Do you WANT longer school days and shorter school holidays?

[shadowlily]

YABU- yes I want schools to have longer school days and shorter holidays

YANBU- no I'd rather keep the hours/terms we have.

I keep seeing this is being discussed in the media today, do you think it's likely to happen? Personally I think kids would benefit more from the summer holiday and being able to catch up on the activities they've missed and socialisation with friends. They've been home schooled to keep up with the curriculum (for the most part! I know this might be a contentious statement for some!) but nothing has replaced the play dates, day trips, parties etc. they have missed.

What do you think?

@Wallywobbles

Schools should have days that make it possible to work a normal 9-5 job. Other countries in Europe do it - school (and study) from 8.30 to 5.30 or 6. It's hard enough sorting childcare for the summer without the ridiculously short school day.

What countries are these?

I know in France, for example, the school day is often 8.30- 4.30 but lunch time is generally an hour and a half or longer and many schools will only have children in for 4 or 4 and a half days.

[quote ArseInTheCoOpWindow]Honeybadger, this is why the ACE scale was invented. To intervene before kids became adults.

Except no one does.

www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/violence/activities/adverse_childhood_experiences/en/[/quote]
It's also why we diligently log and report signs of abuse only to be told oh yes we know about them and sssre aware.

It's heartbreaking. But no I must just be a shit teacher for pointing out we're dealing with kids who desperately need professional one on one intervention rather than being in geography disrupting period 2, again

Children's mental health has suffered through lack of interaction, locked at home, not to mention less learning . Additions like teaching during the summer will reduce time down on computer/tv which for many children is the reality. The summer holidays are for many not the idyllic. After months of lockdown and disruption whist is needed is consistency and a way to remedy the lost learning and social interaction

@Morgoth

Oh absolutely! Easily. I only averaged the teachers pay there too! Didn’t even consider leadership pay.

Yes, it would be phenomenally expensive, so unless they are relying on goodwill...lol...they are going to break it to all of these excited parents, that they’re going to have to pay more £££

I don't think longer days are a good idea, but I am open to reconfigured terms - I don't think the 6 weeks is all that he beneficial to children. But spread out better over the year - an extra week on the half terms for example.

@Totallyfedup1979

Hmm, I’m going to give some crude maths a good, considering only school teachers (because I don’t know how much other people earn).

So let’s say that there are half a million teachers and the day is extended by 1 hour. That’s an additional five hours a week, at a cost of around
Let’s average it at £25 an hour. So
£62,500,000.

Ok, now let’s address the fact people want the summer holiday reduced by 2 weeks, so that’s about half a months pay, so call it £1500 per teacher (average). Across all teachers we get:
£750,000,000.
And that’s not considering other school staff.
So total cost to extend the day by 1 hour and remove 2 weeks holiday....

Somewhere in terms region of £820,000,000.
And that’s if there’s no more than half a mil teachers.

This could get quite expensive...and who has to pay? You. The tax payer

£82 billion for teachers alone.

So given that Treasury has said it can only afford to give nurses 1% I dont think they have £82 bn hidden away. Education already is the third biggest government spending section after social protection and the NHS. Government may have to take a radical approach and scrap state pensions to pay for it

@OverTheRainbow88 that's amazing but the exception rather than the rule in my experience.

I actually would support longer school days.

The transition from 9-3 to 9-5 or 9-5:30pm as the usual working hours is often too difficult for young people to manage, because they've been used to such a short day.

Of course children should be given regular breaks but I do think their days in school should reflect the amount of time they are likely to spend at work in the future.

@StaffRepFeistyClub

Scrapping state pensions would be an idea...I’m ok as I have a private pension and the state pension would hardly make a dent. Could this be the possibility? 🤔 Higher tax and scrap
State pensions to pay for kids childcare .

Let’s be honest that’s all it would be - childcare - because if you take away teachers planning time, you’re not going t get much in the way of quality education. Good idea Gav!!

No to longer school days. It would mess up extra curricular clubs, lifts and bus times.

Yes to shorter holidays. I'd like shorter summer holidays and longer winter holidays. But they would have to recruit a lot more teachers and give them huge pay rises. So it won't happen.

I'd be happy with them repeating the year and paying for extra space for the new year R's. I'd pack mine off to summer catch up lessons too.

Its amazing how many posters want others to work longer because they can't get childcare.

What are you prepared to lose to gain the 195 (lower end) + hrs?

A genuine question to all those wanting the extended day and/or the shorter holidays...

*How much extra tax are you willing to pay for this service?’

@SoupDragon

Term 1: 16 Aug to 8 Oct (8 weeks)....

8 weeks is far too long! No way would mine have lasted that long, especially in primary.

Exactly! I could more or less tell where we were in the school term by my son. The fifth week, he was beginning to tire, the sixth he was definitely struggling. And when there was a seventh, he was awful! And this wasn't only when he was little either.

‘Scrapping state pensions would be an idea’

I’ve paid in 38 years NI into my state pension. So fuck off

@Totallyfedup1979

The problem then becomes those that think that they know something about teachers contracts.

Not many on here seem to know (care, remember or understand) about the 1265 hours over 39 week (or 195 days) yet they have been informed many times about how it all works.

But they would have to recruit a lot more teachers and give them huge pay rises. So it won't happen.

Why would there need to be more teachers and pay rises if all you’re doing is moving the holidays around? It’s still the same number of days in school.

If the school day is longer, when are they supposed to do their homework? Primary school is a big no, dd is shattered at the end of the day - any longer and we would have major meltdowns as she would then be over tired.
Secondary schools- not sure. Teachers know that the last lesson isn't much productive- making the day longer will mean that they would be less likely to actually take any info in.

Because lots of teachers would leave. So then you would have to recruit more.

Totallyfedup1979

Scrapping state pensions would be an idea

Are you prepared for the government to pay everybody everything back that they have paid in?

@tillyandmilly

Why do school days end so early ? 2.30-2.45? I started at 8.30 and finished school at 4pm in the 80’s -

Not sure what schools you know that finish at 2.30 🤣 I'm a primary school teacher...our children start at 8.35 and finish at 3.30 (not so very far off your 80s timetable 🤷‍♀️)

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

‘Scrapping state pensions would be an idea’

I’ve paid in 38 years NI into my state pension. So fuck off

Ah, but you’ve been paying for the people who get it now.

That money would be needed to fund schools and all these extra hours! You could just expect teachers to do it for free! Anyone who wants this additional school time, will need to be willing to sacrifice something along the line...life’s going to get more expensive.

Or we can just leave things as they are.

GingerAndTheBiscuits
Why would there need to be more teachers and pay rises if all you’re doing is moving the holidays around? It’s still the same number of days in school.

If they were just moving holidays about (still not wanted) but it would be do able.
If they are adding move directed(contact) time, such as extra hours, they would have to change contracts on a much larger scale.

@FrippEnos

Totallyfedup1979

Scrapping state pensions would be an idea

Are you prepared for the government to pay everybody everything back that they have paid in?

Don’t get me wrong...I’m not saying it’s a GOOD idea...I’m just thinking about where the government will find the money to fund all of these extra school hours. Tax or pensions?

But l can only get mine if l e paid in enough NI. And when l last checked l had. And l have it in writing that l have paid in enough to get my pension.

Money would be saved on future mental health services along with all the need to rectify future learning issues.