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Original poster

Why do school s insist on having the 6 week break in August...

338 replies

EezerGoode · 02/08/2017 17:23

Why not have a week of every month? Or just allow each area to set its own holidays..we could all then go on holiday in June or may ,when there actually was nice weather..and it would be cheaper..we all seem to accept it often rains in August..meaning we pay top whack for holidays when it pisses down....so what is stopping headteachers spreading the holidays throughout the year so we can take advantage of decent weather and cheaper prices??!!

OP posts:
EastMidsMummy · 02/08/2017 17:38

Er.. the weather is always predictably nice in June and shit in August, is it?

khajiit13 · 02/08/2017 17:38

Anal leave? 😂

They'd have to pay for childcare like most parents I know then?

TeenAndTween · 02/08/2017 17:38

As a matter of interest OP, if you put the longer break in June, when are you going to hold GCSEs & A levels? When will results come out? When will university places be allocated?

K1092902 · 02/08/2017 17:38

Anal leave

🤣🤣🤣

BattyBagshot · 02/08/2017 17:39

I had a year when two of mine were in schools in different counties (we live on the border) - none of their holidays matched up completely and their eater holidays didn't coincide at all - so I had 4 weeks of childcare to sort but couldn't take them away because they weren't off at the same time. In a system such as you suggest this could end up being a problem for ALL holidays, it would be a nightmare - you could end up not being able to take a family holiday all year!

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 02/08/2017 17:40

Was going to comment on the (tiny) fact of public exams taking place in May and June, and chaos ensuing if schools just chose holiday dates as they liked.

But was totally distracted (as a teacher myself) of the idea of taking anal leave...

Redcrayons · 02/08/2017 17:40

IT would be a nightmare from a childcare perspective. There's a sports camp my D.C.'s go to with a catchment spanning two LEAs with different halfvterms. They had to cancel at whit because there weren't enough children either week.

Dixiechickonhols · 02/08/2017 17:40

Areas used to have different holidays. I know when I moved to East Lancashire 15 years ago they still had wakes weeks and September harvest hols. So finish end June, wakes weeks first 2 in July and then start back to school 1st August. Then a week or 2 off end September. It stopped as teachers were employed by Lancashire County Council and teacher contracts ran from 1/9. So if a teacher was moving they'd teach for a month then move on. Plus August born children started full time school age 3.
I'd favour the shorter summer and 2 week half terms. Give more chance to get away even if a week can go weds to weds.

K1092902 · 02/08/2017 17:41

But surely if the summer holidays are spread over say three months- holiday companies will just up their prices in other months- meaning those without children/school aged children have less choice on when to go on holiday?

As for the teachers leave comment- surely every working parent has to work around that? I understand teachers work hard etc etc but seems an illogical point to make Confused

SpartacusSaiman · 02/08/2017 17:42

teachers can't take anal leave

Sorry but this made me laugh.

Not sure any jobs give anal leave. Thats not just teachers.

Op i agree. The 6 weeka holidays are a pain and if all leas did hikidays differently there wouldnt be the price hike on holidays.

However you have to remember holidays are not more expensive during the holidays. They are cheaper during term time when there is less demand. Holidays not being at a set time will mean more uniformed prices. That will save money for people going in term time. But more expensive for those who can travel outside those times.

So they would probably be pissy about it.

GinAndToast · 02/08/2017 17:42

My teen broke up at the end of June and doesn't go back until the 4 September 🤣

Is your idea to leave senior schools, colleges and universities as they are and just change primary? As they are the ones who need childcare.

As it would be hard to change senior with public exams and university entrance. At university level it works really well to have intense terms/semesters and then long holidays. Schools lower down just emulate that.

Theoretically I am with you for little ones, or at the very least more flexibility in family taking holidays. But I don't think it'll work out for practical reasons.

lljkk · 02/08/2017 17:43

Someone told me that each state in Germany has its own school holiday dates (all quite different from each other). It spreads tourism over the year which is good, but it's a nightmare for things like planning professional meetings.

AlpacaLypse · 02/08/2017 17:43

There's no reason why schools shouldn't break up the moment the public exam season is over. End of June. YY there would be some difficulties for families where children are at different schools or one parent is contracted to work to a different term time. However having gone through my childhood with some of us in state and others private and therefore at least three different sets of term dates we survived. Some of the holiday activities and day camps around here do start in time for the private schools to break up too.

AtHomeDadGlos · 02/08/2017 17:43

There aren't six weeks in August...someone should've paid more attention when in school...

BoneyBackJefferson · 02/08/2017 17:43

Its a shame that no one told you about the 6 week break before you had kids.

As for the one week per month, given the current conditions in teaching we would never get any time off, and why should teachers (who can't choose there holidays) only be able to have one week at a time?

BattyBagshot · 02/08/2017 17:44

The teachers point is that if their schools holidays didn't match their kids, because they can't take annual leave, they couldn't have a holiday with with their kids...

Original poster
EezerGoode · 02/08/2017 17:45

Well it's not like anything is likely to change in the near future,so stupid thread anyway...especially when yr skint..the rain just seems to make doing stuff that much harder..I really need a bit of sun

OP posts:
luckylucky24 · 02/08/2017 17:47

I do think both students and teachers need a good break of more than a week or two. They squash a whole years worth of work into 9 months and if they had a week off a month would spend that week doing prep and never get time off.
I agree 6 weeks is too much though. I would prefer the whole of July off and then put the other two weeks somewhere else or just not have them at all

TheOnlyLivingBoyInNewCross · 02/08/2017 17:48

Putting anal leave to one side for the moment - those people who are commenting on the fact that teachers will have to use childcare "like everyone else" are forgetting that we HAVE to work for the entirety of our terms. So my friend who works in a bank can choose to take her annual leave during her sons' school holiday. However, this year my school's February half-term did not coincide with that of my son's. But I couldn't choose to take annual leave then - I had a week off by myself and then he had his week off with his dad while I went back to work. A similar thing happened at Easter. So if our holidays didn't overlap at all (unlikely, I know) I could never take leave to spend time with him - we would just have to have no family holidays, ever.

I think that's what the pp meant.

Original poster
EezerGoode · 02/08/2017 17:48

Well it's not like anything is likely to change in the near future,so stupid thread anyway...especially when yr skint..the rain just seems to make doing stuff that much harder..I really need a bit of sun

OP posts:
TheSnowFairy · 02/08/2017 17:51

Today 17:33 peachlimeorange

Yes but Snap8, teachers can't take anal leave

Bloody brilliant GrinGrin

QuackDuckQuack · 02/08/2017 17:53

If you look at foreign school holidays (when trying to find a non-busy time to go away), many countries have different holidays based on the region. I'm not sure which country I was looking at that had 3 zones for holidays, so south, middle and north, with the summer break staggered by 2 weeks. That would minimise the chances of a family having different holidays due to living on a county border by not having every county being different.

SnickersWasAHorse · 02/08/2017 17:54

But if each area / Lea got together and came up with the same dates it would work

Well the problem with that is that counties boarder on more than one county.
Let's say that Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire got together to plan holiday dates. Well then the the Yorkshire counties would want to join in and Lancashire probably too.

It's not the schools that decide this if they are state schools.

Slimthistime · 02/08/2017 17:54

oh no, next time the boss asks about annual leave I'll be having hysterics and I can't really explain why!! Grin

I went to a different school to my sister, would have been a nightmare if they didn't have the same holidays.

Strokethefurrywall · 02/08/2017 17:54

Bloke1976 - when I went to music college we had 5 x 8 week semesters, followed by a 2 week break + one month for summer.

It was brilliant and didn't really matter that I wasn't on break at the same time as everyone else.
What did matter is that we would get our assignments in week 1 and hand them in in week 7, results in week 8. It made planning and focus so much easier.

Obviously, for all those reasons stated above, it doesn't particularly help as the school dates are set by the LEA but it's a nice thought.

If it makes you feel any better, my kid finished school on 30 June and doesn't go back until September. They get 9 weeks summer holiday here (which means a lot of summer camp).