Move school terms to allow spring/autumn holidays?

[MrsRobinsonsHandprints]

Sky news have just had a report about the fires in Greece where two commentators, who were in the travel industry, argued that British school holidays need to be changed/broken up so that people could holiday in the spring and autumn when the climate was more temperate, and that travel in the summer months should be scaled back. They touched on the fact that school summer holidays were set due to farming and that Greece needed tourism.

Interested on your thoughts on this exact issue, changing holiday dates.

Whilst there are no thread police this is a forum to talk about ideas/flights of fancy. Yes we all know that some people think holidays are the devil, that think berating people is the answer to climate change, but actually talking about other things is also OK, so please froth elsewhere.

Private schools have longer because we finish at 4.30 every day . Effectively an extra days worth of lessons each week. I think it works well and allows extra sports, more drama and music and art lessons .lt's not like they are doing maths all day. Plus they get a full hour for lunch allowing for socialising, clubs and a decent meal. This all allows for longer holidays.

The reasons to restructure a school year should be driven by the needs of the education system, not childcare requirements, weather preferences or economic arguments about holiday prices.

Wales are thinking about changing the school holidays..

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/wales-move-forward-proposal-end-27313678

I live in Scotland, and our school holidays were changed last year to have a week taken off the summer and an extra week added in October - so now a fortnight in October. I hate it - the weather's not good enough to do all the things we enjoy, and DH can't take leave then so we're stuck in the UK. The longer summer also had a better selection of children's activities and was just so much better! Now I have to waste annual leave for gloomy October with its shorter days and colder weather.

This year GCSEs ran right up to May half term and began again straight after. How does that work!

I work term time only and would welcome a shorter summer holiday and a couple of extra weeks tagged on elsewhere. For primary education this could definitely happen. 6 weeks is a long time for young children and they do actually regress by the time they go back.

Wondering the same!

European schools finish in June and go back in august (ish).

Makes sense.

I'd be all for adopting a more European approach to school holidays and school hours generally.

I definitely favour turning the half term breaks into more like two weeks each and reducing the summer break a bit.

Also significantly more availability of holiday clubs and schemes for children to explore and develop sports or independence/ life skills with this actually being something required by LA to have available (and Obviously funds to so that), pricing reasonable.with similar accessibility to fsm

Can you imagine the price of a UK holiday in a 4 week summer break? Not everyone can afford to go abroad a longer October holiday would be hell in the UK.

As a working parent of a DC with SEN I'd prefer shorter summer holidays as it's impossible to get childcare and a longer break means harder to settle back in school.

I like the current system except I would actually shorten summer to 5 weeks. 2 weeks for Christmas and Easter is plenty as is the week half-terms. Two weeks off in October makes little sense when they’ve just finished the first term of a new school year.

Scotland:

We already get 2 weeks at Easter and 2 weeks in October which allow us to to this.

Plus our earlier summer break (from end June) means we get a couple of weeks slightly cooler (and cheaper).

You do realise that not everyone wants a Mediterranean holiday every year? Some of us like to holiday in the uk for many reasons, and if the 6 weeks of summer became only 4 weeks the already ridiculous prices for the nicest places would be driven up even further by an even more unbalanced demand vs supply. Meanwhile I would not particularly appreciate an extra week each in October and February which are difficult enough to fill due to unreliable weather.

We already have the two weeks in October. I’d prefer it in May when weather easier to entertain the children cheaper/for free.

We have three weeks this Christmas and it is impossible to find childcare then. Not all parents have family support.

Selfishly, I would love it if we had 2 weeks off in the summer and 6 weeks off in December and January! I bloody hate getting the kids up on those cold pitch dark mornings!

I think there is something to be said for the magic of 6 weeks of no school, no routine, time with parents, playing out and getting into scrapes.

That does assume a certain level of either neglect or privilege though.

I agree! And I'm a teacher! For years now the best of our UK summer is in June, so 3 or 4 weeks off then! July is always a washout so school then! Perhaps a week or two in August.

Autumn and spring on the Med are a hit and miss. Reason why people visit these countries in the summer is because of the guaranteed warm sunny weather that’s suitable for a beach holiday. Visiting in Autumn and Spring is fine as long as you are not expecting to go swimming. The sea will be warm in Autumn but weather might be ify. However the sea will be cold in Spring while weather can be ify too. Oh they don’t heat their pools either.

The thing is, would the change to term times be made compulsory for all schools? Private schools probably won’t adopt the new terms (in particular boarding schools - they have a really long summer break and many children go back to their home countries). Grammar schools (and other state schools with a relatively affluent intake) may also choose to stick with the old terms if their teachers like the long summer.

The risk is that a long summer break becomes something that only “posh” children get to have. Children of different backgrounds will mix even less than they do now - because the holidays won’t match.

My ideal would be a shorter Christmas holiday to allow more time off in summer when (at least theoretically) the weather is better. I don't like the time between Christmas and new year at all, it's just really depressing, dark early and lots of things are closed. Extra time in the summer would make annual leave pressure a bit less for parents too as there'd be more time to choose from. We have some of the shortest summer holidays going compared to other countries.

This thread has occurred every July on MN every year since I joined. Some people want more holiday at February and Easter so they can go skiing, some want more time at Christmas so they can go off and visit family, some want less time in the summer because they don’t want to pay for the childcare. There is no one solution to everyone’s wants.

I don’t think the holidays will change because there is no agreed consensus for an alternative. We also already have one of the shortest summer holidays in the world-I don’t think it will be made any shorter.

"European schools"? Which country?

What on earth is a "more European approach" - the 13-week break in Italy, the 9-week break in France, the 6-week break in Denmark?

Work in a private school and you'll get something very similar to that. I get approximately:

2 weeks in October
3 weeks at Christmas
1 week in February
2.5-3 weeks at Easter
1 week in May
8 weeks in Summer

Senior schools get even more - 9 week summers.

In return we work 1-3 hours longer per day than state schools, Saturday mornings (not universal to all independents but common) and loads of evening events/duties but I would say it's worth it for knowing you're never more than 6 weeks away from a decent break.

I think State schools should do what Nottinghamshire (I think) does - 5 week summer and a 2 week October half term. The October break, regardless of weather, is my favourite because it's such a long term. It feels like a perfect break in terms of length and timing - whereas an 8 week summer is totally uneccessary!

I'm in Scotland. We have 6 weeks in summer (we break off around 1st July). We also have two weeks in April, two weeks in October and two weeks at Christmas. I feel it's perfect.

I’d take 5 weeks in the summer for a 2 week October half term. I’d rather have 2 weeks at Whitsun, but that wouldn’t work well with public exams.

The comments about a private/public schools having longer holidays because they have long days is interesting. I know several friends with children at independent schools and their school day is no different to my DC-they start at 8.30 and finish at 3.30.