A year round school system

[Orangeblossom78]

I have been thinking more about this recently with reports in the press about play schemes in deprived areas for children in the holidays, and also the pressure on families in general in holidays to scrabble together childcare for school age children.

Would it not be better if schools did 3 weeks on and one week off? All year round- maybe a two weeks break in the summer

This week off could be filled with activities at the school sun by the people who do after school / holiday clubs (we already have this on the PPA days where a holiday club provider does activities with KS2 / 1 alternate weeks so the teachers have time to plan)

This would mean-

Less pressure of 6 week terms (my DC seem to get pretty tired towards the end of each block)

The one week could be used flexibly, could stay home and consolidate learning or go into school to the activities

Possibly more sport / activity in the extra week

Benefits for deprived areas

Less of the 'losing learning over the long summer'

Easier to plan holidays - every fourth week off

Less pressure on teachers, who could be paid year round but less intense

Could be funded for all- maybe some part with UC / tax credits childcare element or childcare vouchers, perhaps

Any thoughts or is this just a bonkers idea?

It would be useless for planning holidays. You could never go away for more than a week and what about going abroad? It's much cheaper to fly on a week day than a weekend.

i Like the idea of the long holidays to relax and have a break but the idea is different to the reality and the school system as a whole needs to catch up with modern society. My children will end up in holiday clubs for most of their holidays which will be fun (hopefully) but not relaxing. The holiday club at my primary does 8.30-4 which is useless for me so we’ll have to make major adjustments to our commutes to manage holiday care and it will be a logistical nightmare. I also feel guilty that there will be no lie ins etc unless one of us is off. They’ll be doing 8-6 in holiday clubs

I fully understand for working parents but personally I love the summer holidays. I can go and see my Mum in America every other year.
We love the holidays.

In the subjects where we only see the students once or twice a week (like humanities subjects or music) we would never really get going on this model.
I teach a class this year in a subject different from my normal subject. I only see them once during a 2 week time table. This term I missed one lesson because I took a different year group on a trip and they missed a lesson because they were on a trip for a different subject. It is taking forever to get through the topic and I have to keep recapping everything.
This would become the norm if we had 1 week off in 4. Many schools have a 2 week timetable which would mean some classes would only have a lesson in music or RE or art once a month. E.g if that lesson fell in wk 2. They would have week one, week 2, week 1 again then a week off.