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?

No to longer days and no to changing holidays. The kids I know have worked hard and had a tough time, they need a break as much as the teachers do. Also, holiday is time we spend with extended family, we have not seen grandparents since October. Also, we have spent lots of time as a small family, 4 of us, in the house, but not doing fun things. Adjust the curriculum accordingly/grade boundaries to reflect the last year.

No thanks to both.

No definitely not .

Kids and teachers need a holiday in the summer. There is also a contractual issue with hours. Additional teachers would have to be employed to pick up the extra hours. It would not be agreed by the unions either.

I'd like a longer school day, single parent and after school care is a disaster. Academics in the morning sports in the afternoon.

I’m amazed at the number of parents answering that longer school days would be better for THEM. School is not free childcare.

Kids DO NOT need longer days and less holidays!! Especially primary - some of them already do longer days than adults, with before and after school care every day on top of school, then off to tutoring. It's insane what some kids are expected to cope with, you can only physically take in so much learning and the rest just goes straight over their heads because they have switched off. Yes some can cope and like the extra bits but the majority hate it. I should know because i work with kids and they are crying and begging not to be sent to x club, y tutor, can i ring their mum because they are desperate to go to bed. It breaks my bloody heart! My mum is a teacher and she regularly has burnt out kids on her hands, they are just forced into too much too young.

Why even have kids if you just farm them out to school for even longer? Might as well pack them off to boarding school. Poor things.

They have their whole lives to be pulling stupid hours - just let them be kids and have a chance to play and have freedom, that's how kids learn the most! No point in cramming every drop of information into their little heads if they miss out on all the other vital aspects of learning which arent done at a desk. Otherwise we will be creating teens that are already burnt out before they have even really got out into the world.

If anything Christmas hols need to be longer - they break up only 3 days before and go back on the 3rd - hardly very festive!

I love the long summer hols with my kids. It's bonding time i look forward to all year! My oldest is nearly too old to be bothered with family time and will be off spending the hols with friends instead so i'm soaking up all the time i can get before he goes his own way.

Also - schools shouldnt be able to set their own term dates - i have kids at different schools with different term dates, different inset days and completely different half terms (one year i had one off one week then the other off the next) or you get one kid have a 2 week half term and the other gets one week and all hell breaks loose about how completely unfair it is (not to mention it being a logistical nightmare - i have sent the wrong kid to school before (inset day on a wednesday in the middle of a term - who does that!?! and kept one off that should be in (no other schools were back for another week except ours)

[quote cherish123]@findahouse21 teaching is already a full time job 🙄.[/quote]
This. I worked as a full time teacher for 30 years and if I had put ‘part time’ on any official documentation I would have been committing fraud!

No to longer days
No to shorter holidays
No no no

YANBU I really hope this doesn't happen, not at all in the best interest of children who need time to switch off and unwind and enjoy their childhood. If certain children need extra tuition then give them after school or school holiday tutors on a case by case basis. If parents need the childcare then there is wrap around care and holiday clubs for this reason.

I think its a shame to change term times . Not all learning happens in school. I think more time to enjoy outside and family and your own personal interests is good. I say this as an ex secondary school teacher, who then homeschooled all 5 of my own children from the beginning of their education. They got into college and then university with no problems.

At a push an extra week off at Christmas and Easter and then just August off for the summer. But no to longer days.

Also do you people who want longer hours not think about the teachers - they are in around 7, 7.30 am and still there past 6pm already. A lot put in extra hours over the weekends and holidays arent holidays for them - a lot are in school planning, meetings, setting up for the next term.

The kids would be exhausted and the teachers would be worn out too. Might suit YOU for work arrangements but that's not what school is about.

No they are at school long enough. I’d only support longer days if they scrapped homework.

I don’t want shorter summer or more time off in winter. They need time to have a proper break and family holidays, visit places. It’s hard enough to get time off in six weeks it will be even harder with shorter time and cost of holidays would go through the roof.

Absolutely not. Children can only attend for a certain amount of time 6 hours a day is enough.

I don’t think anyone’s talking about having fewer school holidays. They’d just be moved to another time in the year.
So 4/5 weeks in the summer instead of 6. I don’t understand why anyone thinks 4 weeks isn’t long enough for kids to switch off. Really??
Longer breaks at October/February instead.

I think this would be much better. 4 weeks in summer is still a good break. Kids don’t regress with learning etc. Families don’t have to fund the additional food/activities etc in as big a chunk.

Longer days I’m less sure about/not keen. Only if they were longer with PE/extra curricular & if there was any extra learning time in a longer day it would have to mean no homework.

Absolutely not! Children need a long summer break to forget about school, holidays for working parents would be chaos. Teachers and children would never feel that they had had a proper break.

I'd be interesting to see what the percentages would have been if voting had been enabled. I am going to start a voting thread.

I think terms should be rethought. 6 weeks is a long time off I'm sure it would be easier for parents to find appropriate childcare arrangements if the summer was shortened slightly.

@Hollyhead

Longer school day definitely although not all taught - I would take PE out of the school teaching day and have PE for all children 3.30-4.30pm most days a week. Doesn’t all have to be delivered by a qualified teacher - just responsible adults who can get them running around and moving.

My son is in Year 9 and is doing Triple Science (3 GCSEs) - this means that he already has to stay behind on a Thursday after school for an extra hour - he leaves at 4.05 pm. We live several miles from the school, so by the time he walks home it is almost 5.00 pm.

A lot of children do activities after school, as does my son. He is an International Champion at martial arts and trains several evenings a week (since he was 7 years old). This means that we don't train in our local town and have to travel to another location in the evenings.

I think that suggesting that all children do PE on most days of the week between 3.30-4.30 pm would not work for a lot of children who spend time doing activities after school - swimming lessons usually start around 4.00 pm in my town and many children belong to clubs, ie, brownies and cubs. Keeping children back until 4.30 pm after school to do PE would mean that a lot of these activities would have to be dropped, if you take into account getting home from school, tea-time, homework (my son has several hours of it every night) and travelling to various activities.

@womaninatightspot

I'd like a longer school day, single parent and after school care is a disaster. Academics in the morning sports in the afternoon.

I don’t want my kids doing long days because you want childcare.

Better childcare is the solution here, not making everyone have more school!

YANBU

4 weeks in summer is still a good break

But would be a nightmare for working parents trying to book their annual leave. When there’s 6 weeks to choose from, it’s a nightmare in many offices, let alone making it even less.

@Pippinlily

I don’t think anyone’s talking about having fewer school holidays. They’d just be moved to another time in the year. So 4/5 weeks in the summer instead of 6. I don’t understand why anyone thinks 4 weeks isn’t long enough for kids to switch off. Really?? Longer breaks at October/February instead.

I think this would be much better. 4 weeks in summer is still a good break. Kids don’t regress with learning etc. Families don’t have to fund the additional food/activities etc in as big a chunk.

Longer days I’m less sure about/not keen. Only if they were longer with PE/extra curricular & if there was any extra learning time in a longer day it would have to mean no homework.

4 weeks isn’t long enough when parents have to book annual leave along with colleagues. Much less chance of getting time off for summer holiday with only 4 weeks to share out.

Who wants more time off in February when it’s cold and miserable. A wasted week as it is. At least in summer they can be outside and enjoying themselves.

I’d like school to be 10-4, with extra classes 9-10am for those who need it and the holidays a bit more evenly spread with 4 wks in the summer and 2 weeks at the October and June half term. I’d also like a lot more activities put on in the holidays for kids to do sports and creative skills etc.

The idea that kids will be spending their summers doing holidays and day trips and play dates etc is only for those whose parents are going to do that. There are many children whose parents work and they will be in childcare for most, if not all of the time, or the ones who won’t or can’t do it for other reasons. There needs to be more options for those children. I spent the holidays staring at the telly, as did most of my friends.