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?

@RebelRogue

Um, no. I'm not advocating that.

I'm not the OP. I don't agree with her. I do not advocate shortening the school year.

I am pointing out that whilst a long summer holiday is an inconvenience for many many working parents, it has the potential (and proven) effect of perpetuating achievement gaps at a systemic level for the most disadvantaged and vulnerable children in our society. Please don't conflate this with OP's ludicrous argument.

Oh disappear to another planet 😂please

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.

I agree wholeheartedly, Anathema. Nowhere have I advocated keeping kids in school all year round. Again, I am not the OP and I do not agree with her.

Ok joking aside no I think we shouldn't be imprisoned like that I'm here for a great journey and experience and going to school and shortening free time isn't for me and many others but if it's what you feel is best then maybe some schools should have set up for people like you who think this is a good idea.

Have less in the summer and more elsewhere might work -

state schools also do a lot of maintenance and building works in the hols -that is sometimes hard to do with the children at school if its a big project etc, they need the 5 or 6 weeks to get that done and get it all ready for the autumn terms and the winter.

the terms do work fine as they are, but from a childcare point of view its a pain for everyone. most wrap around care isnt in the holidays either , which must make life harder too.
no easy answers.

YABVVU there's already another poor familys out there dealing with school refusers could you imagine how much harder it would be for those familys and I'm sure the number of parents facing this problem would go through the roof with what you've suggested top that with the fact that we'd lose even more Teachers than we already are.

Sorry enough.

Nooooooooooooo 😱😥

I love school holidays....

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

I know this is a light-hearted comment but this is important, because summer holidays aren't detrimental to many kids. They have wonderful, enriching experiences with their families which they remember for the rest of their lives.

Expensive private schools don't tend to serve many families with two parents working two jobs, or living in unsafe or unpleasant housing, or struggling with disabilities or mental health issues which affect their ability to parent. Six weeks at home is not a Blytonian idyll for the children of these families. More evenly distributed holidays, still equating to 13 weeks across the year, plus subsidised holiday provision, would go a very very long way towards improving things for them.

I'm a teacher in Oxfordshire. I get paid exactly the same as a teacher in, say, Stockton-Upon-Tees, but somehow have to afford the commensurately bigger mortgage etc. I love the job so no complaints but I wouldn't say I was 'well paid'.

How do you propose this is funded, OP? You do understand that the contracts teachers currently work under are very different to contracts for other jobs? And that teachers are only paid for the time they work? Which means an additional 13 weeks pay, per teacher, per year? And that’s not forgetting corresponding increases for TAs and other school staff.

Where are you going to find that money?

Why bother having children if you want t to palm then off all year round.

Indeed, Buxbaum. School benefits children from different socio-economic backgrounds in different ways.

No way. My son is so ratty by the end of the term, he needs to unwind and rest for a week so he can learn properly again.

Agreed that it would be nice for some more half term provisions for over 12s though

I think OP's original idea is excellent, and there should be 28 days (or whatever) annual leave.

None of the arguments against it convince me and I'm certain it will be the way of the future because of all the worldwide support it has.

You’re hilarious OP, this has got to be a wind up?!! It wouldn’t work because kids need to be there to learn stuff at the same pace. Every time a kid is off, the teacher will have to go over things with them when they return which is disruptive for everyone else and take up loads of time.

Definitely not! I want to spend more time with my children not less!

I think OP's original idea is excellent, and there should be 28 days (or whatever) annual leave. None of the arguments against it convince me and I'm certain it will be the way of the future because of all the worldwide support it has.

It would be impossible to fund. Kids would miss out chunks of work. Teachers would be off school at random times - who would fill in for them?

What's unconvincing about those problems?! "I'd like it because it's free child care" does not trump those arguments.

How utterly depressing.

All to facilitate people going to work.

It all sounds a bit like Maoist China where workers’ kids were in boarding schools.

I love the way that people who advocate this type of thing always seem to assume that teachers exist in a separate universe from other people and share none of the difficulties of other working families.

I am a single parent and a teacher and my children and I need the holidays, though I suppose I wouldn't mind them being redistributed as others have suggested. (I don't like change ).

There is no way on this earth I could sustain my term-time lifestyle for 48 weeks of the year, no way. Others work hard too, I know, but I'm just saying I couldn't do that and it would make my dc miserable too because of the grind of it and the way they have to go to before and after school care.

Retention of teachers is such a problem at the moment, so I am amazed anyone would so much as 'muse' about something that would undoubtedly make it so much worse, to say nothing of the funding crisis that has been well-publicised and means that this would be a pipe dream, if it wasn't so obviously a potential nightmare.

Even boarding schools have holidays though, younger children that board still have to come home to their parents during the summer at least! private schools have longer summer holidays too i believe.

Unless private schools run more clubs maybe? or there is a facility to let them stay there? i don't know, but they must go home at some time!

What a ridiculous idea, if this happened I would be homeschooling my children!

I have four and whilst them being at school enables me to get stuff done at home i am looking forward to them getting home - i’m A nurse so work shifts. They get so tired by the end of term the break is absolutely needed by them, me, and their teachers.

I would prefer 6 weeks summer hols and the 7th week to go to October so we have 2 weeks then. Ours break up on 29 June go back 18 Aug or thereabouts and my hols are the first 2 weeks. Will be a long 5 weeks after that so hope the weather is good. We are going to England (in Stirling area) but no idea if the kids there are off yet 😊
So no I don’t think it’s a good idea, mine don’t fancy holiday clubs either not yet anyway.

buxbaum
More evenly distributed holidays, still equating to 13 weeks across the year, plus subsidised holiday provision, would go a very very long way towards improving things for them.
But sadly "call me Dave" Cameron stripped all of the money out of Youth services provision and Sure Start to pay for NCS

The other point to bear in mind is that TEACHERS HAVE CHILDREN TOO
which is why staggered term date experiments rarely last

Across the world the number of hours of schooling per year is pretty constant
regardless of how the school year and day are structured

but the OP clearly knows better

reading the OP again, your basically asking schools to run as the average office or factory does, which does work well with adults on annual leave entitlement but not really for thousands of children and teachers and support staff in schools.
I bet some teachers would love a break out of the school holidays themselves, but they know that they can't and are stuck with higher payments for holidays and all the rest of it.