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?

I like it as it is now. I don't want it to change.

I think, yet again, we can't really conflate primary and secondary here : an hour after school (if it finished at about 2 ?) at primary running about , having fun, doing some drama or music might be great for primary

That wouldn’t bother me, if it finished at 2, but I doubt that is what Gav is proposing, is he? Same finishing time just more PE/drama?

We finish at 3.30 at my primary, so wouldn’t want to see an hour of PE on top of that, until 4.30 every day.

Happy as it is.

The last few summers in the south East the temperature has been unbearable in August.
Classrooms are stuffy as it is, can you imagine what it would be like ?
Even if they could get them all outside , there would be issues with sun cream and those that can't sit in the heat or the risk of sun burn or any number of issues.
It sounds good in practice and maybe four weeks off might work better, but summer school would be hell for everyone. I appreciate they go back in August in Scotland , but they break up earlier and it probably isn't quite as hot .

No!

You can’t just consume more learning by having a longer day.

Apologies- I thought I had used a poll, but clearly not!

Quite relieved to read so many (in my opinion) common sense replies! Many on the radio seemed to be fully supportive of this idea and I was hoping I wasn't the only one who thought it was a terrible idea! Children are already so tired by the end of the school day, I can't imagine their concentration levels would be particularly high if the school day was lengthened further. Teachers have worked ridiculously hard (despite what the media perpetuates!) this last year juggling working in school with KW/vulnerable children and supporting children learning from home, their weekends and evenings are already often overloaded with planning/assessment. I imagine if this came to fruition the recruitment/retention crisis would sink to new depths!

I don’t want less school holidays. I’d be open to how they are arranged.
I also don’t want long school days with no break. But our kids school does have slightly longer days Mon-Thurs and Friday afternoons completely off. They can book into after school club for working parents. That’s actually quite nice for the kids and I arranged my week so I have that time off. We often do trips on Friday afternoon:

I’m against anything that results in more overall time in school.

Awful idea. Just put out there to deflect from everything else going on.

I'd prefer a 4 week summer holiday. 6 weeks has always been too much

I would take PE out of the school teaching day and have PE for all children 3.30-4.30pm most days a week

Most schools would not have space for all the children to do PE at once, unless it was a fairly static activity like an aerobics type class or something.

Our primary school already started extending the school day by 30 minutes for every child in the autumn term and will do the same after Easter for the summer term. Theyve used the time to catch up on parts the curriculum like art and music that was missed in the last lockdown. Not sure what the teachers think... but all parents seem to have been on board and the kids have been fine as far as I'm aware. So longer days to do 'soft subjects' is a good idea I think. I doubt you'd get too far with anything too taxing later in the day at primary.

I would also not mind the 6 week holiday reduced to 4 weeks, it's too long for my kids and my youngest always regresses a bit. However I think it would be harder on families who like to visit relatives abroad etc for extended periods. But for us it would be fine.

If there were different holidays then parents should be able to take children out for 2 weeks of the year so they can enjoy cheaper off peak holidays

This would be an absolute nightmare if children were in and out all year on holidays-this would be totally against all the government’s talk of ‘catch up’ as teachers would be continually trying to catch up everyone who’s missed completely different parts of the learning!

Besides, the government seem to like fining parents for missing school-that’s not going to change.

Oh Gosh so true 80s. Air con in all schools required, please, Gav!

As we all know from various threads on here,ventilation is awful in many schools. They are unbearable on hot days.

No, absolutely not. My child is not behind academically and hates after school clubs.

Schools should also be doing a lot more creative subjects at primary than they are within the time they already have. The only reason they aren’t is due to ofsted and league table/mad curriculum pressures.

I’d like to see the curriculum in primary be much much more fun.

The money needed for teachers to be paid extra will put them off I'm sure!
That bill alone will be huge , not too mention the cost to the council of running all the schools or doing those jobs that have to be done when they are all shut for six weeks !
It's just another sound bite I think. If the children can stay at school now till July without any more lockdowns or partial closures I think it'll all go in the back burner fairly swiftly

No definitely not! Summer holidays are already some of the shortest in Europe and my children definitely need time to relax in the holidays and after school. What they do in school is pressurised enough, no need to add to it

Definitely not longer day; children with additional needs in mainstream and special generally find they can't concentrate at all in the afternoon and are exhibited enough as it is.

I'd be up for 5 week summer hol and a two week autumn break, maybe starting summer a week or so earlier; as a pp says end of august is usually the crap weather.

When it's hot end of June / early July, I find the kids in primary loose the plot and can't concentrate. Late summer nights, hay fever etc.

I like the idea of a five-term academic year. The autumn term for one is way too long. Not sure about extended school days, although I'm pretty sure generations gone by didn't finish until 3.45pm to 4pm. Today's school days seem short in comparison?

Nope. YANBU.

“ If there were different holidays then parents should be able to take children out for 2 weeks of the year so they can enjoy cheaper off peak holidays.”

And this policy would need to be applied to teachers too. We are parents and we deserve to spend holidays with our children too.

I worked at a college once where they tried reducing the holidays. It was Ok for most but the ones who really struggled with it were the SEN students. They found it very hard to cope without having a break from learning.
I can see it being tried as an experiment but I think it would be a bit of a disaster especially for younger children.

I don't mind the idea of 5 terms, but I don't agree with longer days at all.

They'll have to adjust expectations rather than work kids to the point of exhaustion to 'catch up'.

I think there has to be a realistic possibility that the autumn term may bring with it a third wave and renewed restrictions. Getting as much learning in before that might in retrospect be the right decision. But if this doesn't happen,then I think keeping the lovely long holiday would be the right decision for children to catch up seeing friends and family outside school. I, unfortunately, don't have my crystal ball polished today to know what the best way forward is.

I'm open to one or the other for older children, but not both and not for younger primary aged.

Anything more than an extra 0.5-1hr a day or 2 weeks less holiday would be too much.

Surely focusing funds on smaller class sizes and more one-to-one attention would be better.