Summer holidays - outdated

[Wednesdayafternoon]

So I was just scrolling through Facebook and I saw some pictures after school club/breakfast club to my sons school put up and it just got me thinking how crazy it is that schools just completely shut down for like 6-7 weeks.
They have all these facilities during term time to support working families because there is obviously a need to for it, but in the holidays... ahh f*ck it!
Obviously o know there's summer schemes but at a massive expense and also different hours and locations.
My sons school isn't offering one so he's attending some random school for 3 days over the summer mainly just so he's socialising!
I'm extremely lucky as my mum is a great help to me during the holidays. And obviously I'm very much looking forward to spending more time with my boys and no school run... hurry!!!
But I just find it crazy that schools close for such a significant period of time.
Obviously I know school isn't childcare but it school itself enables parents to work so it kind of is 🤷🏼‍♀️

"The 6 week summer holiday is a big reset for children. It enables them to return in Sept able to look at the new year with fresh eyes. Regardless of what they've been doing for the holidays, they are more rested than at any other point in the year, enabling them to learn at their best that term, and adapt to the huge changes that each September brings."

That may be the case for 'mainstream' children but with my son and other children at his special school the first few weeks of term are often the most problematic of the year as they get used to being around other children and adults again, re learning school routines etc.

Yes, teachers choose when and how the holidays work.

They are thinking about changing it here(Wales).

www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/school-year-changes-calendar-wales-24339971

Teachers are teachers, not social workers. I agree that vulnerable children need supported but I don’t think out entire education provision should be overhauled to do this. Maybe we need to address the roof cause of the problem - and no, I’m not sure what the answer is!

Isn't it about profit though, rather than some altruistic desire to help working parents? Demand and supply? After school and breakfast clubs cost money and are run by outside companies who are looking to make a profit like everyone else.

If the school was open, so would the after school clubs because they'd make a profit.

Schools themselves are not childcare and teachers are not babysitters.

Any after school clubs run by the school are about extending the provision, whether it's academic or pastoral. Again, not childcare.

And to your comments regarding teachers having 6 weeks with their own children but other working parents not having that - many teachers would have considered this when they chose teaching as a career. You could have chosen to become a teacher, but chances are you can't think of anything worse and didn't think the school holidays were worth the rest.....

teachers get told 'rather you than me!' Until it gets to the holidays, then they are blasted for having such an easy ride...

You'll be planning on retraining, and becoming a teacher then?? No? why ever not?

Or instead of changing the school holidays, how about we change back to being able to afford your mortgage and bills on one salary or 2 part time salaries so that a parents can stay at home for the kids?

Or is that too radical.

Why the race to occupy ourselves and our children in permanent work and schooling 24/7

This.

To do that the government have to stop propping up high house prices. Which means house prices would fall. I would support that, but I think most people on MN would not.

The point of the summer holidays was so that kids could help with the potato harvest

A popular misconception.

Amen! I’m so tired of hearing this. No one actually seems to know when the harvest happens. This thread is mostly a fact free zone.

Yes, I think much of this is essentially discussion about the best way to put a sticking plaster on a system that fundamentally doesn't work for an increasing number of ordinary people. There has been deliberate policy to keep housing prices high, and given the timings of this it disproportionately affects those young enough to be parents of primary aged children.

www.oxford-royale.com/articles/a-brief-history-summer-holiday/

Do you work? My God I find its more hectic in the summer holidays personally... sorting childcare which is further for me to travel back and fourth. I dread it some days in winter time. I'm with those parents that are saying it's not exactly a break for the kids because most parents are going to work so the kids have to get up... if not earlier than normal.

I'm sure it is still a break for kids, going to summer camp or whatever and doing loads of different activities without the pressure of sit down listen, learn do your work is definitely a break away from school.

Also parents will take days off have holidays with their kids. Some families struggle to get time off together as it is, shorten the holidays you make that even more difficult.

Back in the day big factories and industries closed for 2 weeks. Which was great for those workers but even then not every workplace could just shut for two weeks.

Private schools have shorter terms but longer days on the whole. I'm about to move from private back to state. The amount of teaching time is the same.

Not always longer for the children. My next door neighbour and my nephew both go to (different) private schools and the hours are exactly the same as my DC state schools.

I would have hated after school clubs and summer activities as a child but everyone if different. So I feel guilty at the prospect of having to do this to my son, but have little choice with having to work full time.

Teacher here. Totally agree that holidays should be less BUT we would need a pay rise which won't happen. We don't get paid for those 'holidays.'

Is anyone else on this thread missing being a kid or a student and have long summer holidays? Yes, it’s more difficult as a working parent to facilitate your kid having that time off but as I stare down the barrel of another 30 years of working life broken up by morsels of shitty annual leave all I can think about is how glorious 6 or more weeks of summer would be. (Not glorious enough to be a teacher, I’m not insane.)

I remember four weeks of bickering with my sister and two weeks' Canvas Holidays where my dad would put a tracksuit on over pyjamas and lie in an inflatable dinghy. My poor mum!

If I'd been offered extra school I'd have taken it. In fact my niece is at a two week academic summer school right now. I'd have loved that.

Definitely! I have amazing memories of long summer holidays! I loved school but loved every second outside of those classroom walls as well.

I had really happy summer holiday memories too. Like I've said earlier I do remember feeling abit anxious around week 4 or 5 but I was extremely lucky as my mum was a sahm and so hands on! I also had a sister and lots of friends my age who we socialised with.

I'm excited for my son to finish tomorrow and I will make it as special as I can for us all!

Amen! I’m so tired of hearing this. No one actually seems to know when the harvest happens. This thread is mostly a fact free zone.

You'd think schools having a harvest festival in October every year would give a little hint.

Absolutely not. I remember what it was like waiting for the summer holiday to start and being soo thankful for lay-ins. I'm a lot older than my siblings (me:33, DS:27, DS:25) and I used to take them out everyday. Beach, park, picnics. Some of my best memories as a teen are spending summers with my sisters. We've grown soo far apart now as we've all grown up. I was engaged and had first DS while they were both in secondary school.
I'm a SAHM so the need for childcare doesn't really affect us but I can see why it does afect other families. I do think they need a proper break tho.