Extra 2 weeks added to summer term - crazy idea?

[Dazedandconfused123]

So I read in the Daily Fail yesterday that the govt might add an extra 2 weeks to the summer term as there is more ventilation and classrooms can keep windows open. I’ve got to be honest - this filled me with horror! Children are working now, hunched over screens for hours a day. They need time to reconnect with family, be outside, play with friends and do al the things they cannot do at the moment. It also strikes me that this highlights the fact that schools are not, in fact, safe, and the govt is trying to prepare a cushion for a potential lockdown next winter instead of investing properly in genuine covid safe measures that might actually help. AIBU?

It does make me sad, but it might be the better of two evils if COVID is likely to peak again next winter.

Stupid idea. More of the same will not work.

Utterly ridiculous! Also who will be teaching them? The teachers I know have worked more than normal since last March and need their holiday.

Very unlikely to happen... believe it or not teachers have worked throughout the pandemic, and the holidays are used for planning next year. Who is going to staff it... many teachers have their own families to care for.. who is going to pay for it? And the kids.. they need to be outside , they have been cooped up long enough!
Personally (I work in special ed, not mainstream) I think the whole year should be retaken.. from early years to University.. just start from scratch !

Teachers and unions won't let it happen

Surely not the lesser of two evils if schools were allowed to invest in proper covid safe measures. 30 students in one room (normally a room designed for far fewer) will never be covid safe, no matter now many windows are open. We need to look at this issue differently!

Good luck to them but I've already booked a holiday so none of mine would be there!

Maybe. But perhaps you could argue they are looking at the issue differently? Rather than spending many billions on doubling the schools footprint (at enormous environmental cost) they’re thinking about putting the kids in the classrooms for longer when it’s safer.

Stupid idea. I haven't missed a day at work since this began, I have spent 4 hours with my own children since August, I have a brand new grandchild that I haven't met, I intend spending all the holidays with my family if I am allowed to, why would I volunteer to work an extra 2 weeks?

People have holidays already booked in the hope that things will be better, are we supposed to cancel them?
This is another stupid idea which , if brought in, will be a chaotic disaster with some children getting it, some not, some staffed by dedicated people, some staffed by not so great people.
If you are not happy with your school's provision during this lockdown, you should be complaining to the governors and taking it higher. We all knew it was coming, we were all told to prepare to teach online, we are doing a whole timetable online, everything is videoed so if you child can't make a session, they can pick it up when convenient for their family.
We all hate this lockdown , we all want it to be over and have all our children back in but extended terms are not the answer.

I thought it was the whole 6 weeks of 16 hour days? And some kids staying over night, so teachers could stand at the front of the school hall and send them to sleep with gentle lullabies incorporating the multiplication tables?

@Dazedandconfused123

Surely not the lesser of two evils if schools were allowed to invest in proper covid safe measures. 30 students in one room (normally a room designed for far fewer) will never be covid safe, no matter now many windows are open. We need to look at this issue differently!

Teachers are contracted to teach/attend 1265 hours per academic year.

They don't have to do the proposed two weeks.

Or weekends.

Or evenings.

Or holidays.

I am very excited about this and think it is a great idea!

They could shorten the Easter break & skip the May half term and reduce summer to 5 weeks instead of 6. This way they have recouped 3 weeks of teaching time this academic year.

@Clicketyclick21

They could shorten the Easter break & skip the May half term and reduce summer to 5 weeks instead of 6. This way they have recouped 3 weeks of teaching time this academic year.

Alterations to the school year have to be made a year in advance, otherwise any teacher/parent/pupil can say: I have made other plans in the light of the published pattern.

By the end of the summer term, even in normal times, everyone has had it and isn't doing much. 2 weeks won't make any meaningful difference to the gaps caused by this year and the uneven provision across different schools, cohorts and individual kids' families and will cause enormous difficulties for staffing (we'd have to be paid for two extra weeks for a start, which no doubt schools would be told to find from existing budgets) and people plan their lives around the term dates.
I advocate for an hour longer for secondary days to become standard from Sept (I am a teacher BTW) but there are myriad issues with this too. Personally I think should be faced and overcome but that's a different thread.

I am far from unhappy with the school’s provision and have no intention of complaining to anyone, not sure where you got that from! They have been outstanding, quite frankly. I am concerned that we are being sold snake oil, once more, from a govt who thinks that longer school days and terms will reverse this damage. We already have the biggest primary class sizes in Europe. Schools are grossly underfunded and long term investment is needed to create better learning environments for all not flipping around holidays to try and hide their mismanagement of this situation.

@Clicketyclick21

They could shorten the Easter break & skip the May half term and reduce summer to 5 weeks instead of 6. This way they have recouped 3 weeks of teaching time this academic year.

Who’s going to teach it? I sure as hell am not. I’ve been working like mad and the only thing that’s keeping me going is the thought of the holidays. In addition to all the live teaching/extra support I’ve been giving my pupils we now need to allow for assessing and grading senior pupils as there are no exams. A huge extra workload.

And who would pay the teachers for this recouped time. They should not be working for free!

Oh and Clickety.. Shorten Easter, skip Half term and extend July? So you want us to teach and kids to learn from April til August with no break?

@Flipflops85

I thought it was the whole 6 weeks of 16 hour days? And some kids staying over night, so teachers could stand at the front of the school hall and send them to sleep with gentle lullabies incorporating the multiplication tables?

Nailed it. As a teacher I really Hope this comes off. I’ve recently learnt from MN that teaching is a ‘vocation’ and working the long hours I currently do simply is not enough and unless I work all holidays (can’t remember if I was allowed weekends?) it means I don’t care. I’m just hoping they just get us to work EVERY holidays for the next three years because that is definitely what is needed!

I think we should start the Autumn term two weeks early in August (the weather is usually rubbish and the end of August anyway) then have 4 weeks off over Christmas (carefully calculated to be 2 weeks either side of Christmas Day to allow quarentine before and after Christmas mixing).

Whilst some teachers may have been working really hard for the past year, I had friends boasting about how they were only putting in a couple days a week through to June last year and since Christmas they are back to wfh with a day or two a week in school (secondary). Both are making YouTube videos for their classes and calling students but based on their Facebook feed, mostly they are doing their hobby's (and according to one of their wives he's doing hardly anything). I think primary teachers are working harder but secondary teachers can get away with little depending on subject, them not teaching for 3 weeks now and instead working in July/August would make more sense

Teacher here. Yes we have been working during the pandemic. The level of workload varies school to school. I don't think personally my workload is excessively high. This will be different for different people.

The students who have been working hard in lockdown will have completed all the work set and are unlikely to need an extra three weeks tuition. I mean it can't hurt but I don't think it will have a remarkable impact. Those that have been doing nothing during this time will need additional tuition. Unfortunately many of those don't engage in regular schooling the majority of the time.

From a cost benefit scenario I am not sure it is worth it. Students would honestly be far better off with one to one support from parents at home.

I would be grumpy about going in from a lazy perspective but it wouldn't be that big of a deal for me. Bigger issue is cost of childcare for teachers coming in.

@mootymoo very much not the case here!!! Working harder than before and trying to home school my own too.

@mootymoo

Whilst some teachers may have been working really hard for the past year, I had friends boasting about how they were only putting in a couple days a week through to June last year and since Christmas they are back to wfh with a day or two a week in school (secondary). Both are making YouTube videos for their classes and calling students but based on their Facebook feed, mostly they are doing their hobby's (and according to one of their wives he's doing hardly anything). I think primary teachers are working harder but secondary teachers can get away with little depending on subject, them not teaching for 3 weeks now and instead working in July/August would make more sense

This means nothing.

If they've satisfied the school, thy've done the work.