Can School Extend Easter?

[EasterEvenLonger]

My kid’s school had published Easter holidays as:
Mon 7 April - Tuesday 22nd April

They have written today to extend it to:
Friday 4 April - Thursday 24 April
An additional 3 working/school days

I can’t list all the reasons this is a fucking nightmare for me. Can they just announce this without any consultation and just 3 weeks notice? They haven’t taken any subsequent days off to compensate. It’s an additional 3 days.

YABU - of course they can
YANBU - no they shouldn’t be able to do this

My (adult EA run evening language course) tutor doesn't object because Easter is very late this year. Most of the holiday falls before Easter weekend. Our course will restart as soon as Easter is finished.

And?

So it's ok that these kids are behind the rest of all the classes in the rest of the UK who haven't had their education disrupted....

Schools have circa 12 weeks holiday....why can't they do the work then? Because you know - the school is empty during holiday time.

Also plenty of schools would have a portacabin classroom set up in the same set of circumstances.

But, oh that's right, teachers don't want to give up their leave to have to go in (probably because they wouldn't have childcare) so better that the kids just miss school instead....it's only a few days it won't hurt. Let's disrupt all the parents and their work but also heaven forbid a parent take a few extra days for a holiday 🙄 or a child misses a few days because their poorly.

It's a hypocritical argument born from a nanny state of: do as I say, not as I do.

And if you fall for it, more fool you.

They don't care about the education. They recognise that a few days of missed school is no big deal (because it isn't)- except of course when it doesn't suit them and/or they can profit from it - then - missing school is a huge deal.

Freak weather, a burst pipe, no running water, pandemics etc etc are all events beyond anyone's control, it's rotten luck. 'Planned engineering work' is not the same.

If parents can't take their child out of school for 3 days for a one off holiday because 'education so important' then schools should equally not be allowed to cancel school for 3 days due to refurbishment. Period.

@Mumrun25 Nobody needs to take their child out of school for a holiday. If everyone starts again at the same time when the school re-opens nobody is behind. If you take your child out then they will be behind. I can only assume that you have no idea of the pressures that schools are under, they can't do right for doing wrong. You are completely wrong that they don't care. In my opinion, anyone going on about the "nanny state" has no clue about the dedication that schools and teachers put in. Try to get your opinions from somewhere other than the Daily Mail.

Your argument only stands if the school follows their own rules and no disruption to education occurs during school time.

No one needs to do planned refurbishment during school time.

The kids will be 3 days behind other children in the same year group at another school, no? 3 days of education - how do they cover that missed work? Skip through it? Go at lightening pace? Just miss it altogether?

It's either important or it isn't.

Nobody needs to plan refurbishment during term time?! You sound like you have never had so much as a new kitchen!

Do people think schools are some sort of alternate universe where building works always run on schedule and problems never occur?

The school I work in had work start on the first day of the 6 weeks holiday. It was due to take 4 weeks maximum but problems along the way meant it was just over 6 weeks. Staff then had to make the school safe for children to be able to return. Perhaps some of the experts here can explain how that can be done without the children unfortunately having to miss the first few days of term?

I presume if your children were in school you wouldn't pay for childcare during that time, no?
We all know school isn't a childcare provider like private nursery, holiday clubs, childminders, nanny, but while children are in school parents can work. Most parents arrange their annual leave for the time children are not in school. Unexpected school closures can throw this out.
Unless you are dim I think you know this.

The interesting thing about the ‘schools are not childcare’ argument is that legally, this is not the case.

Think about it - if you (general you, I’m sure nobody on this thread would ever do this) leave your 5 year old at home on her own all day while you work, you can be charged with child neglect / cruelty.

It is a defence to the charge to demonstrate you arranged appropriate adult care for that child and yes, dropping the child off at school counts as ‘arranging appropriate childcare’.

So schools aren’t childcare except when the law says they are.

And again for the people who haven't read the OP properly and @Sirzy

This is planned building work. This is not an emergency. This is not 'work was due to finish but ooopsie'. This is we're going to do work when school should be running.

So by your measure - would it be ok for a parent to book in building work during term time if that meant that a family had to leave the house and relocate to say a Grandparent who lived say 200 miles away and thus a child couldn't attend school for 3 days. I don't know imagine it was asbestos removal or something - not urgent, but needed, but was something you planned in. If I booked that in with a school - would it be authorised?

Or would a school say absolutely not - 'education so important' this is not a genuine need, you should organise it during the holidays, you'll have to stump the cost for a local hotel or figure out another work around? So, in that case, why can't this school get a portacabin classroom and not put out circa 30 sets of parents and their work?

Again - it shouldn't be one rule for them, another for everyone else and stuff all the parents who are now scrambling for childcare or else facing consequences with their work.

Have any of you ever worked? because if you had you'd understand the dilemma this parent faces. And the school gets to do whatever they want with zero consequences. Yet everyone else - fined and sometimes worse.

It is not OK and the OP has every right to be furious.

In my school, even after a planned closure, with LA permissions, the carpet fitters were still laying carpets at 21.00, the day before we re-opened. We had to work so late to set up classrooms for the next day.

Absolute nightmare.

Think, of house renovations and a house move, times it by a 1000 ( and as some want on here, add in 100’s of under 11’s) ….

Exactly but some people don’t like to realise that the truth is even schools are at risk of these things. It’s a nightmare for everyone involved.

I have said it before though - I am sure many adults don’t develop past the childhood idea that school staff live in the cupboards of the school!

Some of the attitudes on here are wild. Like schools just have money for removal firms and portacabins, like teachers can just do (even more) additional work during school holidays and that not impact on their performance in the classroom, or even that schools choose when building work happens and finishes. Utterly disconnected from reality.

And that schools are making money from fining parents for term time holidays!

I don't think you understand what a portakabin is. It's not a tent that can be knocked up in a few hours. It's a temporary classroom, which needs to be plumbed in to a water supply (because drinking and using the toilet are generally seen as essential things). It takes more than 3 days to get a portakabin ready to go. It's also majorly expensive. And they wouldn't need one classroom; they'd need enough for every child in the school.

A portakabin is a solution when a school is out of action for months, not 3 days.

it is constant stupidity like this that is infuriating.

Isn’t it just. The number of parents who seem to think that firstly, schools are acting alone when deciding about attendance- nothing to do with the Education Act, apparently? And that schools are constantly thinking of ways to inconvenience parents - like it’s a sport. You must have tremendous levels of paranoia to think that instead of it being an exceptional circumstance which couldn’t be avoided, the school has purposely decided to close for 3 days, just for funsies.

Schools don't issue fines. The LA does. Schools get no money out of it.

I think that’s the point @SwingTheMonkey is making.

Oh right.... sorry @SwingTheMonkey 🙂

Do you seriously think that every school works at the same pace? Of course they won't be 3 days behind or miss out on core work/topics. They will prioritise the core and drop extras, so times tables rather than Roman houses.

So do the work over the summer holidays?

You can put me down - say I'm a daily mail reader, devoid of reality etc etc. I don't care. I'm like a dog with a bone with this one.

It's not right. I had a friend who was denied the request for her 2 children to attend their Auntie's wedding on a Friday with 6mths notice. But here you are with a school 'booking in' building work that are going to have an entire classroom off for 3 extra days.

It's not an emergency. It's not a - beyond our control situation. It's not builders ran over. It is booked in and planned and the LA have approved it.

And it smacks of 'one rule for us, another for you' - education only matters when we say so and to hell with everyone else.

🤦🏻‍♀️

The school don’t ’book it in’. They are told, by the LEA, when work will be done. The school have little to no say.

In the same way, schools don’t have the authority to authorise term time absences unless they are fall under one of the exceptional circumstances specifically identified by the government. Going to your aunties wedding, unfortunately, isn’t one of those circumstances, however far in advance you ask. The LEA issue the fines, not the school.

You really ought to do more research on this because you’re making yourself look silly.

It's not right. I had a friend who was denied the request for her 2 children to attend their Auntie's wedding on a Friday with 6mths notice. But here you are with a school 'booking in' building work that are going to have an entire classroom off for 3 extra days.

Neither of which are down to the school. The building work will be out of their control as will the ability to authorise time off for a wedding.

Blame the previous government for scrapping things like the 'Building schools for the future' plans so that load so buildings are now falling down and blame the them for giving schools attendance targets that Ofsted judge them on and forcing them refuse any requests for term-time leave.

Schools have circa 12 weeks holiday....why can't they do the work then? Because you know - the school is empty during holiday time.

Because building work happens when the contractors are available. And every school in the country would want them at the same time. Not to mention that some building works (most?) take longer than the one, two, or six weeks available at any one holiday.
Where it can be arranged in holidays, it is. Because it's what everyone in the system would prefer. But it's just not doable in many cases.

It's not because teachers don't want to go in, FFS. It's nothing to do with teachers. We have no say at all and it's ridiculous to think that we're have @Mumrun25

So many messages. Wish I had time to reply but I'm walking into work right now.

People who have to use personal insults to get their point across dont hold any merit to me.

And @howshouldibehave fair point re/government.