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?

Ha ha-why am I not surprised!

What’s the attendance situation like in Scotland-are there fines for term-time holidays?

@JustMarriedBecca
sorry but you are wrong to think that after oct half term there isn’t much done ,our kids work up to the last few days of term and start the first day back

For all those saying two weeks in May won’t work due to exams, the Welsh government consultation suggested the week taken from the summer WOULD be replaced with an extra week in May, there was no mention of February being extended.

No. Parents are supposed to ask for permission, but many don't.

Once had a case of a kid who missed an SQA exam because of a family holiday to Turkey. On exam day, his pals told us he was away on holiday.

Depute phoned the house. No answer. Phoned emergency contact, a grandparent who got stroppy and claimed that the depute had given permission for the kid to go on holiday.

Turned out that the kid had just told the mum that the depute had given the okay...

Had another one where the parent demanded that we changed the day of the exam. When we explained that we couldn't, they took the kid away anyway.

No no no... I am not a teacher and my kids are grown and I have worked full time since eldest was 6 months old .. so truly have no skin in this game. BUT there is something completely magical about the end of the year and a long long holiday from school . If I were a kid or a parent I would HATE it. Despite the childcare hassles.

Are you in Sweden?

Yes. Finland, right?

I don’t know how exams work in Wales. The Nuffield foundation research that’s been done into this in England is proposing the extra weeks are in October and February.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2024/feb/26/school-summer-holidays-half-term-england-calendar-nuffield-foundation-report

The consultation seems to have looked at several models looking at different options

@Redlocks30 if you read that document those photos you have attached show examples suggested by learners. There was a government survey and there were different options, if my memory serves me correctly it was something like this:
Option 1 - an extra week in October with a 5 week summer holiday
Option 2 - an extra week in October and an extra week in May with a 4 week summer
Option 3 - this was the part where the two week Easter break would be a fixed two weeks regardless of when the Easter weekend falls.
Option 4 - no changes

I feel like there may have been a fifth option as well, but like I say this is from memory. Maybe someone else will be along who can recall it better than I can. I just know that in Wales an extra week in Feb wasn’t suggested.

Let's just be clear that the educational argument here is nonsense. The difference between learning lost in a 4 week vs a 6 week holiday will be minimal, and having more 2 week breaks ober the year will mean more learning loss to catch up on over the course of the year.

The proposal would lead to a longer summer term, when pupils are already flagging after a year's worth of work, and the warmer weather doesn't help!

The cost impact for parents paying for holiday schemes will at best just move costs to other points in the year, and at worst drive the cost up because indoor childcare is more expensive and it is more cost effective to run a scheme for a 6 week block than it is to run several 2 week blocks.

The price of summer holidays will increase significantly due to higher demand over a shorter period, which will disproportionately affect people on lower incomes who want to get away. It will also mean children end up spending less time outside overall.

The reality is that this change will have no meaningful impact on pupils' education, but what it does do is distract from the real issues:

• A chronically underfunded education system
• Chronic underfunding for pupils with SEND
• The impact of government cuts on holiday schemes and respite support for families of pupils with SEND
• A high stakes education system (that is stuck in the past) that has had a disastrous effect on pupils' and teachers' mental health

The Tories should hang their heads in shame over this, and people should not get distracted by tinkering with the school holidays. Write to your MP about the real changes that need to be made to the education system and vote the Tories out in the general election.

Fair enough-it’s clearly different to the recent English research.

I can’t see many people in England voting to lose a sunny week in favour of a cold wet February week, to be honest, so hopefully nothing will come of it.

Yeah. We don't have such good summer childcare options, in the cities there's free supervised playgrounds but in the small towns and villages we have nothing.

Supervised playgrounds?

You do however have one of the most beautiful countries on earth.

They're playgrounds run by childcare workers, children can go there for free and play and have a free lunch. Basically low key childcare.

I was a teacher for 20 years. I'd support this - the summer slide is a real thing for young children especially and I'd have welcomed more of a break in spring. I can see how spreading the childcare bill would work for many, too.

In Australia we have 5 weeks and 4 days for the summer holidays and three two-week breaks throughout the year and it works well, you can really unwind on a two-week break.
BUT
There are only external exams at 18 so all exams marked and results back to schools before the summer holidays start.
It's not a problem if people take term-time holidays, though the vast majority don't.
AND
There's still been a national increase in absence from school after COVID, though I don't have comparative stats to hand.

So on the face of it, the proposed changes to the school year in the UK won't have an impact on attendance.

I’m a teacher in Wales. I’ve been teaching in secondary school for 21 years.

I feel that it’s now time to leave the profession.

Messing with the holidays is the final straw for me.
I can’t afford to lose GCSE teaching time in the autumn . It’s going to make my job harder.

This is not going to improve attendance. It’ll do the opposite, as four weeks off will not give families enough time together, as many will struggle to get the same weeks off.

I’ve always worked in deprived schools, yet my GCSE pass rate is about 80% A*-C and my A level pass rate 100%. I work phenomenally hard. I am quickly falling out of love with the profession though.

Hmm, I suspect it would, if there are only 4 weeks off in the summer and working parents are just unable to get the week/fortnight off work that they want (due to too many others in the office/ward/shop wanting the same time off) they will be pushed into taking them in term time. There will be a swathe of people with vested interests in the exam result weeks (staff and families) so could only do 2/4 of those weeks anyway, which would limit them even more. If mum can only get week 1 of 4 off from her work and dad can only get week 2 of 4, to get a holiday together with the kids, they will be forced to go in term time.

The holiday prices in those 4 weeks would probably also get inflated, making it more cost effective for people to just pay the fines.

I don’t think many people will be desperate to go away in a wet February as an alternative.

I used to work in a school that had a 2 week Whistun and 5 week summer.

Exams weren’t a problem. They just went ahead with invigilators.

So, year 11s and year 13s just went into school for exams while the rest of the pupils were on holiday?

With no teachers there? What about the Head/SLT?

It would worry me that some schools (particularly some unscrupulous MATs!) would put pressure on teachers to run exam revision sessions throughout an extra week at May half term! There’s no chance of losing a week of your holiday in the summer on this.

Interesting, I’d never heard of this. Still pretty good compared to many other countries.

Many schools in my area no longer have study leave: they do compulsory in-school personal revision and targeted sessions - so I can't see how this would work for teaching staff in my locality.

As a teacher and a parent, I would hate this.