To think we should do away entirely with school holidays?

[SkaPunkPrincess]

Just musing and wondering why we don't just do away with them entirely?

Run schools like a regular workplace in that they operate 52 weeks of the year, Teachers and students to get 4 weeks allocated holiday allowance per year and parents can use this at their discretion. Staff would be able to be more flexible and they would have more time in the year to teach children at a more realistic pace?

Am I missing why this isn't a genius idea?

The only bollocks is your black and white reasoning. I need to spend time alone for my mental health. Before I was ill, I would say I was more of an extroverted introvert

My point was the opposite of it being black and white. You are just explaining further how nonsensical the notion is...an extroverted introvert indeed!

Who would teach the kids when the teacher is on holiday? It would be a nightmare to plan lessons, as kids may be on holiday and missing vital learning. Plus think about the admin involved.

Schools are not work places!

My point was the opposite of it being black and white.
Erm no. Your point was that the notion of introversion and extroversion don’t exist. I introduce a nuance and you rubbish it: an extroverted introvert indeed. Classic black and white thinking displayed right there.

I’ve always thought that schools should operate 4 days a week over more weeks a year, think I worked out 45 would provide the same number of days of education per year.

School isn't childcare, but it is compulsory to school your child and if you work full time then you aren't going to home school. Full time work and home-ed are not mutually exclusive - you can conceivably do both. And there are more things in the world to learn than can possible be taught at school, no matter how many hours children spend there.

It would give more flexibility of what you could teach? More time for games and play, opportunity to extend learning via play beyond reception. I think you'll find that the 'opportunity to extend learning via play beyond reception' is what happens when children aren't at school.

Bring back art, music and home economics. Cooking and life skills, forest school and growing your own veg ect I think you'll find that most schools offer those opportunities already.

I would not be advocating 52 weeks of 'intensive schooling' but my DC love school and being with their friends all day. We would have weekends and 4 weeks holiday. My DC also love school and being with their friends all day. They also love exploring other places and being with their other friends and family who live further afield. And why the obsession with 4 weeks holiday? Is that all you get, OP, because personally I get 9 weeks annual leave from my FT job and I want to spend all of them with my children. The holidays are never long enough to do all the fun and learning stuff me and my children want to do.

An all over more relaxed approach would be better for MH issues surely? Because 4 weeks holiday must be so much better for MH issues than 13?

I'm not a teacher but I think they deserve decent pay and conditions (including long holidays) for a difficult, stressful and important job. Some people seem to resent public sector workers being well paid, not sure why.

I don't think children should be regarded as trainee adults - there's nothing wrong with them spending a lot of time chilling out, whether that's doing sports, hobbies, etc or just vegging in front of the tv. Good childcare provision is one thing, but I don't think it should involve longer hours of formal education.

I do think there's an argument for rethinking how the 13 weeks holiday are distributed through the year, but not for reducing it to fewer weeks. I took part in a consultation on this once, can't remember who was running it now, but the option I liked the sound of was 2 weeks off every 2 months i.e. last 2 weeks in Feb, April, June, October and December, last 3 weeks in August, plus bank holidays. I thought that gave better breaks throughout the year, more options for family holidays and maybe enables a bit more continuity from one school year to the next. Also with the June and August holidays there would still be a total of 5 weeks over the summer.

Drrr, the mistake you are making is in treating the children as individuals, rather than sausages in a factory. They will be taught by supply teachers, or HLTAs, and those that miss out will have to catch up by themselves as the educational juggernaut rolls on.

As others have pointed out, this is completely unworkable and would be very expensive.

More time for games and play, opportunity to extend learning via play beyond reception.

Why can't the parents do this? I've seen threads along these lines before, and they always involve outsourcing parenting to teachers.

Sorry, but people need to stop having children that they can't afford.

@boilerhouse2007

Eh? You’ve argued against an awful lot of points that I have categorically not made there.

The summer learning ‘slide’ is pretty well-documented across numerous countries, although interestingly a longer school year does not necessarily correlate to better price outcomes. What is clearly established is that pupils in disadvantaged families tend to regress more than their wealthier peers over the summer, whether they are in Alberta, Sligo, or Leicestershire.

I haven’t lived or worked in countries with very long summer holidays. I’d be interested to know how working parents cover the period, apart from summer camps. Regardless, the long summer holiday in the UK is a logistical challenge for working parents, and has a genuinely detrimental effect on the most vulnerable kids. One solution would be to take two weeks off the summer break and add them elsewhere in the year. That’s all - no comment on the wider culture of testing and monitoring in our schools this time.

I defy anybody to work 48 weeks a year with teenagers.
Good look with recruiting staff for that.

DD is at school 7 hours 3 days a week and 8 hours 2 days a week. That's why she's bloody shattered.

What is wrong with all your children that they are all so exhausted by being in school

Mine has autism. School is incredibly difficult for him. He holds it together all day and crashes at home. He needs the holidays to relax and spend some time being, y'know, happy.

BlueSapp

I'm still not seeing it.

I may have implied that parents who want their children to spend every fucking week at school may not want to see their kids very much, but that isn't the same as implying parents who work don't want to see them, is it?

Reading is fun.

Most of these points though seem like an excuse to take more responsibility away from parents and provide further childcare.
Surely, the non classroom activities are those you do at home with your parents.
It's also not difficult for parents to keep some educational activities going throughout holidays.
Then they go back in September without the "summer learning slide"

Oh and as for complaining the summer hols are too long... where I grew up they start on 15th of june and back at school on 15th of sept. Now that's a holiday !

What’s wrong with you that you put so little energy into work/school that it doesn’t tire you at all?

Are you under the impression you are talking to primary school children on here?

I think a solid point here is that the school year and day shouldnt be based around the needs of working parents. Its about the child and should remain about the child.

There are provisions available for the holidays - play schemes, clubs, camps, child minders, students who want to earn money and babysit....sure they cost money, but how do we avoid that? No one will vote in a party who says "we will extend the school year to reduce holidays for working families and provide free care during the break. But we will have to raise taxes to cover it"

It's also not difficult for parents to keep some educational activities going throughout holidays.
Then they go back in September without the "summer learning slide"

Funnily enough, gilly, the parents who cannot or do not feed their children properly over the summer holidays also tend not to prioritise museum visits, library memberships, holidays etc.

Does it matter whether your kids are tired from being at school or not? They don't NEED to be at school any longer anyway!! School's job isn't to make my kids tired!

@Buxbaum so the answer to that is to make school responsible for it all year round?

"Surely, the non classroom activities are those you do at home with your parents."

That is very difficult with some children when you don't have the specialist facilities and extra help that is available when they are at school.

What is wrong with all your children that they are all so exhausted by being in school

Have your children gone through exam years (like y6) where it's all about the exams?
Have they never experienced playground issues and need a break?
Don't they have things that they'd like to do and learn out of school? My kids really missed all of the outdoor learning that they did in Reception.
Do they walk to school in all weathers? It's often dark, windy, rainy in the UK.

My kids visit their Dad every other weekend so need the school holidays for all sorts of reasons.

parents who cannot or do not feed their children properly over the summer holidays also tend not to prioritise museum visits, library memberships, holidays etc.

So provide free holiday clubs with free meals and semi-educational activities over the holidays. That's better than keeping all kids in school year round.

If the long summer holiday is so bad for education
why do expensive private schools have the longest summer holiday of all