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

I’ll tell you now that if the schools are open in the summer I won’t go in. I’m on the verge of a breakdown as it is. I’m teaching online lessons, marking and giving feedback on 200+ pieces of work per week plus 20 EPQs, planning exciting online lessons, dealing with safeguarding concerns. Plus homeschooling two very different children - one extremely bright and one with ADHD, epilepsy and dyslexia who is taking his 11 plus next year.
In the past month I have worked every day (except Easter Day) for 5-10 hours per day (and I’m 0.6). I have honestly worked harder and am more stressed than I would have been at work. I need the holidays more than ever this year. As do my kids and the students I teach.

@cakemeupbeforeyougogo

It’s only a “bit of a stupid question” due to the number of times it’s been answered.

I get paid an hourly rate, 32.5 hours per day, 39 weeks per year. This is stretched over 12 months.

Apparently, some people have holiday pay stuck on top, for between 4-5.6 weeks - this isn’t in my contract or wage slip, but some teachers say this pay is detailed. Even for them, they’d have approx 7 weeks unpaid holiday.

Thinking about it, cancelling exams and then opening again during exam season would have such bad press I just can’t see it happening. I had finished teaching my courses, my coursework was all packed and ready to be sent (some of it had already been sent) and we had three teaching weeks left, but they still cancelled the exams, presumably because they didn’t know when the peak was going to be. I think that was probably the only option, but they’re going to have a lot of angry pupils, parents and teachers if they open again when the exams should have been on.

Chris Whitty said schools, when they they closed would need to be closed for around 12 weeks. This is why it is believed they won't be back until at least June. If schools were possibly going back in May- then why did they cancel all exams that were going to be in May and June?

I’ve been home educating multiple ages for 9 years including KS3 and also have my own business/ company. I really know how challenging and overwhelming it is to do both @littleblackdress04. Ultimately, I feel for the parents that have been just thrown into H/E and children too, as there probably was no time to plan. However, I think the government will decide whatever they will decide and it will be up to each family to either honor that decision or request a deferral from the school to September.

In any event the most that can happen if they don’t return till September (with restrictions on movement lifted) is you continue home-educating to keep them learning and you continue with your pre-booked holidays. I know it’s challenging, but I think they key to coping is viewing this as a time to incorporate home-education as part of a lifestyle. Mindset is really important or it’ll be too hard to cope. Viewing it as, “we are doing this till January 2021” ( expect the worse so you don’t get hurt) enables you to make the best of this situation at home with the kids and juggling work. Otherwise, you’ll just be left hanging and waiting for other people to make decisions and become frustrated when it doesn’t reach fruition.

If there was no school to go back to and you had to work from home and teach, you’d have to arrange breaks from academic work ( albeit at home) You would have to arrange your day and their work in a SMART/SWOT manner. So adopting this practise now, is going to help both mentally and academically, and it can be done successfully.

As a side note, I offer weekly free H/E tips and advice on our insta page His_hersandhome. This includes educating various age ranges, remote working, lesson planning etc.

Please feel free to respond to this message accordingly to gain more info/access on the above.

You parents are doing so well and the children are too. Just take things one day at a time and stay well!!!!. Sending my best to all of you!!

Ok from a purely selfish poor of view. My holidays were booked with work at the beginning of the year. I would like to spend some quality time with my extended family in the event that lock down is lifted particularly my elderly mother who was supposed to go away with us last week and will not go on hols at all if we don't take her. My holidays are booked in the school holiday. I'm spending half a day helping my child with school work and the another 8 hrs doing what I should be doing ie my job. I need those holidays my mum needs some time with her family. I haven't met my niece yet who was born just as we locked down.
So yep I'm taking those 6 week holiday (and no I don't work in the teaching proffession)

@Busymummylady I think you have a point about expectations. My DH and I rightly or wrongly looked at what was being said and the papers whizzing around and formed the opinion that this is long haul and will be impacting our lives in varying degrees until a vaccine is found. Because we're not therefore expecting the kids to go back until at least September (and if no vaccine are expecting further closures after that) it's less stressful. We've accepted we will be homeschooling to a degree in and off until post vaccine and if we don't have to then great.

It's just my own thoughts but I've always had it in my head they might go back after the may whitsun week.
They always talked about 12 weeks isolation for certain groups and that worked out to be beginning of June

I'm an a&e and it's so hard having them at home and feeling depleted after work or stressing before I go in.
I could still send mine to school but I've chosen not to as I dont want to expose them.
My partner is an engineer and his company are on temp shut down so at least hes at home.
I also read somewhere that they may do a staggered return for schools?
Many of my colleagues dont think they will go back till September

I can't think of anything worse for children than being locked in the house, with only a short walk out each day, to return to school at the nicest time of the year.

You've been shut in for weeks on end, now you're shut in a school, looking at the sunshine from a musty classroom.

Also, it would mess up the rest of the academic year. When would the term end, would it be really long time until the Oct half term? Again, how punishing is that for a child.

You've been shut in for weeks on end, now you're shut in a school, looking at the sunshine from a musty classroom.

Let’s get a grip here. Children spend many hours outdoors even when at school. Playtime, lunch time, sports days, doing PE, getting to and from school. It’s not a Victorian workhouse.

Personally I'd rather have my family healthy and thriving rather than at greater risk in school.

My childrens' teachers: I can't praise them highly enough, I doubt they've even had an Easter holiday because they'll have been preparing work for after Easter. THANK YOU TEACHERS!

It is difficult 'home schooling' and managing everything else but I'm sure we all agree, having our children healthy is of paramount importance! One of my children has low immunity and my other child has asthma. I'm in NO RUSH to return them to School right now!! I just want to enjoy time with them! Yes, home schooling is challenging but better that and having our children safe and healthy!

*Sorry, typo! I mean better having our children at home safe and healthy rather than at risk at school.

Also wether it helps or not we have masks.

I agree. People are forgetting that teachers are also not ‘on holiday’ at the moment either!

I have been writing new support plans, designing 1:1 lessons so that they will, hopefully, work remotely via Zoom, Setting work via an online portal, uploading lessons to our school YouTube channel, having Zoom meetings with colleagues, telephoning students and parents to check in, responding to emails from parents, colleagues, external services etc.

During this time I have also been overseeing my own teens schooling and am very thankful they are largely independent as I have no idea how I could have achieved all of the above if they weren’t!

*whether

There ain't no enjoying time together in this house. I've already been kicked today 🙄.

No, it's a bad idea. I know I for one want to go and visit my Mum in England when we can. We have a domestic holiday booked in July which I'm kind of ruling out, but if we can go the kids can go to the beach, walk in the mountains and run around open spaces. They need that more than they need to sit in school. I will also be spending the next few months looking after people dying on ventilators so suspect I'll need the break too. A lot of people are still working and looking after children, trying to home school at the same time. Even if it's not sunning ourselves in Lanzarote, we all need a break.

People forget about all the other people that make up a school day, office staff, cleaners, kitchen staff, transport people etc etc. Staggered return isnt as easy as it sounds, it has to be all or nothing. And a nothing it will be till it is safe, you cant play Russian roulette with peoples lives.

Thank you Lara53. My sons' teachers have also been intouch via phone or school portal and class pages. Can't say thank you enough for this! However, I very much doubt this would have been the case at their previous School. So I do think a huge thank you is needed for teachers who go out of their way to do this!

Please remember many years ago we wouldn't have even had these options.

@BubblyBarbara We have a 15 minute mid morning break and a 40 minute lunch break.

@FredericaBimmel that's brilliant teachers get what paid for 39 weeks so that's over £40,000 for a bog standard teacher . That is great.

Peppafrig, a "bog-standard" teacher gets nowhere NEAR that amount.

@CallmeAngelina We’re talking about Scotland, where the top of the unpromoted payscale is just over £40k.

BubblyBarbara please remember the English weather. Morning breaks, lunchbreaks, outdoor PE lessons are weather dependent and in winter the children aren't allowed out if icy for fear of slipping/ falling etc. Sports days are usually once a year, again weather dependent. I wouldnt say its 'hours' outside either.

@BubblyBarbara my Y8 DD complains about her school day with just a really short break and lunch plus a bus ride.

A very different school day compared to primary, no playtime, PE is twice a week but only every other week due to their time tables.

DD has normal lessons, sirs at her desk from 9-3, she will need a break.

Tulipstulips yes I agree. Exams were cancelled because the impact of not cancelling them would have been huge, but for the other 12 academic school years no reason why they can't return in May or June.

Of course during May and June years 11 and 13 would have ended the year anyway.

Whether there is then some teaching going into August I don't know but I think the choice will either be school going back for a month or two, or starting a month or two early.

No idea how on Mumsnet everyone thinks it's feasible if not fun to juggle work, home ed and kids at home 24/7 for 6 months+ but the rest of Europe and the work disagrees. Even in China schools were closed for 3 months so not sure why we'd do it for longer.

As for me I am absolutely dreaming of the day that I can drop my kids at school and go and work in the office. The domestic drudgery of home is tedious, the kids need their friends far more than me dragging them out for day trips even when this is over.