to not want shorter school summer holidays

[mum2030]

I don't get the benefit to working parents at all apart from possibly (but unlikely) cheaper foreign travel. DH & I both work and use a combination of our holidays and paid for holiday clubs/ childminders etc.

The number of holidays will be the same but surely by chopping them up into little bits it will become more difficult for things like holiday clubs/ activity clubs to function economically - e.g. how are they going to staff these things for a couple of weeks at a time at random dates - all different for different areas.

Plus I like the fact that kids have a nice long break between years to really wind down and refresh themselves. Plus it gives me time to do things like get all uniforms sorted out, get new kit for school and break a few of the bad habits that have crept in during the school year.

Inset days are bad enough when you have different children at different schools in different LEA's. But if different schools were able to pick different holidays you could end up even increasing the number of holiday days you had to provide child care for.

Every year I'm surprised by how late they break up before xmas! Even though i've been a parent since the 90s

It's ok though - as has been said, the weather's usually grim in Dec. and the run up to xmas at school (at least at primary level) is usually fun. Xmas is prolonged enough as it is.

Love the 6 week holls. Loved it as a child and i love it as a parent. My best memories of being both are mostly from the long summer holiday. You need a week or 2 to really relax - then a week or 2 to get mentally geared up for the new school year - so those lovely lazy 2 weeks in the middle are a rare and precious thing.

I'd rather see the summer break cut and the other significant holidays lengthened. Most of my DD's friend have divorced parents so they aren't around to play and DD gets bored.

I remember I used to get bored as a child too.

It'd suit our family far better to have shorter summer hols.

I am in the northern part of the UK and do not want more holidays in the short, dark days of winter.

I love the summer break. Time to recharge and go camping! We have booked time away. Whole break filled!

I lived in a country with much more evenly spaced holidays and we loved it. The kids enjoyed the holidays more and they didn't have the big long terms.

I can see that for those in the north that longer Xmas holiday wouldn't be so good.

I love the summer holidays as they are. I'm lucky with where we live though, beaches, etc, are right on our doorsteps so lots of free entertainment and no bored kids

It's already hard enough for DH to get leave in the 6 weeks we have, cut it down to 4 and he'd never get the time off and as we can't take term time holidays we'd never get away as a family

I wouldn't want the Christmas holidays lengthened - dark early, weather is crap, everything round here is closed, 2 weeks is just long enough to visit family, do a bit of Christmassy stuff and go back to school before world war 3 breaks out. Easter again, 2 weeks is fine.

I'd rather have the longer holiday when you are more likely to have the better weather

On another note, I live in a very tourist area, our local economy depends on tourism. Cutting the school summer holidays would make "high season" much shorter - and it's not just big travel companies, it would massively affect the local small businesses that depend on tourism, businesses who hire seasonal staff, etc

...oh just remembered that when the kids were younger we lived in Canada for a while and the had massively long summer holidays. They were at private school so they were even longer than state schools. They then didn't have any break up until Xmas - it was awful. The kids found the long terms really wearing towards the end.

I prefer the more evenly distributed holidays with the UK system close behind. The super long summer holiday system is the worst choice.

The UK has the shortest summer holidays and the worst year round weather. Make the summer holidays longer and get rid of the stupid May half term.

Children need to get bored and amuse themselves.

On the teaching side of this I feel an extra week after Xmas and new year would be great. Sometimes we have gone back on the 3rd or 4th of Jan, so the decorations are still up! The children are not recovered from the festive late nights and neither are the staff! Times when we've not gone back till 7th or 8th for eg are so much better. Everybody is rested and ready.

Keep the summer holidays as they are and break the autumn term up more. February and May half term could be shorter, IMO. I think the closer to Christmas they break up, the better, and then let them have the first week off in January to snuggle up. The autumn term definitely needs looking at, as eight weeks either side of half-term is too long. I don't think Easter needs to be any longer than two weeks.

I really don't see the point in children having more time off when the days are short and cold and it's getting dark by about 3.30; and then spending more time in school during the longer warmer days when they could be outside playing and getting exercise and fresh air.

May half term is usual good for us, actually. October half term can be nice, too. So I would vote for an extra week to either of those if summer must be reduced.

Makes it even more difficult to be a foreign person with kids in the UK, though. Visits to family would seem even more impossible.

Hurray. I'm not alone!

I love the long summer break with long days and opportunities for camping in garden/ days out that don't end till 9pm etc. Agree Xmas is a bit of a rush but then as many have said the weather is rubbish and everyone stuck inside getting on top of each other is a pain.

So if everyone so far (bar a few) doesn't want them who is it that does? The only positive argument I have read is about children slipping back in learning over the summer, especially those who don't have parents who have the time/ money to do interesting things over the summer with their kids.

Where is Gove coming from?

I don't want things to change, as I feel our local schools have a good balance. We have 5 weeks in the summer (which is long enough) and the extra week is tagged onto the May half term, so we get a week at the end of May and the first week of June.

We generally go away the first week in June, as the prices are so much cheaper and as not many local authorities manage their holidays this way, the Tour Operators haven't clicked onto it. We are very lucky it works this way, as I don't take my DS out of school for holidays in term time.

I am not looking forward to senior school in 2 years, as I will then be looking at 9 weeks in the summer. Not sure how I will juggle all those weeks as a working parent.

The long summer holidays make more sense to me since DS started secondary school, he needs it more now I think! He's only year 8 ATM and it will only get more tiring as he gets older. It's different for me as I work at home so childcare isn't an issue for us though. YANBU

Also I am sure the holiday companies would just charge higher rates accoss the range of different holidays so no one would get any bargains anyway.