Summer holidays should be longer

Lovely bigotry from you there with the 'Tabithas and Hugos of this world' insult.

Why on earth do you think that's OK?

Because it's punching up? At children?

Believe me, stoking the class war won't help those children you do care about.

There's ways around this. If one parent can work from home ( not all can but many can) then the kids can 'chill'. Parents can set limits on phones and devices - solution to the 'teens' issue. But parents need to make these parenting choices, not being afraid of their kids reactions.

It's good for them to be bored - sparks creative thought and gives them downtime from their normal routine. Let them be bored.

Completely agree. My sister lives in Portugal, they make it work. In England it's all about pandering to working parents (my husband and I work full time, so we are in that category) and it's not fair on the poor kids. My sister works full time as does her husband and both live in Portugal (12 weeks summer holiday). He does shift work, she works from home and the kids play in the house and chill out. They're 4 and 8 and she makes it work. The kids need downtime as do teachers, the summer break is already too short.

Looking at the menu for the open park lunches (which I don't know if they are the same as the supervised park lunches but they probably are because it'll be central kitchens providing to the parks) they're mostly free of the main allergies in Finland - lactose and gluten (actually always lactose free probably, same as in schools) but there are no options, there's one thing on offer each day so if you can't eat it you can't eat it, but the menu is online so can check beforehand and take a packed lunch I suppose if needed.

Children with additional needs or disabilities (high enough that they cannot be expected to look after themselves) are eligible for special childcare throughout the holidays anyway though that's not free (though probably income based fees like all other childcare so free for those on lower incomes)

With the way climate is changing it would be wise to at least move the summer holidays in the UK to cover the hottest time.

Summer is so short in Finland, it shouldn't be spent inside buildings. Used to be that lots of businesses closed or reduced operations so much during the summer too so workers would be off a lot in the summer but now that's changing as so many people need summer jobs so there's always plenty of workers available. Though one workplace next door to mine always closes for the whole of July, but that's because its too hot to do their work there then (too hot in my workplace, I can only do meaningful work between 7 and 9am at the moment).
But autumn and a good part of spring are just shit to be outside in here so not a great time for holidays except for those who can afford to go abroad (but term time holidays are allowed here, if you ask permission from the head)

People have explained already how teacher holidays and pay are calculated. You choose not to believe them, but they are right about it and you are not. It may not make much difference in most circumstances but it does with regard to things like maternity pay.

Well you can keep telling yourself that, but as per your previous statement, simply saying something is right doesn't make it true. If just saying "I'm right" is all we need to be accurate, we're all in trouble.

If you have any other pearls of "I'm right, you're wrong" wisdom, I'm afraid I've unfollowed this thread because I'm off to bed. Tomorrow is the holidays and I will be far too busy with my children for the next 6 weeks. Happy days.

And it currently isn't. So I will stand by Schools, the same as the ones I work for, doing everything they can. As over half the time a child has is spent there, it's only right we do.

I would feel professionally remiss if I didn't consider this part of our role. Indeed, ahead of education, safeguarding is our first priority.

Not arrogant, I'm just right.
Accuracy is not a crime.

Oh so arrogant

The fact you scoff at 2 weeks extra holiday says a lot about you ....

I think I probably see it through rose-tinted glasses now @DuesToTheDirt!

Private school parents don’t get cheap deals. The Scottish and Irish schools have been off since end June. Ditto the European countries. The US schools finish end June and anyone who holidays in Europe comes then. If anything English school parents benefit from the last week in August, when all the above are back at school.

One year when my kids were about 10, I managed to get most of the summer off. I dreamt of picnics, trips to the beach, days out... it rained almost every day!

I agree that there can be too far with this, but you focusing on the minutiae rather then the larger, very really dangers many children face through no fault of their own.

No. Thats why people who are signed off with mental health illness need more than two weeks off work. They need therapy, medication, change of lifestyle etc.

As if 14 days free time gives any long term mental health benefits 😂

Then you are very ignorant!

You do realise that there is a massive shortage of teachers in most subject areas?
teaching classes of 30 teenagers with all the other crap that teachers have to do is exhausting, more than most can ever realise.
Also, teachers are not paid for their holidays. Imagine the cost to the nation of you had to add weeks more pay for all teachers.

I didnt rtft but in response

YES - the summer hols should be longer,
YES - all grown ups should get summer hols too!

I grew up with full 3 months off as summer holidays in NE Europe. I'm in my mid 30s so things have changed but we were left to sort of fend for ourselves.
That is cooking our own lunch on the stove, spending hours and hours outside, going to the forest, a lake or even to the sea with a group of friends. Often hitchhiking to the desired destination. I vividly remember spending some time on the rooftop as a 7 year old. We had the best of times but I do realise how dangerous were some of the things we did.
We also had household or gardening chores to do before our parents returned from work.
Currently living in Western Europe and I can't imagine leaving my child this early unsupervised. And I don't have enough AL to cover the 8 weeks of holidays so off to the clubs they go. And it's a costly nightmare.

It does sound like an interesting model but I am curious as to how it works for children with any additional needs?

E.g food allergies with the lunches?
Are disabled/ND children catered for?

@Natsku "If the UK had that I bet everyone would be in favour of longer summer holidays." I have no axe to grind - my DC are late teens now and I always loved the summer holidays - I had a lot of flexibility with work, as did DH so was extremely lucky that it wasn't stressful getting cover and I could enjoy spending time with them. But I still think I prefer the idea of more evenly spaced holidays and shorter over the summer and it suited my DC. Maybe it's partly climate - I would imagine there is quite a lot of the year where you can't do much outdoors in Finland, so maybe it makes more sense, but we had lovely days out / weeks away in half terms and at easter which broke the year up.

@noblegiraffe my kids are at private school and it’s honestly a nightmare. I would gladly waive the 1k difference in going on holiday with the extra £80 a day 2 x £40) I have to spend on sending the kids to various camps. Private schools get 4 weeks at Xmas and 3 weeks at Easter AND 8.5 weeks in summer. - I doubt many parents would want to or can afford to pay the extra for camps and childcare. My 25 days leave a year certainly doesn’t cover it!

Sounds an interesting concept.