Summer holidays - outdated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 🤷🏼‍♀️

Mate, you're not listening so I'm going to stop engaging.

I think it's naive to think teachers have such an easy time of it. I helped at a primary school on a voluntary basis and they work long days, far longer than when their pupils attend and over the weekends too. They also work during holiday periods. They manage classes of 30, with different abilities and needs. Some children also have complex behaviour issues that they're expected to control, at times without help. (Budget constraints) Teachers often run after school clubs, unpaid. One teacher told me that in the USA and other countries he worked, teachers are appeciated and thanked for their work while in the UK parents are more likely to complain. From my experience, those more likely to complain have problems managing their own children let alone a class of 30!

But who has said teachers have an easy time?!

@afuckinggoat were not mates so yeah just stop thank you!

Abused and neglected children need properly funded intervention services that work for them, and with less plain focus on keeping families together at all costs.

My parents were abusive and neglectful. One of my lovely, lovely school teachers rigged a raffle so I won a hamper of non-perishable food and snacks when I was 6. She helped my brother hide the stuff for me from our father. It was wonderful of her.
however, what we really needed was social services to listen to them, and us, and not put a zillion “plans” in place with my father that failed repeatedly.
It took my grandparents basically taking us and daring my parents to go to the police to get us out.

Children do not need more school. They need proper services and help.

Because full time teachers have a choice between dental appointments in school holidays or not seeing a dentist at all? No school will give teaching staff time off for routine dental treatment!

Although actually my dentist works some Saturdays as does the physio I sometimes see, and my hairdresser. They both have 2 x DC under 5, so they work when their husbands are available to do childcare and have 3-5 weekdays with their DC each week. I personally think it would be better if subsidised good quality childcare was available, but that's what they do.

Regarding the SAHMs of the past, even in the 70s when I was primary school age, there was a much lower expectation of supervision. My DSis and I would spend half the day in a wood, a stream or messing about with other neighbourhood children.

Like it or not, this isn't acceptable nowadays outside some exceptional communities (I do have one friend in rural Scotland whose DC still spend holidays that way).

I don't feel the current 6 weeks holidays suits my lifestyle and I don't think it suits the lifestyle of most people I know.

The point of the education system is not to facilitate your lifestyle. It's to educate your child. Do you have any evidence that a 6 week summer holiday is detrimental to children's education (given that most countries have longer ones, including countries whose children do better in their system than ours do)?

You keep not answering that question.

For the PP who said about teachers wouldn't be happy having their 3.5 months holiday eroded...

School staff need to spend time with their own families, as they can't just take random days off here and there like anyone else (teachers/TA's/librarians can't anyway). And how much work gets done in those 'holidays'. Plenty. 3.5 months is nowhere near accurate with all the work done outside of school hours/term times.

We get 2 months 😁 it seems like a long time at the start of July, but it flies, and I'm a working parent. But I do like the more relaxed routine and nearly morning banshee acts from me required to get everyone out the door, in uniform, lunch packed and spellings, reading and homework all done.
Hard to believe we're already nearly half way through it.

It doesn't suit your lifestyle? Seriously?

Because full time teachers have a choice between dental appointments in school holidays or not seeing a dentist at all? No school will give teaching staff time off for routine dental treatment

😅 if I go to routine appointments I have to make the time up or if its a longer treatment, I'll have to book 1/2 day holiday. Nothing is for free!
Our Dentist is open until 6pm same as our Dr surgery! Even a teacher can say I'll have to be out by 5:00 for an appointment.

@Fairislefandango like I've said multiple times now, I am not saying the school needs to stay open longer. I'm saying I do not know the answer. Whether there needs to be more varied or accessible play schemes or whether the holiday ratio needs altering I don't no.
And I have answered that question. I've already stated that as a child I started to feel anxious around week 4.
I've also already stated that my son struggles out of routine and I'm concerned her will struggle to readjust.
I've also stated that I know children with SEN struggle with the long break (I know this as I am related to someone who works on a SEN care home and my best friend has SEN twins).
I also don't like the idea of my son being passed around from childcare to play schemes when everyone on this thread is telling me the point of the holidays is for him to chill and relax. How is that relaxing?
So from my experience I don't think 6 weeks are beneficial. I've explains this more then enough times over the course of this thread.

Now can you tell me why exactly 6 weeks is be official? Why is 6 weeks more benifical then 4? More benifical for the teachers or the kids?
Think I know the answer to this given the tone of the teachers responses on here!

@ldontWanna it's absolutely fine for someone to say that they find the summer holidays due to the circumstances/lifestyle.
I didn't chose to be a single parent with no finical support from an abusive ex husband.
I've said many of times I'm fortunate as I do have childcare. But if I didn't I would be very worried.

I think a month that would be fine, and then add the spare 2 weeks on to other holidays. DS will be in a right pickle by the end of 6 weeks.

I’m a teacher and I hate them. How do they manage in Ireland where the holidays are way longer? I would do 4 weeks and then a week longer in October.

Children need the break from school as much as the staff that work in them. School isn't a form of childcare unless of course there is a summer school activity being run during holiday times.
Also, during the holidays a lot of essential maintenance takes place as well as deep cleaning which isn't possible or safe to do when the school is full.
However if childcare is an issue, school term time only jobs are ideal for working parents. If teaching isn't your thing, schools are often seeking teaching assistants and cover supervisors.

"More benifical for the teachers or the kids?
Think I know the answer to this given the tone of the teachers responses on here!"

So what are you implying? That teachers decide on the six week holiday and that this is to benefit them and them only? And to hell with your child or any other?

This is a teacher bashing thread at its finest and you know it - you aren't even pretending it's not any more!

Teachers. Don't. Make. The. Rules.

@Wednesdayafternoon

So many things happen in school during the summer holiday; deep cleaning, painting, general maintenance etc. Teachers have to rip down all the old displays and do new ones, create new resources and clear cupboards. Every pupil needs new peg labels, tray labels, a full set of workbooks. You need seating plans, planning folders and policy folders. You need long and medium term planning for the next term.

All of this takes a lot of time and effort, so teachers usually spend at least two weeks of the holiday working.

The ideal solution to issues with childcare during the holidays is to adapt our entire working culture to be more flexible. It's so typical to moan about people who seemingly have it better than us, when we should be trying to make things better for everyone and demand more from employers. Everyone should have more annual leave, opportunities to wfh, or work flexibly.

I'm a teacher, and the only way DH and I can make school pick ups and drip offs work is to enrol our dc into a private school that has fantastic wraparound care.

It’s always odd how teachers are attacked by so many people on threads like this. Teachers don’t get a say in how the school year is run or the length of the school day.

The holidays are lovely and long (although shorter in this country than many others) so maybe more people should become teachers and they could benefit from them too?

You may not have exhausted all possibilities of summer schemes. Not all are advertised as well as the sports camps the kids come home with leaflets about as they’re often organised by the local authority sports and leisure services. In my town there’s nothing much more than sport but in the neighbouring town there is a musical theatre camp being run by Stagecoach. It’s just one week, some of the franchises might run 2 weeks. They also run it from 8:30-4pm which is slightly better than 9-3 for the working parents. But the working parents can often take the off hours with their jobs.

Since I went back to work after having the kids I do find the 6 weeks very long and challenging balancing work/family time. I remind myself that in a lot of countries their school summer holidays are for 12 weeks! 😳
Times have certainly changed though and I think it’s harder keeping kids entertained. I thought about this the other day being a child in the 90s and how action packed our summers were. My mum was a single parent on a low income yet we seemed to always be busy. Obviously no internet/phones then (!) so spent a lot of time outside and with neighbours’ kids, but also there were always holiday clubs going on - I recall going to them at the local village hall and at the school etc; several days for each club and they barely cost anything. I feel like a lot of the time my kids are cooped up in the house as it costs so much money to even step foot outside your house these days with rising costs inc fuel 😞

Out of curiosity, if you had access to affordable, varied childcare that suited your child's needs/interests would you still want shorter summer holidays?

how do you explain that the schools which seem to have the best educational outcomes and happiest children (e.g. in Scandinavia) have longer holidays?

I would be interested in OP's view on this too.

My school finished a week and a half ago. So far I've spent at least 6 hours every day working apart from the weekend. We don't get time to do curriculum planning during term time (we are frantic just trying to keep up!). So holidays aren't simply 'holidays'. I intend to be working all through my 2 months 'off' in the hope that I will have to do less in the evenings and weekends. I've made a plan for each week and am already behind... I have SO much to do!

Can you imagine if the summer holidays went? It's the one thing keeping many teachers in the profession. We are in a retention and recruitment crisis already. Parents keep moaning about low quality teaching, or that their child has a history teacher teaching them maths etc... yep - it's awful, but getting rid of the few perks of teaching will definitely make this worse!