Secondary schools not broken up yet!

We finish Friday, by then we will have done 15 weeks of the school year. The kids ( and staff) are shattered, loads of illnesses and attendance has dropped through the floor. Sure it might suit some parents not to have their kids around 🙁but if we are working on school being for the benefit of students then finishing last Friday and thus equalising the terms a little bit would be beneficial imo in so many ways. No fun lessons here either, so I am stressing about how much all the kids off are missing.

The DC are breaking up at lunchtime tomorrow and going back on the 3rd. I'm glad I don't have them at home going wild with excitement all week this week TBH!

Ours broke up Friday and are back on the 4th. The primary school doesn't break up until weds though

2 in primary broke up Friday 15th and go back Wednesday 3rd.
1 in secondary breaks up Thursday 21st and goes back Tuesday 9th.

Mine break up this Friday. It's exam week for DD (year 9)and DS (year 10) has also go a couple of exams this week, so can't even relax this week! It's rubbish!!

Breaking up Wednesday here, back on 8th

They break up at 2.30 Friday here and back on the 8th.
It's suits me, I've took this week off work to do the last of the shopping, wrapping and cleaning and then I can relax all weekend.

22nd here and back on the 8th.

La nursery breaks up on the 22nd and goes back on the 3rd.

Ours break up on Wednesday and are back on the 9th. Primary school also breaks up on Wednesday and go back on the 4th

DS finishes on Weds lunchtime and then back on 8th Jan.

We break up on Friday. It's crazy. Everyone is on their knees and ill. We are hosting all my side of the family for 3 days. I wish we'd broken up earlier so we had time to prepare.

I think the last 4 days could be lovely if the teachers relax and let them do fun stuff.

We'd love to relax. We have curriculum to get through and mocks after Christmas. Schools don't generally just say 'Hey, teachers - do whatever you fancy with your classes for the whole last week of term'.

Yes it varies a lot. We are breaking up on Wednesday (20th) here, but over the nearby council border, they broke up on Friday! I don't mind. TBH we won't do much between break up and Christmas anyway, if we had longer I'd be feeling like we need to organise ourselves a bit more (and do stuff)!

I'd be delighted with that!

Dd (Y10) breaks up on Thursday. This week they have end of term tests and several teachers have set a lot of homework that has to be in this week, as well as a couple who have set deadlines for during the holiday (all logged online, so has to be submitted by the deadline). No Christmassy lessons at all, just more slogging away.

Dd is absolutely on her knees. She had to take two days off with a virus a couple of weeks ago and insisted on rushing back before she was well enough, because she daren’t miss too much. As a result she is completely exhausted, coming home and falling asleep for a couple of hours before starting her homework. She hasn’t even put up decorations in her bedroom this year, as she’s either been exhausted, sleeping or doing school work. She ended up really ill in January last year after refusing to take time to properly recover from the flu because she was scared to have too many days off.

They are constantly terrifying her year about the consequences of being off sick or missing homework deadlines and she’s in a state of constant stress. Her friends are all the same. This is a state secondary/academy, not some high performing public school.

We have nothing at all planned over the holiday because she needs total relaxation and recuperation (as far as possible between blooming holiday homework deadlines! ).

Eh I feel the opposite tbh. DS broke up on the 8th, goes back 3rd Jan. Its such a long holiday where the weather is dreary, we have so much to get done before Xmas, money is limited owing to the time of year so little opportunity for fun days out etc. I would rather have a shorter Xmas holiday and have longer in the May half term!

Kids short changed here. Break up this Weds and back on the 3rd!

Ds2 is doing GCSE mock exams all week till Thursday, church service Friday morning and then finish at lunchtime. Nice to get the exams out of the way before Christmas, I think.

All schools in our area break on up on Friday, last year they broke up on the 23rd which defintely felt too late.

One of mine broke up last week on Wednesday. The other doesn't break up until this Wednesday!

My two (one primary and one secondary) don’t break up until Friday. The secondary is going back on the 8th but primary is having an inset dad then so will not go back until the 9th. Why the inset day can’t be Friday I will never know. DS has exactly 3 weeks and 4 days of next half term.

My view is that schools should always break up on the 20th. The one exception being that if the 20th is a Monday then schools can go on until the 21st if they want.

Last year they broke up on the 16th. We were a bit bored of Xmas by the time it came around. But this year is a total nightmare! We can’t stop until they do (as need our holiday allowance for them) but have all our guests (who have more sensible schools and finish on Wednesday) arriving on Friday night. I am so NOT ready for guests!

Friday break up here but not back until 8th thankfully. It’s ridiculous though. We are all stressed and exhausted. Massively long half term and then straight into hyped up excitement for Christmas. I’m pissed off about it tbh.

I think it's fine, I prefer they break up later, gives me more time to prepare.