in squalor.

I don't know about the rest of Europe but in southern Italy (where all DH's family are) the cost of living is much cheaper, so families can live on one income. There aren't any school or state provided holiday clubs etc because they just aren't needed.

I grew up with a single mother.. she worked.
During the school holidays in secondary school, we were just old enough to be left by ourselves.

and before then?

6 weeks is enough - i'm in Germany, the country is so big that each federal state starts and ends the summer holiday at a different time, they stagger it to lessen the effects on industry etc. (the factories that close down for summer maintenance, afaik, time it to coincide with the start or end of holiday in their state, to help the parents out)

for us? I took 2 weeks, my DH took 2 weeks and we sent the DCs to my parents for the remaining weeks. If we went on holiday together, my parents often took them for 3 weeks or a bit more. Or we paid an absolute fortune to our childminder to take them full time for a week or two.

Absent schemes for all (or most) children, with priority given to those with working and single parents (etc) longer holidays mean stress and expense for many families.

Where do they catch it up?
I know they don't have a May half term (some of them break up in late May!), but I think the rest of the holidays are the same, are they not?

As much as I love that there's far less traffic on the roads during school Summer holidays, I could do without the rise in youth crime rate and anti-social behaviour in general.

Plus despite all the various schemes, some kids still go hungry during the holidays.

I wouldn't want to prolong that for them.

Are You saying that most people get 34 days annual leave? I don’t know anyone who gets that much.

With great difficulty and a lot of use of summer camps.
For my Irish friends, parents take separate time off or more flexible hours to allow drop offs at the endless camps.
Many kids enjoy these as all their friends are there too, but it's expensive and I wouldn't say much of a rest. And of course, some kids hate them.

I think I'd like it better if schools broke up earlier and went back earlier. I've enjoyed GCSE year as DS has been off since mid June, so heatwave more bearable. I'd be happy if he went back mid August though (or even now....!)

Are you mad?

None of this can be considered outside a realistic view of how much time kids spend gaming or scrolling shit on their phones in modern culture

I have spoken to teachers who despair for some kids over the holidays
It would need a real attention on good community childcare which was child focused not about keeping them busy so adults can work ..but on giving them real freedom to play

I agree that this would be much better for DC and many parents too. Many are in breakfast and after school club anyway, places that do not have that are a nightmare for parents as they need to finish work mid afternoon. Four working days at school would work so much better.

What happened during primary?

I used to be a school governor. The head used to say that the 6-week summer holiday was the only incentive to be a teacher and for that reason was very against shortening it. So yes I imagine an even longer holiday may help with teacher recruitment and retention which has been at crisis point in STEM subjects for many years - when I was a governor (stopped in 2022) the head was complaining that recruitment has never been so difficult,

The downside to a longer holiday is obviously, the longer they're off, children forget more and more and there are potential safeguarding issues.

I note that the school I used to be governing now has a new head and the summer holiday is only 5 weeks.

Yes, OP, I get that it would be lovely for many children. My DCs always loved the long holiday and to be honest so did I. I was working at home but work was always very quiet over the summer so I could spend time with them.

The Irish school system is only one week shorter over the year. In England the holidays are just more spread through the year.

What did she do when you were 4 and 6?

@Mitara yes at that age but you can't work and ignore primary age children all day

And it's not ideal for teens either given the absolutely addictive nature of gaming and phones now

It’s ready incredibly difficult for families where both parents work.

With clubs etc it makes it just as tiring as school, so they wouldn’t even be getting additional ‘rest’ in a lot of cases.

I hate the Xmas holidays as it is. Dark and cold and kids spend too much time indoors !!

The whole system needs radical change. School is too all consuming and sedentary.

We could have a 4 day school week for example and adults also work a 4 day week. We could have kids doing spirt and arts every afternoon etc. We have such poor imagination about our broken education system

Many children hate school that is the reality. So yes they are desperate for a long break from it.

When people are talking about childcare during the summer it’s not about 14 and 16 year olds.