to be violently opposed to the summer holidays being shortened to three weeks

[emkana]

Don't know if there's been a thread about this yet?

Suggested by Frank Field, adviser to David Cameron, because poorer children don't get the stimulation during the summer holidays and therefore fall behind.

Libby Purves wrote quite rightly in the Times yesterday that that is no good reason to deprive all children of the long summer break (and the teachers!), rather more enrichment should be offered during the holidays for deprived children.

dear god, we have 2 months over here and even that wasn't long enough this year as we had loads on.

In secondary they have 3 months here and 4 months in Uni

I wish!

I think it might work for some children, my DS1 has also struggled with the change going back and breaking up from school, maybe they could have 1 week off every month or something like that?

I enjoy holidays, i went quickly but DS has struggled quite a bit going back.

When mine were little I thought six weeks was far too long. Anyone who works and gets the bog standard 4 weeks holidays whilst the children get 13 inevitably has to juggle/put them in less than ideal childcare to cover those extra nine weeks per year.

However, now ds is a teenager I'm happy for it to be six weeks.

We were discussing this at school today as a general conversation re our pupils. Its a school for pupils with severe, profound and multiple learning difficulties, many of whom have physical and medical needs that are also extremley profound and demanding.

We have noticed that many of the children are again unsettled with their physio etc and some have lost a few of their skills. We talked about 4 weeks summer holidays, 2 week Oct 1/2 term and 2 week in May.

We decided from the pupils education POV this would be beneficial and it reminded me of the CHAT topic Riven posted at the beginning of the summer. It backed up what she said 100% and also would put less pressure on the parents.

We all agreed though we love having the 6 weeks off

the 5 and half weeks wasn't enough for DS, who had just finished reception. he could have done with another 2.

kids NEED to get bored, NEED to have time to do nowt and chill out, NEED to get fed up with their folks, NEED to get out of routine, and NEED to spend a good chunk of time outside institutional settings. IMNSHO.

Please do not let this happen!!! I am only just getting used to the fact that ds1 has started school, and am so looking forward to each and every holiday as I love having him around me.

Flippin' nightmare out here. Libraries, museums, 'loads' of free stuff? Not out here. Weather's usually dire, too. No garden or outdoor space.

I'm sending them to stay with my sister and mother next year.

I am also opposed to this, and not just because I work in a school. Even when I did not work in a school i would have been against it.

I want to be with my DD occasionally, nit have her ins chool so much and us not get chance to do stuff.

If there is evidence that deprived children don't get enough stimulation in holidays - then address that issue. Don't penalise everyone else.

I don't want more time off with DD in the cold dark months.

I don't want it to be a nightmare with having to see whne you can manage to fit ina holiday. In many work places peole have to work around one another, so reducing this to 3 peak weeks would make it impossible,

Also these peak weeks would be even more expensive to go away in. This means more people having term time holidays.

I love haveing the children home for 6 weeks, though we only got 5 and 1/2 this time. We spent the first few days preparing our camping equipement then heded off for 2 weeks, came home for a few days to do some washing and pick up the mail and then we headed out again for a week. We had a great time, the kids loved the freedom and were able to see lots of new things and we didn't spend a great deal. Next year we are going to make it 4 weeks plus

Children need time just to be children.

Phew! I'm so glad to see most replies are wanting the summer holidays left alone.

"they wouldn't want less than 5 weeks as they need that break mentally'

How much actual holiday do they get ? I know they have to work for some of the six weeks, but don't they get 4 clear weeks to themselves, therefore the same as everyone else gets to mentally recuperate from responsible jobs ?

As a teacher I would like this as long as the other holidays are increased.

Having a more balanced series of holidays throughout the year would be more beneficial for children's education as you wouldn't get as greater fall back in the Autumn term.

Plus it might bring holiday prices down if there was more time to go away throughout the year.

Much as I love my kids, six weeks is too long, they are 16 16 and 13 but have autism so can't go out without an adult, Im a lone parent and don't get an extra respite in the holidays, the kids need the routine and quite frankly i'm stressed half way throu the holiday.
This summer we rented a villa for three weeks to break the six weeks up but it is hard.

I can't stand this new buzzword 'enrichment'. Really pisses me off.

I am sick to the back teeth of everything being done in the name of social engineering.

If deprived children are missing out then give them something nice to do. I am perfectly capable of entertaining my children and having a lovely summer holiday. If I had my way I would have From the middle of June to the middle of September off school and ditch the crappy half terms either side.

When will these meddling politicians realise that children learn in lots of lovely ways and sitting in an understaffed, badly resourced classroom isn't one of the best.

I would only change it to two weeks at whitsun and two weeks mid october still keeping at least four weeks in the summer .Don't want any more time off at Christmas thank you !

6 weeks is fine. What I'd like is for the English summer holidays to start in early July and finish towards the end of August, like Scotland. Might stand a chance of getting decent weather for the whole period, then.

Hmm, not sure. My DS was a bit bored in the holidays and missed his friends (I have posted elsewhere about the difficulty in making sufficient friendly contact with the other mums at the school gate to arrange playdates, argh!) and I had to stop a lot of work because i couldn't afford the chilcare.
But at the same time I can see that over the next few years he will actually enjoy the break more.

I will be so upset if this comes in. Mine had 8 weeks this summer and I still was not ready for it to end.

Dont get me wrong we are skint so we dont have loads of spare money for days out etc but we still find stuff to do.

I am great believer in kids being allowed to just chill out and amuse themselves. There is a whole generation growing up always being supervised in organised activities. Kids need time to just be and at the moment the summer holidays is the only time some kids get that chance.

Are they keeping the same amount of weeks and just spreading them out?? or doing away with some weeks altogether?

Summer is so short in the UK anyway - how exactly will they spread it out (if they keep the same amount of weeks)? Speaking for myself I would hate an extra week added on in the winter, our summers may be poor but they are better than the winter for amusing the kids outside etc.If you cannot afford foreign holidays then I fail to see how anyone will be any better off with the holidays spread out around the year. What options are open to you in months like February in this country?? Thats one school holiday I dread - the Feb half Term, because it usually is hard to find things to do outside then.

How on earth will any work place be able to spread the annual leave shares between parents in 3 weeks?

Can you imagine how awful it would be if you had 3 weeks to take your summer holiday and every bugger else was there at the same time!!!

Beaches would be heaving, flights jammed solid and all of us paying £££££ more for the privilege.

I dont think so.

I know the argument is that you could take your holiday in the May break or October, but I actually dont want to thank you very much, I LIKE JULY AND AUGUST.

Once again someone comes up with a suggestion that will adversely affect 90% of people in order to try to improve things for the remaining few percent. Grrrr.