Summer holidays should be longer

This survey is out of date, there is no information on the sample size, and by its own admission it has been scaled up, so it’s finding an are unlikely to be representative of schools.

The information doesn’t consider the funding for School improvements and rebuilding taking place: https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/03/how-were-upgrading-school-buildings-across-england/

I also question again if you believe that people shouldn’t work in hot weather and that offices, hospitals and restaurants should all be closed down in hot weather. If you are suggesting hot weather shuts down schools, then that would have to apply everywhere!

Finally do you believe that children are more likely to have air conditioning at home or at school?

I would suggest that it’s more likely to be at school.

I feel that you are clutching at straws to be suggesting extending the school holidays, for a potential heatwave despite the detrimental impact this would have on children’s education and wellbeing is a little bit selfish as you seem to want to avoid doing the school run!

Like Scotland we have a extra week in October and break up first week in July then the kids go back in August. We don't celebrate the same holidays as England so when u have a week off in may we don't and we break up earlier for Easter

But you can't actually fit everything into an hour a day even with just 5 children and sometimes you need a lot more - how would PE work for instance? My DD's primary class was near enough that ratio (14 students, one teacher and one TA so 1:7) but still couldn't teach everything they needed to in the time in the day so homework was required daily, to finish the tasks they didn't finish in class. Though tbf the days weren't as long as in the UK, some days were just 3 hours - because school isn't childcare, but the week total was somewhere between 25 and 30 hours depending on the year.

Or you could have the same number of teachers teaching 5 children for an hour a day each X 6 = 30 children per day. First five 9-10, next lot 10-11. Parents to arrange activities for the rest of the day etc.

The purpose is to educate. The reason it takes so long is precisely because you need to put thirty+ kids in a class and cater to all of them at once. It's infinitely less efficient than what could be done in a small group, but if class sizes were five, you'd need an awful lot more qualified teachers, and there are currently shortages.

Definitely agree. Especially now my child’s in secondary. She gets so exhausted that she could do with a huge chunk of time to decompress and become herself again. To be fair, I could also do with that time.

Teenagers don’t need childcare generally (obviously not referring to anyone with a Sen child etc). It’s widely accepted that they often stay on their own for some days in the Summer holidays in teenage years or go out with friends. Most families have two parents working full or part time from baby/toddler age upwards so there are alot of years where school has the dual purpose of educating and childcare. It can be both things! Holiday clubs/annual leave have to be used in the holidays until teenage years (which is why longer holidays would be totally impossible for the majority of parents - to answer your original question).

I dont see school as childcare anymore for our teenager but our primary school absolutely is childcare for our younger one. Without it, I physically couldn’t do the job I do as I have to be in my workplace and have no option to stay home (as millions of others in the same boat). You did live through Covid right and see the nightmare alot of parents had working with children at home?

This is exactly why children need more unstructured time.
They (in general, not specifically yours) shouldn't be bored after 3 weeks of some time doing activities and some time playing independently or meeting with friends.
Children seem to be losing the ability to entertain themselves more and more each generation.
It's such an important life skill to have as adults, to be able to find interests and think of things to do, as well as being able to handle being bored and then occupy themselves.

But if the purpose was to educate children as efficiently as possible, this might mean they all get an hour a day in a class of 5, and don't do anything fun, because they can get their 3Rs in that time and they can play/go on trips on their parents' time. This would almost certainly be cheaper because the extra equipment and travel for play and trips wouldn't be needed. Many home educators - and lots of us in lockdown - found an hour or two a day was all that was needed for formal teaching if in a small group/individual.

Except that is NOT how school is set up - it's set up to provide 6+ hours a day for 192 days a year of child supervision in which approx. 1 hour is still the mean time per child of direct instruction, but the children are cared for those other hours of the day.

So either the real purpose of schooling is in addition to provide childcare and/or enrichment, or someone has gone a bit wrong somewhere. I'm guessing the former.

We are a changing society - 30 years ago my Mum was home all Summer, every Summer, until teenage years. There wasn’t a nursery in our town until around 10 years ago - pre-schools that followed the school pattern, but not year round nurseries. We now have several pre-schools that all take the children from 2 and a nursery that runs all year round.

Holiday clubs have massively expanded in our town too and there’s now a really good choice.

Like everything, school will have to change to fit with society now. I dont believe teachers should work any more days (they deserve a break as do the kids), but we will need to look at more support staff to run morning/after school clubs and look at how best to divide the holidays up. It will become even more of an issue as older people work until later in their life (and can’t help if they live close by). It will also affect those in lower income jobs disproportionately more, as they are often the ones who can’t work from home and pop out to pick up the kids. School patterns were decided in a different era - school needs to change as society changes.

Our school opens at 7.45 for the early morning club and runs activities every day after school till 4.15. I’m lucky my own job fits into school hours but I see alot of grandparents on the school run day after day, year after year, and other parents share childcare (kids going to each other’s houses till there’s a parent to pick them up). I imagine if you look around the school run at all Primary schools in the UK, you will see how much parents are juggling the hours after school in different ways to fit around work.

School IS childcare aswell as all the amazing reasons kids go to school in the first place. It allows both parents to work which is what pays the mortgage/rent/bills and everything else in 2025. There are very few families that can survive on one income the whole way through raising kids these days. The average house price in our area is £420,000 and we’re a few hours from London in a touristy area (so you can imagine the struggle for housing in our area if you are on anything less than a very good middle income).

But in Ireland they dont start secondary school till they are 13. The long holidays and short days do impact their learning, so they are behind compared to the UK.

Here in Ireland there is an army of grandparents who look after the children.

And the government need as many people working as possible to pay that bill!

The UK government spent over £130 billion on education last year, second only to health. Definitely so you can have free childcare.

I’ll stop here.

P.S. Keep up the good work with the teaching — and the free childcare you provide.

This is the bit where you fall short in understanding the two main functions of a school. Whether you believe teachers are providing childcare or not, schools serve as both a place of education and a form of childcare. That’s just a fact. I don’t give two hoots if that offends you.

The fact remains, while schools are fundamentally educational institutions, their structure and schedule also play a vital role in providing daytime care and supervision for children.

No, it's accurate. School isn't there in order to let parents work; it's there to give all children a set standard of education. It obviously means that adults are freed up for those hours (around 1220), but the entitlement doesn't neatly reflect the requirements to attend a full time job over the course of a year.

LOL—well, you're not listening to other people's opinions, are you? So we should help you out.