AIBU to say that summer hols are a driver of inequality

[Teaandcrisps]

Myself and OH have had mixed personal fortune over the last 10 years - so from personal experience know the difference.

Summer holidays with no money is shit - especially when the weather is crap. If you can afford it however, it's great fun.

It's not just the obvious things - summer hols, trips, activities, camps, increase in food costs; it's also if you have the kind of job that can give you time off.

Given that food bank have launched the holiday hunger campaign, AIBU to say that summer holidays is an unequal construct and the 6-weeks off needs to go.

The problem with shortening, is that it is easier to find child care for the big long block. Hardly anything is available for the single weeks off and the single days are just impossible. Yes, that child care costs money, but that doesn’t change with how it is scheduled.

Well, they probably wouldn't be able to, so would have to choose a different month

Can you imagine trying to plan a family holiday-parent 1 can get the June week off, but mum can only get the August week off, so they can’t holiday together. Then that week would probably cost 15 times as much as other weeks due to the demand so they can’t afford to go anyway.

Planning staff release for holidays when there are 6 weeks to choose from are hard enough!

suggestion about 1 week is not practical. Agree that parents need to take responsibility. Life isn't fair.

www.plymouth.gov.uk/fitandfed

I thought this looked excellent. Fitness clubs with a healthy lunch for children on free school meals. It think they would be very helpful elsewhere in the country.

but at least people wouldn’t have to pay for childcare and the state can bring them up and feed them for you.

It is this anti-parent attitude which makes finding a solution that suits EVERYONE so difficult.

Thankfully I am in a VERY fortunate position that I am able to take time to be with my child for all of her school holidays now. We're just coming to the end of our 9th week and I admit I'm struggling to keep up the enthusiasm for bug hunts and board games!!!

I'm also really lucky that my DD's school try really hard to work WITH parents. When she goes back next week they will provide us with dates for the whole year, all concerts, parents evenings, trips, sports days etc, which will allow parents to plan their time to support their kids school activities.

Of course some schools would prefer to talk down to parents and tell them that they have no idea how complicated school calendars are. Sigh.

I don't have the answers, but I do believe in looking for solutions rather than blame.

@MustShowDH

What are you talking about? I was responding to some of the ludicrous suggestions on here.

It is not anti parent to point out that school is not childcare. This attitude is what is stopping us from coming up with an actually viable solution to childcare issues. I was pointing out that dumping everything back on to schools is not a workable option.

@MustShowDH

You are just sore because your ideas is silly and very damaging to child mental health.

You still haven’t told me how we are supposed to schedule assessments if students are off at random times during the year.

Imagine a generation that go to school 7.30-6 360 days a year. It sounds like pure drudgery but at least people wouldn’t have to pay for childcare and the state can bring them up and feed them for you.

Agreed. This is starting to look a lot like an orphanage.

My DD’s nursery takes school children up to 11 for holidays. It would be a lot cheaper than the local summer camps available.

This is an interesting thread. The thing is, even if most schools do change their holidays so there’s two weeks in October and February and a month in the summer, not all will. Independent schools (and perhaps some state schools where there are low levels of deprivation) may choose to keep things as they are.

This would mean that the long summer holiday could become a status symbol and children from different backgrounds would mix even less often than they do at present (because their holidays won’t match up).

I don’t think it is. Schools are there to educate children, they are not childcare. Children need down time from school and recent studies show how important this is.

This completely.

There is a huge issue with the cost of childcare compared to wages at the moment, however buggering around with the school day isn't the answer to it.

Schools are not childcare. They are not parents. They are education. There are so many things that they are being expected to do at the moment that are not education as it is.

We cannot afford to make changes that will dilute further the quality of education our children get. If anything we need to be taking pressures away from schools and teachers to allow them more headspace to actually teach. Not adding to it.

There are ways childcare could be made more affordable - I've never understood why we don't have more government run nurseries and childcare facilities. Pay money out in tax credits and childcare vouchers, keep the costs reasonable, create jobs, create competition (in some areas that's badly needed) and bring money back into the coffers at the same time. I've been saying this ever since the tax credits experiment went wrong.

There are schemes for disadvantaged children to access holiday activities. We’ve been hosting some this summer.

For myself and my children I’d prefer longer holidays not shorter ones. I think it does is all good to have a chance to pursue personal interests and not have to follow a tight schedule for a few weeks.

This would mean that the long summer holiday could become a status symbol and children from different backgrounds would mix even less often than they do at present (because their holidays won’t match up)

Exactly this. All in the name of addressing inequality!

I would focus elsewhere-not on making children just go to school more and for longer to reduce working parents’ childcare bills, but on making workplaces more flexible and reopen Children's centres in areas of high socio-economic deprivation to provide support during holidays.

Forcing the ‘poor’ to go to school all year round to give them regular meals, whereas the wealthy children get 3 lovely months off is a dangerous road to take. It smacks of workhouses.

Also the constant push of "children from families on benefits" is missing massively the point that the biggest problem at the moment is for families who just miss out on statutory help.

Those who don't qualify for fsm by a few quid. Those on unpredictable zero hours contract who can't book full time childcare because they might not be working, yet can't not book it because if they are working and can't get childcare their jobs are on the line.

Those who are working PT, but also navigating the clusterfuck that is Universal Credit.

Also to address a comment made earlier in the thread about the poor kids causing trouble because they are bored - kids with access to a few quid cause more problems round here atm than properly poor kids.

They can afford cheap alcohol, fireworks, water balloons, those stupid noisy snapper things they throw at the ground etc etc.

To say "keep the poor kids in school" is a wholly simplistic and unrealistic approach that actually ignores what is needed.

To say "keep the poor kids in school" is a wholly simplistic and unrealistic approach that actually ignores what is needed.

Yep-it’s sounds like a case of subduing the proles and keeping them in their place as the state knows best.

@MustShowDH - I'm with you here.

I think we need new solutions and new ideas, and more so than ever an opportunity to explore this in ways that really do look at all angles- including the long summer stretch.

Yes, schools are for education and not childcare. Yes, teaching is a noble profession and we should respect our teachers. It doesn't mean that things have to stay the same.

The entire education system is set up as a construct to serve us, the wider population. If this investment is not serving us and most importantly our children. Then we need to change it.

Staff that work in schools are public servants, the buildings are publicly owned - this is an existing investment so why not adapt it to serve the needs of children and families, particularly those that are disadvantaged?

Holiday hunger is a real issue, and some children are bearing the brunt of an antiquated system that is upholding inequality. And for those that have never experienced this kind of disempowerment, I am really happy for you, but we cannot ignore what is happening..

Surely it's a simple start to.adressing this complex challenge by alleviating the pressure of 6-weeks.

We really need to have a veto on zero hours contracts. They really are the work of the devil and allow all the power to the employer. Totally dreadful form of working. Also basic annual holiday entitlement will need to increase. The fat cat employers are just going to have to suck it up and take a hit.

And for those that have never experienced this kind of disempowerment, I am really happy for you, but we cannot ignore what is happening..

Why do you keep assuming that people who disagree with you have never experienced it?

Holiday hunger is a real issue

Then address that. Not increasing the number of school days.

Staff that work in schools are public servants, the buildings are publicly owned - this is an existing investment so why not adapt it to serve the needs of children and families, particularly those that are disadvantaged?

This old chestnut. Your local council office is run by public servants. As are the hospitals. Why not leave your kids there over the summer. You pay for it after all.

School is not childcare. School is not childcare. Teachers aren’t babysitters. You are equating two things that aren’t connected.

‘My job pays terribly and I can’t afford holiday childcare’ does not equal ‘school should look after them for me like they do during term time’

What it does equal is campaigning for better working conditions and more youth clubs and Summer clubs.

Not having to pay for childcare while your children are at school is an extra perk of state schooling. It is not what you are actually paying your taxes for. How is this confusing?

No not at all to use this as childcare but to use public investment to repsond to the needs of the public. How is that confusing the issue?

If I pay £1 into a system and it's not working, I dont say let me carry on paying £1 into a system that doesn't work and then pay another £1 into something else.

I change the system to work properly.

This whole education childcare thing is a real block to moving anything forward.

Exactly Belle.

What profession do you work in OP?

Cloud cuckoo land administration

The entire education system is set up as a construct to serve us, the wider population. If this investment is not serving us and most importantly our children. Then we need to change it

But there’s any number of posters on this thread who are happy with the status quo.