To not want schools to give up summer holidays

[littleblackdress04]

Just read in papers that it’s been proposed that kids go back to school in July/ August

I think this is a rubbish idea - if it’s going to be that long then just let them have a ‘normal’ summer and go back in September.

Kids have been cooped up because of this- I’d want to take mine to the hills, go camping & let them have some freedom. Then start school in September. This isn’t a holiday for them - it’s a horrible stressful period of being cooped up & not being able to live their normal lives.

While school gives a structure and is important, so are proper periods of holiday.

I’m really against the idea but aibu? Be interested to hear other thoughts. I’ve not been particularly worried about the kids education- they will catch up in time and it will be fine

As for teachers working now, some are but some really are putting a very minimal amount of effort in

What is your evidence of this?

I work across schools, I know I have schools that have opened throughout the Easter weekend ,I've had emails today from teaching staff.

My son is 13 and currently in Year 8. Whilst at school, he has 5 study periods, which make a total of 5 hours a day (and that time includes moving from one class to another). Since the lockdown, his school has set him 1 x hour of Maths a day, 1 x hour of English a day, 1 x hour of Science a day, and, another hour which is made up of 3 x 20 mins of other subjects on his timetable. He also does weekly SPARX work for Maths on top of this (and chooses to spend some additional time reading, etc). His school has also given links to extra optional things that he can study in addition to the set lessons. I don't know what work other schools are setting, but it is definitely not a long holiday for my son as regards staying at home.

IHRTFT

I'm quite enjoying this time with my kids. I'm disabled and without the school runs causing extra fatigue and pain I'm spending more time with the kids.

Scottish schools go back in August anyway so it wouldn't impact us as much. I agree that the school year needs looked at and the education ministers should take this time to re-evaluate it.

We are also not homeschooling just now. The kids are stressed as it is. We are focusing more on life skills rather than academics at the moment.

teachers ARE paid for all school holidays. It is the support staff generally who are paid term time only. And who considers this to be a holiday? Can't go out anywhere, have to queue for food, walk in certain directions around the park, avoid people, stay away from family, etc etc etc. I work in a school, looking after key worker children. when all this is over, we shall all need time to adjust to NORMALITY

I completely agree with most that people/children will want their holidays during summer and that teachers deserve their time off. However I do think everyone has forgotten that the Coronavirus Bill that went through at the end of March explicitly had a clause included in which the government can direct the LA to open and close schools whenever it wants and it can change term dates and nobody can do anything about it,including unions etc.

@starlight13 and all the other people who think the 6 weeks was for harvest .... WHAT exactly was being harvested in August? Maybe some hay and soft fruit? Most of harvest is done in September and October and finished in time for Halloween.
Education has only been compulsory in England since the 1880s when most children lived in towns and cities so please stop using this argument.
A good comment about this today on Twitter " our taps were turned off for 24 hours now we must learn to live in a desert" !!!!

We ARE NOT paid for holidays. Our salary is divided over 12 months so we can budget as normal each month. How many times does this have to be explained.

Our school have done the absolute minimum - in fact, for the first 2 weeks their website simply redirected you to another school’s learning page, basically saving them the need to do anything. Other school must have got wise, and passworded their content. So then our school put together some ideas of things to do(“how about painting stones?” Etc - stuff parents tend to do anyway), no timetable, no worksheets, no structure, nothing related to anything the children were learning, or should be (basically what a Google search will bring up). Heard nothing from any teachers, it’s been appalling. In my sector if we churned out this level of work, we’d have questions to answer. So do the teachers from our school deserve a break? No. They have already had it.

They were only ever 6 weeks when the children used to help with the harvest and they haven't been updated

Stop peddling this rubbish. This is quite untrue but often used by people who like to use it to fit their particular narrative.

I really do doubt they will be open again before September

teachers ARE paid for all school holidays.

No they are not! They are paid for 195 days a year plus a few weeks paid holiday (4 or 5 weeks?).

Their salary is divided up over 12 calendar months.

All of these people saying that 6 weeks is too long for the Summer holidays - they have been around that length since I can remember - and I will soon be 54 and have 4 children - though only 1 is still in school now. I wonder how many of these people when they were children loved the long school holidays? The teachers deserve a break, but even then, a lot of their time is spent preparing work for the new school term in September.

I work in a school and have a UK holiday booked for the end of the July which I'm hopeful of taking. I daresay many other people have similar arrangements. I would also remind people that school workers are working daily, including the school holidays until all of this over and will be more than ready for a 'proper holiday' at the end of all this.
My gut feeling is that it will be at least September until schools begin to return to normal.

I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all. My kids are coping well enough, but they miss being able to see their friends socially, playing out and enjoying things like soft play and cinema. Their summer holidays shouldn’t be sacrificed because of this. They will catch up in September, it’s not the end of the world. An extra month off won’t make a scrap of difference. People will have holidays booked and all sorts. YANBU

Written by a head teacher and too good not to share ❤️

What if??? ❤️❤️❤️

If they cancel the rest of the school year, students would miss 2.5 months of education. Many people are concerned about students falling behind because of this. Yes, they may fall behind when it comes to classroom education...

But what if...❤️❤️❤️

What if instead of falling “behind", this group of kids are ADVANCED because of this? Hear me out...❤️❤️❤️

What if they have more empathy, they enjoy family connection, they can be more creative and entertain themselves, they love to read, they love to express themselves in writing. ❤️❤️❤️

What if they enjoy the simple things, like their own backyard and sitting near a window in the quiet. ❤️❤️❤️

What if they notice the birds and the dates the different flowers emerge, and the calming renewal of a gentle rain shower? ❤️❤️❤️

What if this generation are the ones to learn to cook, organize their space, do their laundry, and keep a well run home? ❤️❤️❤️

What if they learn to stretch a dollar and to live with less? ❤️❤️❤️

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What if they learn the value of eating together as a family and finding the good to share in the small delights of the everyday? ❤️❤️❤️

What if they are the ones to place great value on our teachers and educational professionals, librarians, public servants and the previously invisible essential support workers like truck drivers, grocers, cashiers, custodians, logistics, and health care workers and their supporting staff, just to name a few of the millions taking care of us right now while we are sheltered in place? ❤️❤️❤️

What if among these children, a great leader emerges who had the benefit of a slower pace and a simpler life to truly learn what really matters in this life?❤️❤️

What if they are AHEAD? ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Teachers will first have to work out all the GCSE and A Level grades - sifting through past papers, giving evidence etc. I can't see them wanting to go back in July, after doing all that.

I don’t understand this about teachers not being paid for the holidays. If that’s true then they are very well paid. I’m support staff in a school and my advertised salary is reduced to take account of the holidays - I don’t think this happens to teachers?

I read that schools have a long summer holiday, because before state education it was originally only the rich that sent their children to private schools or educated their children at home. The rich were the first to embrace the idea of the annual summer holiday, so schools at the time closed for the summer period. When state education was introduced they modelled it on the existing private school model which is still going today. Private schools have even longer holidays than our state system and children don't 'forget' what they've learnt.

I looove the long holidays!

I think that's because teaching is a salaried post where they don't get overtime and so it's a fixed salary based on 195 days but if they do extra work out of hours (which they all do) then they don't get the option to claim overtime but support staff can claim extra payments when they work extra hours.

Teachers are not paid by the hou so don't earn an hourly rate- they are paid an annual salary. This salary is paid in 12 monthly instalments.

I am a TA and paid hourly- however my income for the year is worked out for the and divided by 12 so I receive my pay all year round.

ok, so I have a lovely long holiday booked in sw France BUT I got to 10 pages and no one seems to mentions that year 10s and 12s are missing a massive portion of their face to face education. To top it all my DD2 is at a school doing the International Bacculaureate which has NOT agreed so far to postpone this summer's exams because some countries have NOT closed their schools - Sweden comes to mind. I just wanted to add these considerations into the pot.

People seem to struggle to get the idea that being paid IN the holidays is not the same as being paid FOR the holidays don't they?!

Even if gov asked teachers to work summer holidays unpaid, I don't think schools could afford the other costs-Ta salaries for one thing.

Horrible idea OP. Just dreadful.

Already working over the Easter ‘holiday’ as online delivery of quality lessons actually needs a whole lot of planning and preparation - you can’t just bung up a few worksheets and think that’s good enough! Also on rota to go into school to continue the care and supervision of key worker children. If lockdown continues to the regular Summer holidays it will have been working from 20 March (when schools were closed) to mid- July with no ‘holiday’ or half-terms. (Not required at school on any bank holidays though).
It’s easier in some ways because there’s no co-curricular commitments but the planning/teaching/student supervision and marking hasn’t stopped - if anything, that’s increased slightly as the kids are whipping through their work because they have more time with all their other activities cancelled!

I don't think schools could afford the other costs-Ta salaries for one thing

Yep

Teaching assistants
1:1 support staff
Midday assistants
Kitchen staff
Cleaners
Caretakers