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?

Sounds like a terrible idea. I'm not in England, we get 9 weeks here which is too long, the DC get bored and too much out of routine. I think 6 weeks is perfect.

I don't think they will extend May as this would clash with external exams. I would love a longer May half term but can't see it happening.

I would have hated shorter summer holidays. As a working mum in a predominantly female work place I was lucky if I could get 1 week off during this time .30 plus staff competing when only 4 max could be off . It became a joke in my immediate family "oh she's off now the schools are back" but it wasn't funny it was ruddy hard and that was with a really supportive hands on dh .

Some interesting thoughts here:-

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/why-shortening-the-school-summer-holidays-wont-work/

I agree with the who wants 2 weeks off in winter sentiment. If this comes in it’s one of many reasons why I’m glad my kids are coming to the end of school - max 2 years left

I don’t think many people would willingly swap a week in the summer off for a week in February, when the rest of the country’s schools were also going to be off. It’s a bonus if it’s just your school off, and you can benefit from cheaper holidays/quieter days off.

This would just be an extra week where everyone else is also off, so everywhere is rammed but the weather is terrible, you’ve got to pay to heat the house and find things to do with the kids that are inside.

If you’re working and can’t get the time off (because everyone else in the office also needs that week off) then there will no childcare schemes!

Additionally, with February and October it would almost inevitably be the same two weeks everywhere as well. At the moment, not all schools are off at precisely the same time. As an example, some schools were off last week and some the week before. I know this staggering can cause issues for people with kids in different LAs, but it does at least mean places are slightly less rammed. But if the standard model was a February half term, pretty much everywhere would've been off from w/c 12th Feb and gone back yesterday.

We didn't have anything like it when I was at school either. I think it's because there haven't really been any trips and they are trying to do 'fun' stuff on site for lower income familes to be more inclusive.

I think if they try to bring anything like this in-it will open the floodgates for more and more school staff to leave. There’s already a massive recruitment and retention crisis in teaching, this would make it much worse.

I find it pretty annoying actually where once the kids have reached a momentum then it's a break. We've just come out of feb half term and now in under 4 weeks, they have the Easter break and then again the May half term. I would rather have it added to the summer holidays like a big chunk. I like the private schools holiday calendar more but without the silly Oct and feb half term and just get May half term and then early July you get a long 8/9 week long summer holidays. BTW this isn't adding more weeks, more like distributing the current half terms to be added to the summer holidays to make it longer.

Again, l worked in a school that had 2 week Whit and 5 weeks summer.

The exams just carried on. Schools use invigilators. You don’t need staff members apart from them or exam offices. Usually a member of staff appears to make sure there’s no problem with the papers. But they just take them in an empty school. Which is better because it’s quiet. It’s not an issue having a 2 week Whit in secondary schools.

I’ve worked in places that did an activity week for KS3 in the last week of summer term - it did the inclusivity thing (options each day of trips and on site activities, some free, some with a little cost) and increased attendance in the last week. Doing it in May is seriously weird.

Not an issue until you try to get someone to apply t9 be exam sec - almost impossible to get anyone to do it now. Your school may not have had an issue but many will. You would need several staff members on site because of potential behaviour issues too. And the SEN/ALN staff to administer exams with concessions. It would be lots of staff - when are they going to make up the week of holiday they’ve just lost?

Wasn't there a school invigilator shortage last year too? I'm sure I read about it.

Yup-an ongoing issue. Ultimate AQA advice was to train up existing school staff if you can’t find enough people willing to come in and do it.

https://www.aqa.org.uk/exams-administration/exams-administration-updates/guidance-on-recruiting-invigilators

Again, l worked in a school that had 2 week Whit and 5 weeks summer.

How long ago was this @ArseInTheCoOpWindow?
There just aren't enough staff now, and there is a shortage of invigilators.

There are more young people than ever who need extra time or other considerations, which means that even more staff are required.

I thik you are looking at this through rose tinted spectacles.

Well yeah. except it was about 5 years ago. There was no shortage of invigilators then. And even if there were, staff were never used to invigilate. Also more empty rooms means it’s easier to accommodate those who need single rooms etc

Terrible idea. Our kids already get shorter holidays than many other countries. Personally, I think summer should be longer, not shorter. They should be off in July, when the nights are longer. Then people might not feel the need to go abroad on holiday so much in term time. 4 weeks is not enough Time to say go to a wedding, go on holiday and visit relatives. It’s easier, and cheaper to entertain kids in summer, when it’s likely to be nicer weather and you can go out for walks and picnics. Children might go back in terms of school development after the 6 weeks, but then make more progress because they have the cognitive ability. Make it 4 weeks and they might not get out of cognitive overload state and will make far less progress. I strongly hope this never happens. We cant get teachers for our kids as it is. They will all be home, Learning virtually very soon

A local primary school to us which is a free school have been doing this since they opened. It causes issues though when siblings then go onto secondary which follows the same holiday pattern as the rest of the country. I am a teacher and saw a job advertised there recently but quickly put it out of my mind due to the holidays being different from my kids. I’d rather leave teaching to be honest and take holiday when I want to now my kids are a bit older and can fend for themselves now and again.

I suspect the price of winter sun holidays would boom if people had an extra week at February to play with. Possibly the same with October as both are miserable weeks off in the UK!! lol.

For heavens sake!!! The "summer holidays" are only so expensive - because the majority of people are forced to take their annual holiday in those 6 weeks. And they generally only travel to Europe, reliant on summer weather. You can actually go south of the equator or hotter climates for hot weather year-round. Been to Borneo, Florida. Carribbean and india at Easter (so cheap). Got married in Kenya, January, 20 years ago, (cheap). Do UK camping staycations UK in the summer (cheap). What will happen is that people will explore more and the overall cost of "The Six Weeks" for families will become cheaper. But inevitably, all those people whose kids have grown up and can make use of the cheap off-season are going to get peed off because the cost of their holidays is going to increase. The holiday market won't lose overall annual income - they'll just target the market differently.

There was no shortage of invigilators then. And even if there were, staff were never used to invigilate.

Well, schools are now forced to use existing staff.

I’d love it if they did.

my DH works shifts and my work is a zero hour contract. My work are pretty good so come the summer holidays I only work DHs days off which gives me about half the pay I normally get.

We have to save through the year to pay for summer so we can use our annual leave for actual holidays (but if I have any left I book them off during the six weeks to help)

Shortening the summer holidays seems to come up every year (certainly for at least the last ten years). Some schools already have four weeks in summer then add the other two weeks on elsewhere (SIL has two weeks in October and 3 at Christmas). Who knows if it will actually ever be in place across the country

Whoever suggested 49 x 4 day weeks - Good luck getting staff to work 10 weeks more a year.

I don't think it's a good idea, purely because it would be guaranteed to rain for those 4 weeks and sunshine before and after schools break up. Probably.