To think we don’t need more school holidays?

Yes I think for older kids (and sensible ones) this is probably easier - it’s the younger ones that are harder to juggle!

Actually reading it back I missed that it affects the primary stage. That would have been an absolute nightmare for me and working if this had been implemented when my dc were in primary. Thankfully they are now yr7 and yr11. I feel for primary school parents.

About pupil attendance

It’s an extra week. The time is not being taken from anywhere else. I’ll be honest it doesn’t overly affect me as my 2 dc are old enough and sensible to be left at home in the holidays whilst I work. My dc is taking his GCSEs next May so I’m not chuffed about him missing a weeks learning but again I am lucky in that he is very self motivated. It was interesting about staff absence halving compared to last year and I know my dc have complained about having temp teachers who are ‘useless’ so all together me personally I would prefer the extra week holiday if it means my dc have more chance of having their regular teacher. And it’s £40k the school have saved.

For other parents with different children I can imagine it is a nightmare.

Is this an extra week or have they taken the days from elsewhere?

this is the contentious point. No against more time off in Oct so long as that time is taken from another holiday, or insets are put together.

it’s the extra week off that some of us would struggle with as we work and don’t have annual leave to cover it. Or the available clubs

Nobody is saying teachers are babysitters.

but if they weren’t caring for/supervising the kids as well as teaching then parents would need to be in school. And this is not the case.

when kids are at school they are supervised by school staff and therefore parents can work/do what ever they please.

Maybe change the word “childcare” to “supervised” if that makes more sense to you??

We received this notification from dc secondary school today that 2 week October holidays will
continue but will stay under review. The school also stated that staff absence between September up to last week compared to last year has halved and saved the school £40k for temp staff. The letter said nothing about the effects on student learning but obviously it is too soon to say. The school also stated there was a marginal decrease in student absence compared to last year.

Why don’t you get into teaching? There is a shortage. Then you can have the holidays with your DC.

This is correct.

I hope anyone thinking of training to be a teacher for four years realises they’re just babysitters.

Teachers are paid for 1265 hours in the year which usually equates to 195 days.

They are then paid for the statutory 28 days holiday and no more.

The pay is split evenly over 12 months.

Are you sure your got this right, OP?
LSEAT is currently advertising for a cook supervisor to start work Jan 2026. It's a term-time only post, advertised as being 39 weeks. The usual school year is 39 weeks, what would the cook be doing for the extra week if there are no pupils in school?

We have just had our 1st 2 week Oct half term. North london state school. No week taken off for summer hols, we've had the 10 mins less at break justification. We had no choice but to figure it out. We were told at the start of 2025 and we took turns in taking a week off each. It was thoroughly annoying though and objections during consultations were generally ignored. It went through as proposed because that's what they wanted.

Well if it is the way you say it is, and the extra week is made up from 10 mins teaching per day, then teachers are still working the same hours whether it's an extra week or not, no? So of course they would be paid the same?

Or would you be happy to have your pay docked despite doing the same hours? What job do you do OP?

DS school has done this since he started (now y3) and I love it. Every year we've had an extremely cheap break that week. I really don't want every school to do it as it will push the holiday prices up 😂.

They do one day a week that is 50 minutes longer, and instead of classroom based work for the 50 minutes they do clubs with things like cookery, first aid, woodwork, computer coding etc. Activities rotate every half term, I think it's a great system

Our school usually have 5 inset days per year. These are being replaced with the extra week.

I didn’t think teachers got paid for all the school holidays do they?

Our secondary does this, using a combo of inset days and a longer school day. They use 3 days of the second week for intensive GCSE prep work with all staff focused on Y11s.

I have really enjoyed it - the weather in October isn't all that terrible compared to December and February, and for those who can afford to travel it's often a much better time for a lot of destinations that are too hot in summer and in winter it's cold/short days etc.

From a schools perspective - honestly I applaud them if they're getting creative about how to attract and retain staff and this is one method. Competition for good teachers is fierce, and having good teachers is good for children.

In addition, as school numbers dwindle schools are having to market themselves much more - and having brilliant teachers who stay at a school long term is a massive USP.

Exactly this. An extra week holiday was added to my dc academy school after a vote by the teachers. It is not being made up anywhere else in the school day/week/year.

Not correct if it’s an academy.

Not if they’re an academy. Our local school (academy) added an extra week off at October half term and just increased the hours in school per day by starting earlier and finishing slightly later.

My dc still have inset days on top of the extra week at half term. Every term they have a parents evening too which means the dc finish school at 12pm to accommodate the parents ‘evening’. So that’s more time taken away from their lessons. Thankfully the parents evening is now on Teams so I haven’t got to leave work early and instead can take a lunch break to have the appointments from my car.

I actually really like my dc school and the teachers - I think they are in a hard place and I appreciate them because they genuinely go over and above. But so are parents. Everything just fucking sucks at the moment and because of repeatedly shit governments (both sides!) all that ends up happening is we end up arguing with each other rather than holding our pompous arsehole privileged leaders to account. Rant over 🙈 Time for bed 🤣

Our primary moved to 2 week October half term around/just after Covid lockdowns

At first I wasn’t sure but now we’re used to it I think it’s great as the kids get a bit more time to relax/recharge over half term, that autumn term is so very long!

We tend to spend one week here at home and another we go away