School term dates

[KnobJockey]

There's debates going on at the moment about whether to extend/ change term dates this summer to aid learning, which obviously a lot of teachers are upset about.

Not getting into the working side of it for teachers (as in, not getting into whether you should be working for extra for no pay this year, not whether the working hours work for you), does the current school holiday setup work, or should it be looked at?
By that I mean- long summer holidays, 2 weeks at Christian holidays, 1 week at others. I DON'T mean do you think teachers should work more, or any kind of teacher bashing, I just wondered if a lot of people think this opportunity to rework the school year should be grasped.

YABU- the current school holiday system works

YANBU- I think the 15 weeks school holidays should be spread out differently through the year

No vested interest in this currently, I have a 6th form teen who sorts herself and a toddler, I just find this an interesting subject and I think the time is perfect to look at the potential issue.

I would want the summer to be much shorter. It is the best time for lots of outdoor sport. Mine pretty much live outside for the whole 6 weeks!

The thing is as soon as you chip away at the current holidays, you'll quickly be left with kids getting about 4 weeks off a year and it will still be at regimented times that won't work for people booking holidays off work because the kids will still all be off at the same time. They won't redistribute them based on a better calendar. The only ones who will lose out are the kids. The summer holidays were traditionally because so many rural kids were off school due to harvesting. In Stoke there also used to be the "Potters Fortnight" but that's gone now. They don't replace these when you give them up.

I meant wouldn't, not would!

Was it originally to give children a long break, it would be interesting if someone knew the background of why the holidays are spread like they are?

I think most teachers see a decline in students once they return from the summer holidays especially more disadvantaged backgrounds.

Get rid of the 6 week holiday. Make it 4 and tag the other two weeks onto the half terms.

I think 4 weeks is plenty in the summer for most children., I would welcome it along with 2 week half term holidays.

I’m quite happy with how they are now. We have some of the shortest summer holidays going and I certainly wouldn’t want them reduced.

There aren’t 15 weeks of holiday either.

We already had the October/Nov holiday made longer (10 days) and the summer hols shortened. Like anyone wants more time in October. I'd love the May/June half term to be longer as the weather is often nice then but I doubt they'd ever do it as it would affect all the exams around that time. I certainly wouldn't want more time off in February.

I would be against any more changes as I really don't want kids having more time off in February or October/Nov when it's horrible.

Definitely think reduce summer holidays to 4 weeks and then 2 weeks in October and 2 weeks in February.

I'd prefer four weeks in the summer, maybe 3 weeks at Christmas and Easter, something like that. But that's probably driven more by childcare, as 6 weeks seems so long to fill at one go...

It works fine for me. I'm a working parent of a primary age child. I wouldn't want extra holiday time for DS in February and October when the weather is shit.

Staggering the school holidays would make a lot of sense. Other countries do it. It would extend the summer season so less pressure on holiday destinations etc.

It would need coordinating however, so different schools near each didn't have completely different holidays to account for cross-county boundary school attendance.

(I once had a very pleasant trip to my parents in London when my kids school holidays didn't line up with London holidays!)

@Redlocks28 sorry that was a guesstimate, I know it's somewhere in the region

I'd like 5 weeks in summer and 2 weeks for oct half term as it is a long term. Apart from that I think it is ok!

I would shorten the summer holiday by one week, and make the autumn half term two weeks.

The autumn term is an awfully long one, with no bank holidays, and I think a better break wouid be a good thing.

The summer holidays are long enough that a one-week change will barely make any difference - other than perhaps reducing the amount that DC fall back during a length break)

On a practical level, reducing the summer holiday would make the process of getting gcse and a level exams marked even more difficult than it already is.

I don’t want more time off in winter. If you want to make the summer holidays shorter by two weeks I’d add in an extra week break in June and maybe the other week the end of September for England so still reasonable weather.

October half term the weather is rubbish so no to two weeks there. Christmas after Christmas just drags anyway. February again rubbish weather. Already two weeks at Easter. A week in a may is ok but could be two weeks I guess.

I would take a week off the summer and add it to Oct half term. Wouldn’t want 2 weeks off in feb, miserable time of year to be forced to have holiday.

If only we could have 12 weeks of holidays in the summer like they do in Spain!
If we only had four weeks holidays would become even more expensive as everyone would be trying to go away in those times. Which would lead to more people pulling their children out at other times to go away when they can afford it. Also, can you imagine how hard it would be to book holidays from work if everyone was fighting over the same four weeks?!?

Summer is the best time for a longer break due to the weather. Any shorter than 6 weeks and that would just push holiday prices up further as all families with school age children would need to squeeze their holiday into a shorter period. Yes it's difficult to arrange childcare over the summer but I don't personally think that spreading out the holidays more evenly through the year would make things any easier for families where both parents work FT.

As above I wouldn't want extra holiday at half term in Oct or Feb as the weather isn't usually great

Was it originally to give children a long break, it would be interesting if someone knew the background of why the holidays are spread like they are?
Not sure about the UK, but in other countries it often was because at the dawn of universal education the children still were an extra pair of hands at home, and summer was when the demand for unqualified labour (either at home or as a hired worker) was at its peak. Parents simply would not have sent their children to school.

Autumn term is too long. I'd nick a week off the beginning of the summer and add it to Christmas. Loads of schools round here already give two weeks for October half-term.
As for the summer term, I always feel the best weather is while the kids are in school. Don't know the answer to that though.

I think we should take a week off the summer and add it to October half term.

Why does everyone want the children home in the coldest wettest months. The mind boggles.

Two weeks less at summer and and extra week at Autumn and June seem to be popular (ish)

Nothings going to suit everyone.