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.

As a teacher I think a long break in the summer is a must. I wouldn't mind too much having 5 with an extra week at Christmas - the autumn term is so long and stressful and then Christmas comes and you've had no time to prepare for it and then 5 minutes later you're back at work. Hate it.

Lookto, don't know what "extremely generous non-financial perks" your dh is getting but can he let me know please as I'm clearly missing out. The only such perks I'm aware of are the long holidays and I do need a bit of 'mental recuperation' in them, however ridiculous that may seem.

I do agree that some children do not have the most stimulating time over the summer, but I do feel it is important for children to just 'be' some of the time,; lack of structure can be beneficial at times. I am somewhat dubious about the 'social engineering aspect of this, are we talking neglect or just that some families are not taking part in 'approved, middle-class activities?'

When I was a kid (prep school) we had 7 weeks summer holiday. That was just about enough to allow me to unwind from school, give me a few weeks to actually enjoy myself before I had to start winding myself for school again.

I tried to kill myself twice before I was 11, and I would have done it if I hadn't had those summer holidays to get some sort of recovery in.

If you shorten those holidays - and they're short enough as it is - then I dread to think what children like I was will suffer.

Children are under so much pressure these days anyway, surely giving them at least 5 weeks isn't too much to ask. (DD barely gets that much as it is.)

I'd increase the current summer holiday, then that would leave more time for families to stagger holidays in. We wouldn't all be trying to fit them in during the same tiny amount of time.

It would be better for me as I don't have childcare for ds1 - shorter enforced time off would make it easier to juggle and stay on top of things. Currently I have to just give up for ) weeks.

I think it would be great!

3 weeks in the summer, and make half terms a fortnight instead of a week.

Space it out a bit. 7 weeks is just too long! far better to have less of a gap between breaks, imo.

Let all write to Frank Field so he is in no illusion what we all think???

I think its a dreadful idea, esp for working parents - at least in the summer there is no shortage of summer holiday day camps, dread to have 3 extra weeks spread throughout the year. Also total nightmare if you had children at different schools and the holidays varied.

I met a mum who had 4 kids - one at a private nursery, one at a state primary, one at a private prep school and one at a state faith secondary. They had different October weeks, such that she ended up with a different child at home each week for 4 weeks!

Surely a better idea for the deprived kids would be to offer surestart etc summer holidays schemes and at them do extra reading / maths etc in the morning and fun stuff in the afternoons. Everyone on free schools meals could get this very subsidised and those getting CTC could get it a bit subsidised and others could pay full cost?

Eggsackly mum nwlondon. Direct the resources where they are most needed.

Sounds grand for you, domestic.

We are a quite a distance from any museum, and it costs about a tenner to get to one, and that's in a diesel car.

There's a small library about 4 miles away. The bus costs £3.10 return for an adult and a child and its hours are quite limited.

Our weather is not as good as Wales, and believe me, there's nothing that costs a pound or two around here because you have to drive.

Hence, they're going abroad next summer to stay with my family.

I can't cope with another summer, no garden, loads of rain, having to pack up every single day for three kids and get in the car.

No breaks. There's no one to help and DH has to work a lot in summer.

So they're off.

Life's a trade off. The grand part about here is the schools are good. But the trade off is that long summer holidays suck.

You are actually closer to a library than we are expat. It costs me £6.25 in bus fares to get to the local museum, library etc with the DC. I don't drive. But we try to plan so that its a "day out", perhaps go to the museum in the morning then have a picnic in the castle grounds or on the beach (weather permitting, we have plenty of rain in Wales too) then go to the library. I couldn't afford to do it every day.

Maybe its because I grew up around here so am used to it, but I love the holidays and neither me nor the kids wanted to go back to school!

Sounds good for you, domestic!

Don't agree,3 weeks shorter summer holidys sounds great to me.

I have to to say [flameshield activate] you knew that children had long summer hols before you had them.

There needs to be meaningful cover, respite and specialist activities for chldren with SN (flexible and appropriate fo the child and family), good holiday playschemes and activities available fo all children - and not to have the holidays eked into colder times of the year. Oct half term, christmas, feb half ter (that's the worst!) and Easter can all be freezing and wet! And DARK.
DS is exhausted with school by the end of the summer term, and really benefits fom the chance to re-invent himself as a child not governed by the school routine.

I WFTOH, so it is difficult, but I still wouldn't like to see the summer hol shortened, or re-distributed to the arse end of a wet damp season!

An god, the traffic jam into Cornwall for that small slot will be double the chinese one. That alone will out D Cameron off the whole idea

"Lookto, don't know what "extremely generous non-financial perks" your dh is getting but can he let me know please as I'm clearly missing out. "

13 weeks fully paid holiday, one of the most generous pension schemes in the country, one of the most generous sick pay entitlements in the country, flexibility in terms of working patterns, an almost cast iron guarantee that you won't be sacked for poor performance (my DH was telling me that the in the last ten years eight teachers have been sacked for poor performance. Eight!) and a pay scale that (outside of London at least) is comfortably above the national mean.

That isn't to say its not an important - and at times hard - job but its a well remunerated one. This "two weeks to recover" is just tosh that only serves to reinforce the Daily Mail stereotype that teaching as a profession has a complete disconnect with the rest of reality.

Personally I think the summer break should be reduced with the rest of the the holidays spread throughout the year. With the exception of Christmas holidays should be staggered so that the entire world + dog isn't trying to take a holiday at the same time.

I think you'll find the government has binned this one. No. link, I'm afraid, just something I picked up from the TES.

No commas either. Doh!

I don't send my children to a single summer camp, we don't have any decent public transport here, it's an hour to the seaside, dh is a workaholic to end all workaholics.

If you have children, spend some time with them without the constraints of the school day. Childhood is over so damn quickly.

We ahd seven weeks this year, due to Insets etc and in Wales we dont get the lenthened hlaf term that our English friends get.

Seven weeks was enough but six weeks was right; we still struggled to fit in the things we wanted to do and it took that long for the boys to relax.
Yes it's hard on working parents, I know that, one of the upsides of being a carer is never to worry about holiday childcare; but it would be as hard on my SN kdis toshorten it I think. I am on the side of my kids, naturally.

What did we do? they drove to build carnival floats with my DH; we camped; they visited my Mum who lives away. DS3 attended a wonderful SN kid's club. We sat, talked, walked and just were. It was wonderful. I dont; want time off when it's cold: my kids are outside kids, we want the summer months when at elast there's a chance of sun.

And yes WRT to holiday costs; would it not decimate yourist industry in UK to halve the main season as well? Hardly what the ULK needs right now!

I don't think they are talking about any fewer breaks over the academic year, just having them more spread out rather than all clustered together.

In our area, there seems to be more childcare on offer over the summer than in shorter breaks. I guess it is worthwhile to mobilise staff, etc, for potentially six weeks of work rather than one or two.

Also some schemes round here (e.g. the cricket club and the tennis club) rely heavily on having the children outside most of the time with DVDs, etc, for back-up on really wet days. They would not be viable at other times of year.

So I wonder if it would ultimately end up harder for some working parents rather than easier.

'With the exception of Christmas holidays should be staggered so that the entire world + dog isn't trying to take a holiday at the same time.'

From our POV only would be a bit as this summer we got to take dearNephew away for first time ever, as we took my parents as well (helped my sis with childcare). I got to know him better and he got a week camping running about with 4 cousins- fab.

On a more rpactical note the summer did mean we goot quite a lot of appts fitted on for the boys and made a head start on ds1's specialist ED therapy. Was very useful not to ahve to pull him from school lots.

So is everyone saying how lovely it is to have 6 weeks, and they'd like it to be longer a SAHM?

I agree with Lecce, shorten the summer holidays by a week or two and add them onto the winter one. We're designed to do less in the winter and the way we push on through the cold and flu season is madness. The Autumn term is far too long.

1 week to fall ill and unstress
1 week to check work for next year and amend it etc
1 week to prepare for new syllabus/new nove1/poem ALMoST EVERY BLOODY YEAR
1 week to apend with DH (preferably abroad)
Next 2 weeks taken up with going in for GCSE/A level results and gearing up for SEptember.

September to XMas: don't stop for breath.
Xmas holidays: get ill, have christmas day, write reports.

Can't be arsed typing now 'cos I'm too depressed.

What the hell is there to do for children past. November? Let them have time off when this godforsaken country has a few hours of daylight and some warmth to play with.