Restructuring the school year

[AntiSocialDistancer]

inews.co.uk/news/education/education-catch-up-shorter-school-summer-holiday-ofsted-1005616/amp

A five term school year? With 2 week breaks and 4 weeks off at summer?

What do you think? With the understanding every school, pre-school etc falls into line.

Yanbu - let's change
Yabu - stay the same

Honestly I think it is great 6 weeks is too long kids are bored half way though even my place of work would benefit as we are dead during hols

@WeAllHaveWings

What they really need is more teachers so pupils get education more tailored to their ability/needs and teachers are under less pressure.

Anything else is unacceptable and just spin to make it appear they care about state education.

They have achieved their aim of putting the focus onto discussions over summer holidays rather than the state of education. When they get a kick back on summer holidays they can then blame parents for not wanting to change.

I agree. I worked a 12 hour day yesterday which is standard to be honest. I barely see my own children in term time.

If I lost the holidays with them I would absolutely quit.

I understand many other professions don't have the perk of long (unpaid) holidays but that would be the tipping point for me.

It will never happen.
Next...

Staggered holidays in france works. The zones are huge (3 zones for the whole country) so it really wouldn't hapoen that your DH/DC would have different holidays to you unless you lived 100skm apart

I agree that school holidays should be standardised for all the reasons mentioned.

But as someone who grew up in a four term system, with 6 week summer holidays and longer holidays at the other three times, I’d far prefer than to the current system which is essentially six terms with pissy small holidays of no more than two weeks, mostly at cold times of the year, which means everyone does invariably scramble for the 6 weeks in summer.

I’d keep 6 weeks slightly earlier in summer, and have 3 other 2-3 week holidays rather than all the piddling little half terms and feeling like you’re constantly in and out of school.

Or maybe 5 weeks in summer, 2 at Christmas and 2 blocks of 3 weeks at other times.

They are avoiding the real issue, massive class sizes!

The main reason why private schools do well as classes are generally Max of 12!

@lavenderlou

It would make summer holiday prices even higher if everyone was crammed into the same 4 weeks. It would also cause difficulties for working parents if everyone was trying to take annual leave in 4 weeks of summer rather than 6. We already have shorter summer holidays than most other countries around the world.

This was my first thought. Work would be a nightmare fighting for leave. And holiday prices would be horrendous.

There is so much learning that happens outside of the classroom. These are just a few examples:

• cooking and baking
• gardening
• spending time with extended family
• cleaning and helping out around the house
• exploring rural communities
• exploring urban communities
• exploring different cultures
• exploring the seaside
• exploring forests
• visiting museums and galleries
• visiting castles and historical properties
• attending festivals and community fairs
• swimming lessons
• unstructured play dates
• imaginative play
• dealing with boredom

6 weeks is not enough for all of that. And frankly, just because some children whose parents are too busy (fair enough, community centres can help here!), struggle to teach those things (community centres again), cannot afford day trips (understandable, there may be some free resources through the council), or are too feckless (bloody step up!), doesn't mean that all other children should be chained to a classroom when there are so many more varied opportunities to grow and learn. Academics aren't the be all and end all, and it's about time we recognised that.

There is so much learning that happens outside of the classroom. These are just a few examples:

• cooking and baking
• gardening
• spending time with extended family
• cleaning and helping out around the house
• exploring rural communities
• exploring urban communities
• exploring different cultures
• exploring the seaside
• exploring forests
• visiting museums and galleries
• visiting castles and historical properties
• attending festivals and community fairs
• swimming lessons
• unstructured play dates
• imaginative play
• dealing with boredom

6 weeks is not enough for all of that.

The vast majority of children do not have parents who are with them for six weeks during the holidays. Some have very little adult contact during the long summer break.

When these magical holiday clubs materialise, they'd also need to have reasonable hours. Termtime: breakfast club from 07.30, school holiday club: well, we technically run our club 10.00 - 14.00, but you could pay a small fortune to drop them from 08.30. I never get why these clubs don't realise the parents who have to drop at 7.30 still have that need over the summer. It doesn't vanish with the school holidays.

@HasaDigaEebowai

There is so much learning that happens outside of the classroom. These are just a few examples:

• cooking and baking
• gardening
• spending time with extended family
• cleaning and helping out around the house
• exploring rural communities
• exploring urban communities
• exploring different cultures
• exploring the seaside
• exploring forests
• visiting museums and galleries
• visiting castles and historical properties
• attending festivals and community fairs
• swimming lessons
• unstructured play dates
• imaginative play
• dealing with boredom

6 weeks is not enough for all of that.

The vast majority of children do not have parents who are with them for six weeks during the holidays. Some have very little adult contact during the long summer break.

There is literally not one "community centre" anywhere near us that runs a holiday club let alone offers any of that.

Holiday clubs here are private and costly and even still don't / can't offer all that.

@Penistoe

They are avoiding the real issue, massive class sizes!

The main reason why private schools do well as classes are generally Max of 12!

Agree. With bells on.

The Government keep rolling out these ideas- presumably in the hope that people won't notice the real issues. There seems to be lots if noise about longer school days/changes to term time/catch up tutoring etc which all put more pressure on schools, teachers and families. But nothing about perhaps giving state schools better funding so they can give pupils more individual attention during the normal school day.

I work term time (not a teacher) but as a worker and a parent I would prefer more balanced holidays throughout the year. We get 8 weeks summer holiday, but we get our best weather (usually) in may and June. August is usually a wash out so I'd rather be back to school/ work then.

@Roodicus21

I work term time (not a teacher) but as a worker and a parent I would prefer more balanced holidays throughout the year. We get 8 weeks summer holiday, but we get our best weather (usually) in may and June. August is usually a wash out so I'd rather be back to school/ work then.

I agree with this. Sit exams in April/early may, finish school end of May/Beginning of June back late July or early August like in scotland.

getoffyourarse that wasn’t my post it was a post I was quoting. My point is that there are very few dc who have 6/7 weeks off with their parents doing all those lovely activities

@HasaDigaEebowai

getoffyourarse that wasn’t my post it was a post I was quoting. My point is that there are very few dc who have 6/7 weeks off with their parents doing all those lovely activities

I know I was agreeing wholeheartedly with you

Nooooooo

I love the long summer holidays & I think it's good for the kids to have a long summer holiday. Time to completely chill out

Nope.

This seems to be suggested and then rejected every few years.

I'm a teacher and actually agree that the summer holidays are too long. But holidays are the only perk left for the profession so remove them and I predict that even more teachers will leave than are already doing so.

@MooseBreath

There is so much learning that happens outside of the classroom. These are just a few examples:

• cooking and baking
• gardening
• spending time with extended family
• cleaning and helping out around the house
• exploring rural communities
• exploring urban communities
• exploring different cultures
• exploring the seaside
• exploring forests
• visiting museums and galleries
• visiting castles and historical properties
• attending festivals and community fairs
• swimming lessons
• unstructured play dates
• imaginative play
• dealing with boredom

6 weeks is not enough for all of that. And frankly, just because some children whose parents are too busy (fair enough, community centres can help here!), struggle to teach those things (community centres again), cannot afford day trips (understandable, there may be some free resources through the council), or are too feckless (bloody step up!), doesn't mean that all other children should be chained to a classroom when there are so many more varied opportunities to grow and learn. Academics aren't the be all and end all, and it's about time we recognised that.

How is 6 weeks not enough for all of this??

That's 42 days with say, 9 hours of time to structure in each. You can't bake and be bored on the same day? Exploring the forest isn't the same as exploring rural community?

A lot of these trips and activities are at a cost.

I think there's a lot of sensible concerns raised in this thread but saying 6 weeks isn't long enough to be bored is a stretch.

I don't see the problem. DH used to teach year 3 and said that after the six week break some of them had forgotten how to hold a pencil properly! Not to mention for some kids school holidays are hell on earth, shorter for them has to be better.

You're not losing out here, just redistributing as far as I can see. I'd go with it.

@HasaDigaEebowai

There is so much learning that happens outside of the classroom. These are just a few examples:

• cooking and baking
• gardening
• spending time with extended family
• cleaning and helping out around the house
• exploring rural communities
• exploring urban communities
• exploring different cultures
• exploring the seaside
• exploring forests
• visiting museums and galleries
• visiting castles and historical properties
• attending festivals and community fairs
• swimming lessons
• unstructured play dates
• imaginative play
• dealing with boredom

6 weeks is not enough for all of that.

The vast majority of children do not have parents who are with them for six weeks during the holidays. Some have very little adult contact during the long summer break.

But it's OK, those children can just spend the six weeks in a community centre, so their more fortunate friends still have plenty of time for baking and 'dealing with boredom'

@PyjamaFan

This seems to be suggested and then rejected every few years.

I'm a teacher and actually agree that the summer holidays are too long. But holidays are the only perk left for the profession so remove them and I predict that even more teachers will leave than are already doing so.

I expect you are probably right. But loss of 'perks' for staff isn't a good enough reason to hold onto a system which isn't working for many children.

@PyjamaFan

This seems to be suggested and then rejected every few years.

I'm a teacher and actually agree that the summer holidays are too long. But holidays are the only perk left for the profession so remove them and I predict that even more teachers will leave than are already doing so.

I think for me the difficulties associated with an overhaul, and another push for teachers walking the plank for teachers is ultimately why this is a poor idea.

I guess the idea has merit, and I'm not so sympathetic with those who worry about the holiday prices rising - there are plenty of other weeks of the year. I'm not sure I've ever been away July or August due to cost, and instead get away in May and October half terms - and if they were 2 weeks instead of one it might be even more appealing.

I very much liked the suggestion of losing a week in the summer and creating a 2 week Octover. A great idea when you consider the first term back is such a long term and a big bump to children. And not as difficult to create a sweeping change across all schools.

Some very interesting thoughts.