To think summer hols should be 4 weeks long, then have another two weeks through the year

[Starfishswimmer]

Say for example may holiday becomes a fortnight as does the oct one

Would you find this better ?

yanbu for yes
yabu for no

I like the two week October half term and shorter summer, don't really want two weeks in May. The pressure on school holidays for the main season over four weeks would be insane in cost and availability terms.

100% agree. DH is a teacher and has that to a degree, 5 weeks summer holidays and then 2 weeks in October. I think it's way better to spread it through the year.

Depends on your job I suppose. I didn't think they were long enough. I loved the 10 weeks we had in the USA

We have this where I live (Nottinghamshire) and it's perhaps the fourth year of it being this way. We get two weeks off in October.

I quite liked it at first but this year the whole summer holiday was four weeks and two days and it seemed to go incredibly fast.

You are never the only ones on half term as different areas have their holidays at different times. It also leads to complications if you have children in different areas. My brother has a primary child at a school in Derbyshire, one at secondary in Nottinghamshire and one at sixth form in Nottingham.

I would much prefer this, 6 weeks feels like forever!

I'd like 4 weeks in summer and the other 2 weeks to magically disappear! I adore my children but juggling holidays against work every year is an absolute nightmare
But agree that 6 weeks is too long

You can't have the may holiday as a fortnight as it interferes with exams. The more you mess around with the holidays the more likely you end up in situations like @WhoopDeeedoo has outlined. YABU

Not a fan of the October half term.

Maybe the May one could be extended (summer term seems to be the longest term)

Our primary gets 2 weeks in May/June. 2nd week is great for cheaper holidays abroad but weather in UK is usually lovely then too.

I wouldn't be against longer at Christmas. They break up so late that there's hardly time to do Christmassy things with them beforehand.

This again?

no, I like the long summer holiday.

No I like the fact they get a nice long break. The weather is often rubbish in October.

An extra week at Christmas would be great, by the time they’ve broken up, had Christmas, visited family you didn’t see and had friends over for new year it’s all over!

I would like an extra week in May or October. I have stupidly booked the wrong week off in October for half term. We are up to full capacity with people on leave so I can't take that week. I'm gutted. If we had 2 weeks they'd be more scope for working parents to have time off with their children.

I love a long summer holiday with my DCs. I wish it were longer. The French get 8 weeks off for the summer and a further 8 weeks across the year. That would be the ideal.

No. If anything the summer holidays are too short.

We have 5 weeks and then a fortnight in October around here. Works OK apart from crapper weather and the fact we're really close to county borders so people have kids with really varying term dates.

A local secondary school switched to terms only starting on a Monday and ending on a Friday. Their reasoning was to cut down on absence when the term started on eg a Thursday or the term ended on a Tuesday.

They then put all the odd days together and created a 2 week break at October half term. All other holidays unchanged so still 6 weeks in the summer.

Oh yeah I didn’t really think about exams in may

Ok 5 weeks on summer and a fortnight in oct sounds better for me then

We have 1 week in April and 2 in May, it's a nightmare - the only school in the area to do so. Whatever holidays they have, I need them lined up with all other schools in the area so I can get childcare. As it stands, I have to take holiday in May to cover instead of holiday club.

My school in the US was year round so you had 45 days on then 15 days off. I think it was mainly done because they can accommodate more children as some children were in when others were off.

That's not enough time for exam boards to mark exams and share the results with universities. Fewer teachers would be willing to mark the exam papers too if their holiday was shorter.

Yabu

Would just make it worse for parents trying to take time off in the summer hols tbh. Only 4 weeks to fight over instead of 6. As it is a team of 6 people could have 1 week off each over the summer hols, with only 4 weeks that becomes less likely.

Personally I don't want an extra week in May / October when the weather is more likely to be shit.

We already have 6-7 weeks in summer and 2 weeks' holiday in October here. Not sure where the other weeks would go unless they made Christmas and Easter each 3 weeks long.