Summer holidays - outdated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 🤷🏼‍♀️

To be fair, children actually helping with the harvests is largely a myth.
For example in hop farming, mothers who needed to work brought their children along and a childcare hub was created at the edge of fields. With older children looking after younger children. Not a situation we would encourage today.

So they helped in the way that my toddler helps load the dishwasher. I've not at all.

Schools are educators, not childcare provision.

Hilarious that people think that teachers sit around and do nothing for 6 weeks over the holidays.
a-level and gcse results days are both during the summer holiday. Staff are in both those days and the days before. This writes off two weeks of the holidays where you can’t go away. Then staff work with the GCSE students to place them on a-level courses to start in September.
and don’t forget all the planning and marking that didn’t get done during term time.

but tut tut lazy teachers moaning about their holidays again. So sorry.

The most unreasonable OP ever! 😁

I love the holidays. They’re not long enough in my opinion. I wanted to send our child to private school for the long holidays.

@SarahJane796 I agree and I'm not a teacher. Not to mention paying extortionate prices for abroad holidays I want the option to be able to take my child out. I do anyway! There's not much chance if your the actual teacher though!

I’m a teacher and love the holidays but if I wasn’t I have no idea how I would manage childcare during holidays.
Holiday clubs are fine but what if you can’t afford them? I also worry about all of the children that don’t have nice home lives or enough food in the house. As a school we provide free breakfasts, snacks, lunches and a weekly food bag to take home for any family that needs them. There will be a lot of hungry children over summer.

I'd imagine because giving up your job to retrain and also paying for childcare (and all other outgoings!) while you're jobless and training wouldn't be possible.

Even when I was at school I felt the holidays were too long. As a child of working parents, I had to spend long periods on my own. That aside it was always hard to go back to school after so long away. Now I have had children and grandchildren my opinion has not changed. I think that it should be 3 weeks at school then one week off to recharge that way both pupils and teachers have regular breaks but also don't get out of the way of school.

The reason school holidays are so long in the UK is that the children were needed to help with the harvest back in Victorian times, or to visit their families abroad if they were at boarding school. There is no real need now, and 5 or 6 short terms with evenly spread holidays would work a lot better.

No.

I've had a 10% real terms pay cut in the last ten years, far more than the private sector has had to endure. I am not working more hours for less pay.

@Wednesdayafternoon

I don't do your job and you don't do mine. I see my son for 2 hours a night, mostly when he is absolutely shattered and is at his worst!!! Then at weekends because I'm a senior teacher i spend most of my time planning and sorting stuff out!! Whilst I think 6 weeks is a long time, I'd be ok with 4...I think your misinformed if a comment about teachers enjoying time with their kids is an annoying comment and misplaced without knowing what exactly it is that we do and why it's important to have a long break!!

I've spent the best part of my year preparing for inspection and the week they came i saw my family for the sum total of about 5 hours!!!

I can't read anymore of your bias...on what is quite clearly a thread that is designed to complain!

@Nellodee great point, plus I dont think enough is made of the fact that we don't get paid holidays!!!

I have also NOt stated that teachers are the answer or said anything offensive towards teachers. I have even emphasised with their workload which is quite the opposite.

I've said the concept is outdated and I stand by that. It's ok if you don't but I do believe this is the case.

So if you don't think teachers are the answer, then surely your question really is 'AIBU to think that there ought to be more in the way of affordable childcare available in the holidays?' I don't think many people would disagree with you on that one.

I don't think it's really about it being 'outdated'. That would assume that the point of the education system is to cater to parents' work schedules. But it isn't. There were always working parents. Children need a break over the summer, so do teachers.

How would more evenly spread holidays help? You would still need the same amount of childcare in total, it would just mean holidays were in worse weather. You will swap being able to let your kids play out for having them stuck in the house.

Massively disagree. I enjoy the break from ironing insane amounts of uniform every week ( my son uses 6 shirts and trousers every week, riddle me that one!). I need a break from the stressful mornings and getting him to school on time. My son needs a break from school as he has adhd and irlens and it can just get too much. My high school teacher partner needs the break. Before we were together I never used to understand why teachers moaned about their work load but man do teacher work a lot. They are overworked and underpaid. So many great teachers leave the profession now, can you imagine how many more would if they didn’t have this tiny perk?

@Supergirl1958 you're right you don't know my job but I work extremely hard.
I know other parents who work full time too.

If it's too taxing for you then maybe consider a career change. Teachers aren't the only people who work long hours.
Move already said I emphasise with people who work long hours, teachers or not.

I personally wouldn't chose to work a job where I get no holidays with my child, and no quality time during the week. But you are choosing to do that and that's up to you.
I've also not once said teachers should work any more hours.

If you're upset about your job then I get that, but don't direct that at me 👍🏼

Also so why if thei thread is designed to complain? Are people not allowed to do that 🤷🏼‍♀️

There's also over 300 comments on this thread, not all mine but please do feel free to move on!

Love the way you're lumping this on teachers! Actually, as a teacher, I agree that the summer holidays are too long! Teachers and kids need a break...totally but when parents don't so much as pick a pencil up over the holidays then yes they are way too long! Also before any other posters jump on, no we don't get paid for the holidays, yes we do still work during them and no we are not childcare we are education establishments!

@Supergirl1958 when I go back to work and my little girl goes to nursery, I'll see her for approximately 1 hour a night, maybe less. I get 5 weeks annual leave. It's not a race to the bottom, but you can understand why 13 weeks (or even a bit less allowing for time you might have to go into work) looks pretty appealing, even with the hours you keep during the week.

I work and know other parents who work full time and don't get X amount of weeks off and all bank holidays to spend with their kids. Likely chance if they move jobs then they wouldn't get more then 4 weeks a year off work to spend time with their children and the. Also have to work bank holidays etc!

The answer is surely to train as a teacher then!

So become a teacher then. There is a significant shortage. If it were all that then there wouldn’t be.

This is a teacher bashing thread not even trying to cloak as something else.

Should there be more support during school holidays for working parents? I don’t think you’ll find anyone who disagrees.

Someone please take a scythe to the harvest chat! It’s been 84 long years…

I think they are too long. I remember going back to school and I couldn’t even hold a pen properly!

Imagine if school summer holidays were shorter, and you wanted to book a package holiday abroad? Demand would be so concentrated that either the holiday v term-time price difference would be even greater, or else the holiday providers could not make enough money to survive.

Also, English schools have some of the shortest holidays in the world, some of the highest amounts of academic pressure (which does not translate into global league tables) whilst being home to some of the highest mental health conditions in young people, globally. I wrote a dis on it.

Wow where I am it's two months and a week...so last week of June, whole of July, whole of August and everyone goes to pick up timetable on 1.09.