To want to reiterate that 'yes' it's August and 'yes' Scottish schools are back

[MammyV]

Honestly on every post on here which mentions a child being in school at the moment, someone, at least one poster states 'are you abroad or something' or 'why are your kids in school it's only august?'
Please please understand that most Scottish schools commence back after summer from around the 15th August, we are not abroad, we are in the Uk (at the moment anyway) and I am fully aware of the English/Welsh holidays as its blasted a cross the BBC enough, just irritates me with some of the comments
(Will get off my Scottish high horse now)
Thanks xxx

I wouldn't have known this either, had it not been for Ken Bruce stating that Scotland was going back to school just as the weather turned nice. I bet your holidays are cheaper at the beginning of July though . Sorry, things are pretty London/England centric in the news and it is rubbish.

Oh, and the confusion between me and my OH due to different 'cut off months' .Not sure what to call it, but in Scotland, to start school that August, the child has to be 4 years old by the end of February (I think that's right!)

So March born children are the oldest, and in English schools September born children are the oldest

And to add to that, in N Ireland July born children are the oldest in the class.

Oh I never knew that treacle! I did go to school in Ireland, started primary and ended it (army kid!) but was never aware of the difference in the starting months

City think you must be near me.... P&K?

That's right purplekitty. Although also children born in January or February can start a year later that they are meant to if you want. So my dd who was born in January can either go to school at 4.5 (being one of the youngest) or 5.5 (being the oldest).

I'm in Spain and the kids are off from about 21st June to 12th September. They also get a week at Easter, a long weekend in February, another in April/May (local holiday), two weeks at Christmas and a couple of long weekends in the autumn. And they only go 9am to 2pm.
Working around that is a pain in the arse.

Stirling schools are not back yet sooo you know not all are back yet

I think July is seen as holiday month in Scotland. No holidays until October now in fife.

I like August as bar the obvious couple of days where the weather is better than t has been all holiday, the nights are drawing in and I can put the heating on.

I think our schoolsscrapped the septemer weekend the year Dd2 left it was put on the february inservice days but she does get it in college

The fact that we're not in Australia seems to blows people's minds even more, for some reason
So people perceive Australia as the only country in the southern hemisphere, and ignore NZ, South America, countries in the south of Africa, etc?

I live and did most of my teaching in Sydney, but taught in Scotland for a year, back in the Middle Ages, and we were jealous of the English holidays as it seemed to be two weeks a more a year than we got in Scotland, which had the same holidays as I got in NSW (the education system of which was originally based on the Scottish system).

How do people in Scotland feel about the schools starting back in August? Seems really odd to me as August is holiday month but is that just because I'm indoctrinated in the English school system?

Yes it is. We feel the same about your lot still being in school in July! Scotland in particular, but statistically the whole of UK sees more sunshine end of June and July than in August.

Being off the whole of July means we get the benefit of the longer days before the sun sets. I always feel a bit sorry for the English having to plough on through that period. Not too sorry mind, as when we head to the UK's beauty spots and attractions in the first 2/3 weeks of the holidays, we get the places to ourselves. We always go away in the first two weeks of the holidays. By the time the English schools are off they're all swarming with crowds, queues and traffic jams.

I wouldn't swap the dates for anything.

Yes to being at being at school in July. By the end of June I am absolutely done in and feel a genuine clench in my stomach when I think of having to work through July.

purple, yes - people around here talk about the problem of the "winter borns" being younger and then all the media talks about the "summer borns" and it gets very confusing.

I'm from the US, and I must say the first time I saw complaining about the 'endless' 6 weeks of summer (I think it was actually in an advert), I found it hilarious. I used to go to residential summer camp for 2-4 weeks, and there were kids whose parents sent them there for 3 months. Summer childcare is quite a problem for my friends back home (those camps are expensive! I only got to go because my mother found a special deal and I worked in the kitchens)

We're abroad and travelled back to UK end of june to visit family. One toy shop owner was itching to find out why DCs were not in school on a week day. Some people are just so narrowminded and noisy.

One of my daughter's friends is born in August, and got A's and A*'s fir mist if his GCSE's, so it isn't always a problem

This is one of the reasons why the Scotsnet topic was set up - to reduced the number of times that you have to explain it is different up here (whether that be education, holidays, legal system, inheritance....)

Doesn't stop the problem when you mention in posts in other topics that your kids are on holiday/back at school delete as appropriate

Sorry for typos!

We were in Cornwall first week in July - went three or four days after the schools broke up. Very loud, very southern English-accented woman wondered aloud on the beach one day whether we'd be fined for taking our children out of school.

We have friends in the US and they do get very long summer holidays but their daughter has a much longer school day when she is there - she leaves on the school bus at around 7.45, isn't home until 4.45 and has loads more homework. So it all evens out.

Seems really odd to me as August is holiday month but is that just because I'm indoctrinated in the English school system?

Yes it is! I grew up in the Scottish school system, my kids are in the Scottish school system and JULY is holiday month. And the first bit of August.

Yanbu. Its just as annoying when its referred to 'English' holidays or 'English' schools as if Wales doesn't exist though...

My apologies GreatFuckability - you're quite right.

English and Welsh terms seems to be shorter than scottish terms but it must all balance out ?