To think this will do nothing to help absence rates

[Imonthebloodyphone]

So a report published today says that school summer holidays in England should be cut to four weeks. (I know Wales has been consulting on this for a while but don't know if anything has been decided)

The report recommends longer half-term breaks in the autumn and spring terms in a proposed overhaul of the academic calendar. Article here:
www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/26/school-summer-holidays-half-term-england-calendar-nuffield-foundation-report

AIBU to think this is only going to exacerbate school absence? Because what struggling families really need is even more pressure on the already expensive 6 week summer holiday period when they can take their kids away!

Who on earth wants extra weeks in November and February, especially families who can't afford to go abroad. The last two weeks have been so bloody wet and miserable here in the UK; I can't imagine if a February holiday was my best hope of a break.

i do think that the autumn term is long and could do with a longer holiday, but February, really?

Our schools are doing enrichment weeks again in May and no teaching so I can't see why that can't be a week off.

Who’s having 7 weeks? It’s 6 or 5.5 and one of the shortest in the world.
How many times does it have to be pointed out that May is a no-go for alteration because of exams?

Another week added to the May half term joint with June I would be ok with it but don't stick a week in Oct and Feb when the weather is crap.

We had the year before last. State school, 3 tier system.

They already have a week of non teaching here ( in addition to half term) so it wouldn't affect exams at all.

Who’s ‘our’?
Enrichment weeks are often used to cover statutory non-exam work like Health, sex education, drug education, RE etc etc.
Exam groups will not be doing this as they’ll be doing timetabled national external exams. Which is why it can’t be a holiday.

My kids schools obviously.

No nothing like that. There's a couple of days of felt making and a bake off.. Easily swapped to a week off

By ‘who’s’, I meant where - what kind of school in which area of the country?
I think it’s unlikely that is all that’s happening. Apart from anything else, that’s not a week.
Plus, like I said, it can’t be a holiday because external exams happen in those weeks. Those students doing external exams will be doing external exams, not enrichment of any sort.
Edit: you said ‘our schools’. It’s vanishingly unlikely that more than one school would be doing some felting and a bake off at all, never mind in the same week…

I've already said. State schools, 3 tier system and I'm in the north east.

I haven't mentioned a particular week...I simply said May. You are being silly to suggest its unlikely that its happening because its been booked in for months and they've done it for years now. Year 11 and 13 might not (not our years) but the other years are.

I don't understand why you find it hard to comprehend schools in the same academy trust have booked the same things?.

It would be easily done and not affect any exams.

@Willyoujustbequiet

Are your children in secondary school? An exam year?

I can’t even imagine this waste of time you’ve described being held in May at my school.

@Willyoujustbequiet

Sorry cross posted. I see this is a secondary. Wow.

One is middle school and one is high school.

No not exams years.

Ah. Maybe it doesn’t include exam years then. In my school years 10-13 would be engaged in exam classes, revision sessions and after school support lessons and not much else. Perhaps not all of year 10, but a lot of them who are entered for Maths, science and English.

Enrichment weeks usually happen while Y11 and Y13 are doing exams so you couldnt just close the school.

I don't think they do enrichment in 11 and 13 because as you say there are extra classes etc..

But they definitely do it years 5 -10 and also 12.

There has been very few school trips ( none at all for my eldest in many years) so that may have something to do with it.

Perhaps worth highlighting

• the report by the Nuffield Foundation has not actually been published yet, and,
• The Nuffield Foundation is independent and not part of the Tory party; dept of Education or the Government in general

it will be interesting to see the detail and evidence for their conclusions once the report is fully available.

The last few October half terms we've had nothing but rain. I would hate it, so would my kids. If the issue is indeed kids falling behind over the summer, then offer educational / beneficial holiday clubs instead of leaving parents and kids to their own devices for 6 weeks. I'm glad both my children will be in private secondary school by the time this nonsense plan gets put into practice.

I'm not sure ours match up with exam weeks tbh for the other years but they don't have to close the whole school to give certain years time off....they manage it the other way round for study leave afterall.

If this ever goes ahead I'm sure they'll add the extra week in May instead of enrichment.

they don't have to close the whole school to give certain years time off....

When would the staff get time off if the school is not closed?

While I agree the summer slide is overstated (and generally easily fixed with a bit of review at the beginning of the school year) my daughter did one summer, forget how to write the letter G. Understandable if she was a small child but she was 11!! That was the first summer I didn't do 'summer school' (just me doing a bit of work with her for a bit each day) with her and it clearly showed

I taught secondary for 25 years. Never had enrichment weeks or feltmaking.

Every day ‘counts’ so no wasting it on fun stuff.

Years ago we had a cross curricular day. This was eventually dropped because the practical departments were fed up of organising all the stuff like ‘feltmaking’

The Nuffield Foundation is independent and not part of the Tory party; dept of Education or the Government in general

Thats interesting-I had assumed that it was a Conservative-funded piece of work. Hopefully it will come to nothing.

Whilst I agree that the Autumn term is too long, taking a week (or two) off the summer holiday, will probably mean making it longer! I wouldn’t mind the second week at October, if it was found to have proven benefits-but not just change for the sake of change. I like having holiday when the weather is good-not when it’s wet and cold.

I wouldn’t mind the second week at October, if it was found to have proven benefits-but not just change for the sake of change.

I don't know if there are any proven benefits, but we've had this in place for some years now and while it's nice to break up the long Autumn term it's a bit of pain.

Holiday's are still expensive as lots of schools now break up for 2 weeks in October, and the holiday companies price accordingly.

However our biggest problem locally, is holiday childcare / clubs. Lots of parents / carers find it difficult to get childcare for the 2 weeks, as many of the clubs who run in the summer don't run in the October break. Some of this is due to lack of venues and the weather, but others can't run as they can't find staff who want to work for a random 2 weeks in October.

I completely agree. The people posting saying it’s a good idea having an extra week at x half term is great because their school does it currently and they get a cheap break away aren’t thinking it through. If school holidays are reformed nationally and everyone gets the same extra weeks at February and October half term-the prices will just rocket everywhere-there will be no ‘cheap’ getaways. Prices will also become higher in August and much more competitive. It’ll just be more time spent in overcrowded soft play places whilst it tips it down outside!

Trying to find childcare at an extra week in February and October (as you have found) will be a nightmare. My university DC have worked as part of childcare schemes in the summer, but just wouldn’t be around to do this in Feb/October.

Yes, this is the worry. Obviously there are issues in the childcare sector and with availability of care generally, but those are likely to be worsened if holidays become more spread out. The shorter a seasonal temp job is, the less likely it's worth anyone's while bothering.

The shorter a seasonal temp job is, the less likely it's worth anyone's while bothering.

This would certainly be the case with my DC. They worked for the 6 week in a childcare scheme. If it was just 4 weeks, I think they’d have done something else which lasted for longer. They were off from the middle of June to the middle of September, so would have been far better for them to get something for the whole summer.

Who is going to be available for a wet week or two in February?!