To think all school holidays should be universal within England?

[CakeBossBaby]

I currently have children at 3 different schools. My daughter broke up on 4th April and returns this Tuesday.
My son only broke up yesterday and has next week off until 25th. My 3rd child has yet again different holidays! Its like this every term.

How are we supposed to have days out or God forbid a week away somewhere when holidays aren't coordinating and we cannot get a full week where all kids are off apart from Summer when prices are extortionate.

Why do schools all within 2 miles of each other have su h drastically different holiday schedules?

Shouldn't holidays just be set days for all schools within England?

Does anyone know why schools hoose heir own dates?

@sweeneytoddsrazor

Quite a few years ago I stumbled across a programme about a holiday site, cant remember which one and the manager was saying if they had to rely on school holiday bookings they would go out of business. Out of school holiday time 3/4 of the booked accommodation was people taking advantage of the newspaper £25 holidays and the only money the site made was what was spent in the bar etc. That was just about enough to keep them going. Staggered holidays would be a good thing for them.

Totally agree. It's so hard for tourism destinations - but also for lower income families, the price rises needed to cover the triple whammy of fine for term time absence, Brexit, then covid have made any holidays so expensive that even simple ones are out of reach for many.

@sweeneytoddsrazor

Quite a few years ago I stumbled across a programme about a holiday site, cant remember which one and the manager was saying if they had to rely on school holiday bookings they would go out of business. Out of school holiday time 3/4 of the booked accommodation was people taking advantage of the newspaper £25 holidays and the only money the site made was what was spent in the bar etc. That was just about enough to keep them going. Staggered holidays would be a good thing for them.

I agree. I am from Germany where the holiday season runs from mid June to mid-September as the states (apart from two) rotate each year.

So, all hotels, camping, self-catering properties have a larger season than just the 6 weeks of holidays in their area.

Only drawback is that if you go from Northern Germany to Bavaria in July for example the Bavarian children are still in school and there is nothing special going on. On the other hand, attractions are normally less busy.

Nah, I prefer it when they're different. DS often has later holidays than the rest of the country (last Christmas he was off until the 10th Jan) so I often get better holiday deals.

@Greyornavy

YANBU

It is a complete pain for teachers with children with different holidays too.

Teachers would likely still be off for the majority of their children's school holidays, unlike non teachers

Harder to get childcare though.

Prices won't go down if holidays were staggered. Just the 'off peak' rates will increase to match the 'peak' ones.

Nonsense. Scots and English already enjoy "cheaper" holidays on each other's turf due to holiday dates being different in Scotland and England.

Right now, we're facing difficulties with international travel, higher fuel prices and so on that will make holidays abroad harder, not to mention the environmental guilt over flying. Yet holidays in the UK often end up being very expensive in part due to the price gouging effect--and with the cost of living going up, people are going to really struggle to afford those prices now. And yet after COVID we are all simply desperate to enjoy holidays of some sort! Something's got to give. Staggering holidays to help reduce the cost of UK holidays would make sense.

Staggering between regions would make it harder for families in different parts of the country to get together but there would be SOME overlap. People who send their kids to two schools over boundary lines might be a bit screwed, but how common is that?

@greenteafiend

I actually think dates should be staggered by region (but roughly standardized within each region). This might reduce the number of days when far-flung cousins can get together, but it would really reduce price gouging. The difference in dates between England and Scotland is already a factor enabling people to get some cheaper deals.

I think that in reality, all that would mean is the higher price being charged over a longer period.

There will always be people messed up by living and working over boundaries for that - if they're the same everywhere though, I think that creates greater pressure on leave requests, however - everybody with kids will need the same two weeks off, rather than some being two weeks before Easter, some either side and some two weeks starting from Maundy Thursday.

So, on balance, although it is a PITA to have different dates, I do think it helps a greater number of people to stagger it. And, of course, private schools do pretty much as they wish and academies because half the SLT have kids at private schools, but I guess the theory is there that those parents can afford to access lengthy fulltime childcare?