To think this would be a good idea

[AngelicInnocent]

I've seen suggestions that since people are cautious about sending DC back to school and many people can't return to work yet for various reasons, instead of trying to reopen schools from 1st of June, they should declare June and July the summer holidays and reopen in August for the new school year.

Obviously that would make for a very long term up to Xmas but they could make the October holiday 2 weeks or have 2 x 1 week holidays.

I understand that teachers are contracted for so many days but by shifting the holidays they wouldn't be required to set or mark work etc.

Thoughts anybody?

Completely impractical. Not a chance this will happen

Why would it be impractical? Have to confess I have never worked in a school, am not a teacher but I thought it seemed to work towards both groups, don't send them back too early and don't deprive them of education if possible.

Schools go back onAugust in Scotland so it’s doable. Our children finish up at the end of June then back in mid-August.

Why would it be any easier to send the children back 8 weeks later? The same issues of lack of social distancing will still be there.

This is how the first term looks

As long as all of the other staff are available, including traffic crossing, outside services, in SN schools and lots of others, i suppose it could work. People won't be going on holiday, there won't be sports etc, so people won't have stuff booked.

If schools dont start to open, it will be even longer before more parents can get back to work.

Factory shutdowns etc to coincide with holidays , childcare arrangements already in place, holidays booked etc

In all honesty, I think schools need to reopen now but I know so many people who don't want/will not send their DC that I'm not sure there would be any point. Add into that, vulnerable and worried teaching staff and it seems like they need to start looking for alternative strategies.

Factory shutdowns etc to coincide with holidays , childcare arrangements already in place, holidays booked

Why would any of those things be pertinent now? Factories will be doing things differently to what they'd originally planned. Childcare arrangements are likely to be completely up the spout. Holidays? Seriously?

I doubt the OPs idea will fly but not because there's actually any insuperable reason why it couldn't.

Teachers are still working even though schools are closed. Schools remained open over holidays for the children of key workers so over Easter holiday teachers lost two weeks' holiday anyway. Teachers are still setting work, creating video classes, marking assignments, chasing up students who aren't participating, trying to find ways to teach children who don't have computer access, checking on children who are vulnerable, sorting out lessons for next year, trying to liaise with exam boards about GCSE and A Level grades, looking after key workers children... Just because your children are at home does not mean that teachers are on holiday.
When teachers change jobs, they move from September so it would be a nightmare for anyone changing jobs to not know whether their new start date is in August or whether they go to their old job for the first month - what if the old and new school don't agree?
Schools are closed in August because it's too hot and children get uncomfortable and get sun burnt and don't drink enough water etc - it's a health and safety risk to open.

Factories will still need to do shutdowns to cover off schedules and essential maintenance , employers can offer to carry forward holidays but a lot are not and notifying their staff that they want them to use holidays up as planned

Businesses can’t be expected to cease operations until August while their staff have to be off due to schools being closed.

It’s pointless anyway you’re just moving the issues a couple of months , lockdown was put in place to reduce pressure on the nhs - the virus isn’t going anywhere unfortunately

How does that work for Year 6 transitioning to secondary school?

@SonnyRobes I'm aware teachers are still working at the moment but if it was declared the holidays, they wouldn't then need to work.

If the teachers are on holiday then who will look after the children of key workers? How will NHS staff go to work if there's no one to look after their children?

What will happen to key workers children in mid July? The virus isn't going to go anywhere so there will still be issues with their care.

Good idea, but the problem is, the virus will still be around, unless we have widespread testing to see if the population have widespread immunity. We're working in the dark regarding immunity.

Interesting idea. But for many schools the summer holidays are now five weeks, so they would have to go back in the beginning of July to make up the time.
Our school has been open, throughout Easter break too, for the 40 or so key worker children. My child is in Y10 and is doing fill day remote learning now.
But the key thing is the economy cannot wait two more months and a significant number of people rely on schools for childcare.

Like I said, schools are staying open in the holidays for key workers' children so that they can go to work.

@AngelicInnocent Hi OP and others on this thread 😊. I’m a teacher so thought I’d share my opinion and reasons as to why I don’t think moving the summer holidays will work.

If they declared June and July as the summer holidays that would be longer than we normally get for summer holidays. From the 1st June until the end of July is 9 weeks. Most schools do either 6 weeks in summer and 1 in October or 5 in summer and 2 in October.

If we went back in August and had our standard 1 week or 2 week holiday in October that would mean either 11 or 12 weeks straight before the half term. The first autumn half term is usually 7/8 weeks so by making it 11/12 you’ve made up for the potential 9 weeks in the summer. Numbers wise that works out.

However, it would be extremely difficult to sustain 11/12 weeks. No half term in the UK is ever longer than 7/8 weeks as we know that the children have lost it by then and need a break. Just because they’ve had a long break because of corona doesn’t mean they will be able to sustain 12 weeks without one. If anything, they will have even less stamina as they are out of the school routine. I can see schools having to scale back the academic side of things and focus on nurture, re-socialisation and mental health. We don’t know yet what these children will have experienced in lockdown.

As for teachers not needing to work because it has been declared holidays that is simply untrue. Lesson plans and curriculums do not write themselves and teachers will need to put in many weeks worth of work before schools go back in order to do this. Old lesson plans and sequences will likely not be relevant. It won’t be a case of just pick up where we left off as there has been so much missed. The typical milestones and content coverage for each year group won’t have been met so there will need to be lots of discussion over how to cover the old years content and still have enough time to teach all the required content for the new year.

For example, my reception children won’t have finished the reception content. If they come back in August do they do reception content? And if so, how do they fit that in and still have time to fit all the year 1 content in. Content is planned to take an academic year.

Also, Children will likely have to learn how to learn again if that makes sense? Judging by the amount of posts on here about children who are refusing to do any school work during lockdown, we will need to do a lot of work on behaviours and attitudes for learning. We can’t just sit them down and whizz on with a standard day after such an extended period of time away in such awful circumstances.

If summer holidays were to be declared for June and July and children returned in September, which year group would they return to? The one they didn’t finish or the one they should technically have moved up to? If they went back to the previous year group it would mean there would be no space in reception or year 7 for children who should be starting in September. This would then have a knock on effect for them as they would be missing their schooling and if the school year was to finish at the end of July, like normal, they wouldn’t get the whole year in that year group. You couldn’t have the old and the new in together because there simply wouldn’t be space. For me that would mean 120 4 year olds as I’d have the 60 I have now and then a brand new 60 that are supposed to start in September. I think everyone can see that would be impossible.

If they did the first part of the autumn term in the old year group and then went up to the new year group after October half term, that would mean that for every child forever afterwards, the school year would have to start in October and probably finish in August to mean that every child got a full academic year in that year group. That would mean the summer holidays would be in September. That would require a national change that I can’t see people being happy with!

I don’t honestly know what the answer is to make up for the most learning time and although I understand what you were getting at, it’s nowhere near as simple as just saying move the summer holidays to now and go back in August.