time for England to re-jig their school year?

[KnittingNeedles]

As someone who grew up in Scotland and who has kids at school in Scotland, July is holiday month and always has been. Kids at school until around 20th July always seems insanely late to me.

Statistically, July is the hottest month in the UK and with climate change upon us, temperatures are going to get more extreme. Most Scottish schools finish the last week in June, returning around 15th August. England/Wales keeps their kids in school 3-4 weeks later and then they stay off into September.

Time for a total shake-up of the school year to account for climate change? The school year was originally based around the farming year as far as I know, and as that's not really an issue any more, should they be adopting a more Scottish/N Irish approach to shifting the holidays?

(Actually, I hope they don't because we take advantage of that beginning of July period to travel to England and enjoy the weather/visitor attractions when the kids are all still in school, and enjoy the cheaper prices too).

Our area in scotland abandoned the model of having the week before and after Easter as holiday whenever it falls about 10 years ago. We get the first two weeks in April, irrespective of when Easter is. That does sometimes mean we have two weeks off, back to school for a few days and then a long Easter weekend, but it works fairly well in the main.

I wouldnt mind easter but i dont see the point of a long break in october or february - miserable cold and dark!

Mine got out this past Wednesday and it was the earliest they'd ever finished school. It was perfect. I've always thought that by the time you get to the 20th of July, the kids are so tired and fed up. We've had a hot spell going into the end of school and here we are again, bracing for next week's impact. I think schools should get out in early July and still go back the first week of September or last week of August.
Personally, having grown up in the States when school holidays meant being finished in early June and back to school the first week of September, I wouldn't want to re-jig too much other than to finish in early July and go back the last week of August or 1st/2nd of September (if on a weekday). I wouldn't want to lose those half terms and longer Easter/Christmas breaks.
As an American child, I had all of my holiday period jammed into a long, hot summer. During the school year, there were no real breaks in the way we get half-terms over here. I think it's really quite perfect in the UK (or at least here in England).

Yes! When they days are long the kids don't sleep, they're too hot in school with their blazers and trousers (no shorts) and by the time they are on holiday we get about a week of good weather before August turns grey rainy and crap.

Schools open all year round. Each child gets a holiday allowance to be taken when they choose (within reason).

Sounds like a nightmare for the teachers though and pretty unworkable.

Remakes sense

Paradoxically maybe if it was done properly, it could potentially be less stressful for teachers if they had more PPA time.

Couldn’t agree more and have been saying this for years.

Autumn term is already the longest and hardest. I don't think I'd want it to be another 2-3 weeks. Also on years where Easter falls late, summer term must be really short, like 3 week half terms. That doesn't really seem long enough to tackle a topic, especially with younger kids who might take time to settle back in after holidays.

Not insomountable problems, and it must works out fine in Scotland, but wouldn't be my preference.

You must be around same area as me. Finish end of June, back mid August. Week off in September. Absolutely great, much cheaper holidays, quieter airports and resorts.
Then they realigned us with the rest of England. Nobody wanted this
Such a shame!!

I think lose a week at Easter and Christmas to make the whole thing 8 weeks (which is much more in line with the rest of Europe).

As I was arguing in another thread- European schools are not having this heatwave issue because they have mostly broken up for the Summer already. It looks like it is going to be this hot every July now so we need to do something about it so we don’t lose school days to hot weather.

I think that is a dreadful idea! From a staff point of view, the planning and catering for children’s absence would be a logistical nightmare.

What about children whose parents never took them out and they never got a holiday?

I think I have seen posts on here about making changes to English state school holidays every summer for years. Some people want fewer weeks off in the summer but more in the spring, some want more at October or Christmas, others want more at May half term. Some just want more time off in the summer. There is no obvious alternative to what we have that pleases the majority so I can’t see anything ever changing.

@KnittingNeedles

It was tried by a free school somewhere in Yorkshire and they had to switch back because they couldn’t keep staff.

Working in schools is a bit of a strange one in terms of the short, sharp intensity of workload and the way we prep for assessment. The only way the system you suggest would work is if the students spent their holiday keeping up with class work. Which I suspect no kid or parent would want to do. And we’d have to have assessment weeks that we’re forbidden for holiday, otherwise it would take months to catch up with kids who missed assessments.

@howshouldibehave it would definitely be logistically difficult but not impossible. It would greatly benefit children from disadvantaged homes and also reduce the huge price difference between term time and school holidays when it comes to holidays.

So in my part of Scotland we have:

a long weekend (Friday/Monday) in September
a week in October - but earlier than in England
2 weeks at Christmas
2 or 3 days in February
2 weeks at Easter - first two weeks in April whenever Easter is
couple of long weekends in May.
finish end June.

Other areas don't have the long weekend in September, go back a few days earlier in August and have 2 weeks off in October - not a fan of this to be honest. I also wouldn't want any more than 2 or 3 days in February when the weather is usually at its worst.

I also agree that you won't ever find a model which keeps everyone absolutely happy but it does seem that the current English/Welsh model isn't working for many.

Also I can see it being more relaxed overall, instead of a curriculum being crammed into a certain number of weeks, it could be more spread out, key topics being repeated throughout the year, with more time for off curriculum topics, music, sport and art.

DS doesn't break up until the 27th July here which feels extremely late. They had an extra week at half term but are finishing a week and a half later than the other schools.

The long August holiday is a nightmare for retaining learning and consistency in routine, especially so for kids with special needs.

We would love longer holidays in October or February. Both of my kids function better in the cooler temperatures so we more often holiday then anyway

Officially last day of term here is the 29th but they have a couple of INSET days. They are so ready for the holidays already.

A rejig and a formal change so that the school starting age is based on age on 1st April making the little ones 4.5ish when they start.

It would greatly benefit children from disadvantaged homes

I’m not convinced it would. We have parents who I’m pretty sure would continue to send their child in every day they could and not take them out on any sort of holiday.

I can’t see any sort of big changes happening with term times-it’ll be down to individual schools/LAs making decisions on finishing early/remote teaching if there are days with particular weather warnings.

Lots of private schools have a 2 week October half term, it’s lovely to have a holiday then.

Grew up in Leicester which had it dead right, exams over, go on holiday. Now I live elsewhere I feel so-o-o sorry for my kids struggling in for three weeks in July when exams long finished, no one is learning much, and everyone is boiled to bits. Then more often than not we endure a week or two or dull/rainy weather at the end of August and can't do anything much except sit around bored. I don't know anyone from my home town who thinks Leicester's offset holidays were a bad idea....

Nooooooo... we've just got to the point where our kids are out of school and in uni, and start of July is cheaper for us all to go away together in this country, with some decent weather!

It's madness. We finished at the end of June. I cannot see how any teacher would be able to get anything productive out of children at this time of the year.

Academically, it doesn't have any positive impact.