Summer holidays - outdated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 🤷🏼‍♀️

I’d prefer 4 weeks and add an extra week into half term

i need to work to run my house and feed my kids….a 6 week run is not practical IMO, it’s far too much pressure for working parents who are barely making ends meets

Just to say ... we break up next Thursday for a month - back on the 1st September - please don't say teacher won't give up 3.5 months of holidays as that is not what we all get!

We have some of the shortest Summer holidays in the developed world.

You are fixing the wrong side of the equation here. There is a long conversation going o. Okay COVID about work/life balance. Will our children be happier if they are in school for the convenience of longer working hours for parents.

Or would we all be better off with more flexible working and family time? It’s the unrealistic work end that needs to change. Because just extending term time is going to end up with lots more stressed out and emotionally exhausted kids.

I actually think we need a longer Summer and shorter Christmas and Easter breaks.

It doesn't matter what teachers think (or heads actually). We don't decide the school funding and there is no way the government would put it up the 15% or so required to go to a model where schools had 4 or 5 weeks' holiday instead of 13. They would still need complete closures as obviously teachers can't just "book leave" and the buildings would fall to bits if not maintained.

What schools could do is band together to provide holiday clubs and the government could do a lot more to support local authorities.

I have never understood why childcare for work purposes isn't fully tax deductible. Sexism?

Our DC's school provides holiday club 8-5 every school holiday, including for four weeks of the eight week summer holiday, from age 2,5 up. But it's private so wants to keep parents happy, plus I assume pays decently, as they don't have problems staffing it.

Try living in Ireland where the secondary schools finish at the end of May until the last few days of August and primary schools finish mid June until the end of August.. give me the uk holidays anytime although I don't think the kids here would agree!

But that is a government policy on tax, energy bills, fuel duty, minimum wage that shouldn’t be taken out on your kids.

Kids in private school get extremely long holidays and get experience the joys of that.

It would be deeply unfair to deny that to children who aren’t as wealthy. The government need to do more to help working families- including childcare support.

At my place of work I’m in a team of 10. No more than 2 allowed off at once. It’s bloody summer, school holidays are horrific. Maybe more flexibility from employers would help. Or affordable alternatives. I don’t know what the solution is without deprioritising child free people, it’s a battle though

I don't think those are free,so parents would still be moaning about the holidays being too long.

English school holidays are some of the shortest around! I'm not sure what childcare options there are in other countries. In the US there are the summer camps which are a great idea but many parents probably wouldnt be able to pay for them here.

The problem comes form a government who were all privately educated and had lovely summers in their second home.

They could open their facilities in the holidays/ weekends and provide enrichment activities and there are many teachers and support staff who would work them if they were paid 🤷‍♀️

In some countries summer holidays are from 15th of June to 15th of September. Now that is long.

In Australia we have 6 weeks (8 if you're DC goes to private school). Dec-Jan.

It's traditionally designed around avoiding school at the hottest part of the year (although Feb can actually be worse).

I find kids need the break. But, increasing numbers of kids finish Friday & are at vacation care Monday (often run out of the school) for the entire time, except for a short Xmas break.

My oldest has ASD, youngest just 6. Neither would cope with this arrangement & we've no family who can help. So I can't return to work as there's no WFH jobs in my town & DH's job is inflexible. The system just doesn't work for two working parent families.

I think there would be some sense in adjusting the holidays - 4 weeks in the summer, add a week on in October and another somewhere else.

However, the shorter the school holidays, the greater the price differential between termtime holidays and ones in the school holiday. Be careful what you wish for! Even if you keep the same total amount of holiday, I expect most people would expect to be able to go away during the main summer holiday. It's not just prices, either - in some companies, time off during the school holidays is rationed, and that might become even trickier.

The six week holiday does make it easier for trips to see family in places like Australia, too.

From the pure childcare side of things, it would be good to see better provision of affordable summer holiday schemes. It needn't be the school itself which provides them, but perhaps they should have to make part of their premises available.

Maybe we should start looking at this differently...

Why don't employers off us enough annual leave to be able to look after our children during school holidays?

Work life balalnce has got out of hand... especially when its our children who start taking the burden of our working day.

A four day working week as standard can't come fast enough.

And before anyone tips me as a lazy skiver... I worked in sane hours theoughout my 20s... I just think we've lost sight of what is important in life.

It could be worse, I'm in the US and we are off for 10 weeks over the Summer. That is far too long to be off.

Agree, if my child's school done this it would be a life saver, my child wont go to another school during the holidays as she doesn't know anyone, throughout my childhood my primary school offered a summer play scheme, it was fantastic and allowed my parents to go to work.

It’s hard because I’d love to give my kids my full attention over summer. It seems like a lot of posters here that a “pro” long summers are focusing on all the quality time they have….if you can take the summer off or are a SAHP that’s brilliant. But for me, my kids are ferried around countless places over summer, trying to make friends in multiple new settings with kids they’ll never see again, places they don’t reeeally wanna be

How do you make provisions for that without penalising or disadvantaging child free people? I’d take a pay cut to be off for a portion of the holidays, don’t know what else to do

And why should they?

They work evenings and weekends and the summer break is in recompense for all the 70 hour weeks they work during term.

(Not a teacher myself but people take the mick about how much they expect other people- in this case teachers- to look after their own child. As if making arrangements for their child over the holiday, or god forbid taking some annual leave to spend with the child themselves, is beneath them).

Such a crappy attitude.

If the holidays are shortened so they are in line with other sectors then the amount of hours we require teachers to work should also be similar. Many teachers report working 50+ hours a week depending on role, experience and the individual school requirements, whereas the average hours for a full time contract is 37.5. The only way to achieve this is for the DfE to consult with schools over workload and make meaningful changes. I doubt this will ever happen.

Ooh no I was a child in the 1960/70s and in those days we got eight weeks holiday in the summer, with shorter half terms.
It was fab!
I can remember days roaming around the countryside with my friends and it always seemed sunny. We didn’t get taken anywhere by parents just played out. I was nut brown by the end of the holiday as no sun cream, did it exist in those days?
Glorious times indeed.

I would move to something like two weeks off every 6 weeks all year round. As a parent and former teacher that would work quite nicely.

I'd quit teaching if I didn't have the summer. I like spending time with my kids when the weather is decent and it gives a really good mental break from the job.

I see the arguments re working parents, if the demand was there, playschemes and holiday clubs would run. Many can't afford to operate profitably. Perhaps push for government subsidies for holiday childcare?

That's poor

Do you get holiday somewhere else instead

This.
OP, you have it the wrong way round. You are entitled to 190 days free education. It's not childcare.
But any excuse to have a go at teachers.

Sorry, completely disagree. Summer holidays were precious and valuable to our family.
we only know one teacher but she really, really needs that recharge, too.

Are the school days longer in Ireland?I'm very intrigued by this, our kids do 9-3.