To think 4 weeks summer is ok

[comeonlabour]

So as the title suggests, if the plans do go ahead to make summer hols 4 weeks I for one am not against it. I always think 6 weeks is way too long so 4 is more manageable

Also we will have longer half terms of 2 weeks in some cases instead of 1 so all good

Anyone else feel the same/agree with me

The teacher bashing has started I see...

If it's so easy being a teacher with all the holidays then why don't you retrain @beverlytun ?

Well yes. Because schools are closed in the summer and we're only contracted to be in the building for 195 days.

I love what we do here in Australia and New Zealand. Four terms of ten weeks each. No half term holidays, but we have a two week break at the end of each term and a six week break at the end of the fourth term.

You're right. I wouldn't work 60 hours a week for the money I get and the level of stress if I didn't get the holidays.

(Disclaimer- other professions have high levels of stress and long hours. I speak specifically about my experience)

I would be ok with 4 weeks provided October and May half term were two weeks.

what I would really like is ‘standard’ term so that terms are equal length. My kids (and me!) get so tired during the 8 week terms and then occasionally you only have 4 week terms!

I work in a preschool that is term time only. If they used the weeks to break up the half terms that are 7 or 8 weeks long then I wouldn’t mind so much.

You do realise that this would shoot the costs of summer breaks and flights up even further - as the whole country would all be aiming for 4 weeks rather than 6 weeks.....oh....apart from school staff....(who due to the need to work results days/beginning/end of holidays to set up for the new year.)..who would only be able to go on holiday 1st-14th August.

I've retired now so this is not an active issue for me, but that 6 weeks is not holiday for teachers. Clearing and perhaps changing classrooms, moving books to childrens next class, planning and prepping teaching materials for next year, if there's new matter to learn before teaching it, locking away the IT equipment, distributing it before term starts, installing new apps. Preparing the classroom before September. At least a week at the end of July, if not more, followed by a period of recovery before there's the energy pour les vacances. Then at least a week at the end.
I'm sorry it's hard for parents, but we are working.
I went to a private school at primary age, so longer holidays. Mum taught, and we lived by the sea ao we had beach days, but a lot of the time I amused myself. Of course, Mum was off as well. And there was less of the above then.

I think that probably depends on the school. I’m a teacher and certainly don’t spend a week at the end and a week at the beginning doing all of that stuf! At most I spend a day at the start of the holidays clearing up/ closing down and a day at the end prepping but often that’s not necessary as we will have INSET days both ends of the summer holidays where a lot of that stuff can either be done by me or delegated to my TAs. If my school was so inefficient at planning end of year/ start of year prep that it needed to take 2 full weeks I would look at moving schools to be honest!

Are you primary or secondary? Can you not imagine any scenario where teaching/admin/support/SLT may need to be in school....like A level results? GSCE results? Sixth Form intake (so not able to confirm admissions until GSCE results day)?

I teach primary in a special school. Yes, of course I can imagine those scenarios but those aren’t the examples the previous poster mentioned. S/he said cleaning, prepping, moving classrooms, locking away equipment etc and made out that all teachers have stuff like this to do which takes 2 weeks. I’m well aware that those teaching A-levels/ GCSEs might be needed around results times but this isn’t what the pp was referring to at all! A great proportion of teachers do not deal with A-levels/ GCSEs etc and I don’t think being in for 2+ weeks of the summer holidays is typical for most teachers, certainly not any of my teacher friends who work in various types of schools.

I’d also expect a lot of the admin team who deal with these things aren’t employed term time only (certainly in my school some of our admin staff work are employed for 52 weeks as is the head and several members of SLT) and that teachers may have an additional TLR if expected to do a lot of overtime in the holidays. I wouldn’t expect most teachers to be giving up 2+ weeks of their holiday freely.

It isn't great for those that have family abroad. Dh and I work around each other so we don't need childcare and I (for the moment at least) enjoy the holidays with my kids. When we did need childcare we sucked it up and had to use annual leave and holiday clubs. Idon't want them having more time off at Christmas where the weather is miserable. In my last job ,(healthcare) I wasn't allowed any annual leave in the lead up to christmas which was one of the busier times of the year. Not everyone can go away at that time of year and I can totally see more kids being glued to devices if that were the case. In the summer you can at least chuck them in the garden (if you have one) or spend a good amount of time at the park or doing free activities. We are in Scotland and the weather is usually crappy in October and February.

I would definitely support moving a week to the Christmas period. The winter term is long and it would be nice to have schools finish a week earlier.

So are most teachers in teaching, because of the time they can spend not teaching?

Finishing a week earlier sounds great but what do they do in this extra week?

There are very few holiday clubs / activities that run over the Christmas holidays. Parents / carers are already stretched as it's an expensive time of year, so even if they can find childcare they might not be able to afford it. The weather is cold and often wet so children are less likely to play outside, and most indoor entertainment is expensive or usually on a screen.

@ChangingPhoto

Aren't most people working so they can earn money to live and then enjoy their time out of work?

I happen to really enjoy teaching most of the time but I barely see my children during term time. Without the holidays I would choose something more family friendly.

@Whinge at least in the week before Christmas there's usually Christmas activities on - the complaints from a lot of people about Christmas just gone was many schools didn't finish until 22/23 December so people couldn't do "Christmas stuff".
2 weeks in October is just daft. The weather is usually rubbish and not much happening.

I think it’s just Wales

Are you in Wales?

@EasternStandard I should imagine having a 2 week half term in October will be even more grim in Wales (sorry Wales but your weather isn't great 😂)

Well, we not allowed to use INSET days for that sort of thing. To our displeasure, as it ate into "our" time. And usually not for anything useful. Brain gym, for example. We had year meetings after school each week to plan lessone - three form entry junior school, and we split the input after discussion. We also originated our own material as a group. There were a lot of changes, so it wasn't a case of putting up last year's display again. And we shifted from having games days at the end of summer, so the children played board games while the teachers dismantled the room around them. It al had to be work.
Within the school week there was no time alloted outside the class, only at the end of my time there we had a half day each week for planning, prepping and assessment, but not to work together. So some of the bracketed time at the end of the holidays was for group planning. TAs did some things like labelling books.

Aren’t most people working so that they can enjoy the time they’re not at work? Most people are not in work as a hobby, they’re there so that they have the money to live a good life outside of work in the time they don’t have to be at work. Most people would not want to give up any of their annual leave to work more, regardless of what their job is or how much annual leave they had to begin with, as most people enjoy the time they get off work more than the actual working day. I love my job as a teacher, but I wouldn’t do it for free and I largely enjoy the days I spend with friends/ family when I don’t have to work more than a working day.

Well I prefer seeing my own children rather than other people's children, yes.