Say it with me...

[TesChique]

School. Is. Not. There. To. Be. Free. Childcare.

All this talk of bringing the school summer holidays down to four weeks is boiling me as not one argument is child education centred. Instead its all focussed on making parents lives easier

It is six weeks for more complex reasons than "oh its from when we had farms and we dont have farms now lol oh also itd help me"

I mean, it is free child care though. Mandatory free childcare (unless you home school) we can’t very well take them out of school and pay for full time childcare that’s not education.

But I do agree with your point. I think the holidays are fine as they are. However, I recognise that I am in a fortunate position to be able to either pay for childcare, go on holidays and/or keep DS at home with me on the odd occasion while I WFH

School is obviously not childcare, but our society and economy demands most parents work, therefore childcare should not be a mere afterthought/postcode lottery/luxury.

We need a cohesive and holistic system that delivers both education and childcare in order to mobilise the workforce and support parents. I don’t think attempts to define one against the other help. There are obvious gaps that need filling. 7.5 weeks (which is what my dc have off in the summer) is insane. The burden of holiday care also falls heavily onto women which comes with its own consequences.

Ah I hate the idea one of the main reasons I decided to go for Independant school for sedondary was longer holidays for DD ! She will get an extra 4 weeks a year.

Children need more than 4 weeks, I'd prefer 8-10 like most other countries for my dd.

Me to 😩 school is not the answer hahaha
they spend so much time doing education as it is in my opinion they need time to be kids and freedom.

Naive because I don’t agree childcare should be an explicit goal of the education system?

All righty then. 😂

Simply taking the weeks off the already shortest holidays in Europe (together with Germany) will not help the teaching retention and recruitment crisis, nor will it be feasible from a financial point of view as the state already doesn't have the money to pay staff - it will be unable to finance 2 extra weeks.

Adding the weeks on to other holidays makes zero sense if the issue is the need to find ad hoc childcare (because that need will still remain) or holiday prices, because those will just rise, as will the weeks preceding and following them. Plus, who wants to holiday in February and October when it is damp outside, and often cold. If we're looking after our most vulnerable, that would disadvantage them even more, since they cannot just play outside, unlike a lot of summer.

The learning retention gap exists because many children spend their time glued to devices all summer long. Those who have actual experiences like holidays, exploration or socialising often come back not only refreshed but better equipped for learning. It's not just academic learning that counts, but all the other things schools cannot teach.

SEND children don't just encompass ASD children; they also cover all of those who cannot cope well with school mentally and who thrive in the summer, away from that place. Why do we advocate for one group. but not the other?

School buildings are falling apart as it is, and if you'e ever tried to learn in a classroom with building work going on next to you, you'll understand why the time for major refurb work falls into the holidays. That still needs to happen.

A PP mentioned exam marking - no one would mark those voluntarily if the time for that was even shorter.

With the amount of flexible working available now, finding the time to cover the holidays is easier now than ever before. My partner works longer hours term-time so we can spend more time together during the holidays. He does half-days where he can to add extra holiday days to his allowance. He works from home most days. This is becoming increasingly common.

Leave the six weeks well alone; they already far shorter than the time kids get away from schools elsewhere.

Yet for my child with SEN the summer holidays was time for a very welcome break from school and the 6 weeks gave home a good amount of time to have a break and recover and decompress. Children generally get more and more tired as the school year goes on. Most children need a good long break to recover and get the energy back for the next year ahead. 6 weeks also gives plenty of time for holidays. Can you imagine the issues with working parents trying to take all the time off over summer compressed into 4 weeks rather than 6, plus the cost of holidays over the summer would likely significantly increase, with more pressure on tourist areas with 50% more people trying to holiday in 4 weeks rather than spread out over 6.

I am sorry that your DC struggles with the long break but there are a million reasons why a 6 week or longer break is sensible for the majority.

I think they're are many reasons 6 weeks can be a struggle; finding childcare, kids with difficult home lives, SEN. But the two main reasons we shouldn't shorten them are 1. Teachers deserve the break, would definitely not help with morale and recruitment shortage 2. GCSE and A-level exams, 4 weeks just gets to A-level results day. So exams would need to be earlier and then how would the courses be finished? Also time for marking and then grade boundaries to be set etc. You'd need to restructure a lot to make it work. I think it would be better if more support was just put into place instead for childcare etc. School is most definitely not childcare, teaching is a career like it's not just watching the kids. Pedagogy is actual knowledge and theory and we always dumb down the capability of highly educated teachers (in both their subject and the skill of teaching) when we equate their main responsibilities as childcare. Schools shouldn't be built around parents needs, maybe there should be more flexible working, youth clubs for children which are not so expensive etc. But the main purpose of school is the education of children, there are byproduct benefits - socialisation, learning norms, pastoral support, and yes childcare but it's not the same as a babysitter.

It's such a lazy and entitled position, but so weird. Are these parents not remotely interested in their kids education? Is it just about getting them out of the house?

Yes, of course, we use school hours as some kind of childcare, no one said we should just wait doing nothing.

But if it's not compatible with "working hours"? Insist on wraparound care. What are working hours nowadays anyway? People work different hours and different days.

4 weeks is simply not enough time for the kids to switch off and have a break. 6 weeks is not even enough frankly. Why don't parents give a monkey about their own children well being is anyone's guess/

100% this

It would be so much better for everyone.

I've always loved the way we do it here in Australasia. We have four ten-week terms. Three of the terms are followed by a two-week holiday, and the last term is followed by a six-week holiday.

It means the children go back to each new term refreshed by at least a two-week break, and prices don't shoot up too badly in the holidays because there isn't as much pressure on those single half-term weeks.

It frustrates me when people bring the argument in about SEN kids. As if SEN kids are ever the priority for educational policy makers 😂 don't make me laugh.
As the parent of multiple kids with SEN the summer holidays are actually the ones that we cope with, the half terms the rest of the year when they're off for a week or two are an absolute shitting nightmare. But God bless the 6 week holidays where we can all have a break from the trauma of school runs and masking for 6 hours a day

When I was growing up summer holidays were 3.5 months in elementary and 3 months after. It was perfect as there was enough time to rest, play etc. My grandparents worked as did my (single) parent. Now my DC’s summer holiday is 10 weeks. It feels just about enough. Can’t imagine if it was only 6 weeks.

Why should the majority of children be deprived of spending time with their family. I'm sick to death of SEN as a reason for everything!!

It's definitely a UK thing, school isn't even seen to be for education no wonder everyone is getting thicker

This. More regular but shorter breaks needed. Instead of making the whole year a stressful marathon to get to the finish and then crash for 6 weeks before starting the whole cycle again

Generally what is good for SEN kids is good for ALL kids. Do your research smh

Why would going to be school more be better for kids. That makes no sense.

Disagree with this completely, many of us enjoy long breaks and having holidays, spending time with friends and family. It's a good chance to have a decent, restful and restorative break

I loathe the ‘lost learning’ argument.
As though it's only learning that matters.
How about children’s right to relax and play and have fun?
”Oh but the most impoverished children miss out the most”
So address inequality and child poverty! Don’t force the poor dabs into school for longer.
All generations up until today have managed with 6 weeks’ holiday, so I think the children of today (who arguably have less ‘switch off’ time than any previous generation thanks to the ‘joys’ of our digital world) will cope.

the amount of time a child is in school is set (say 1265 hours per year).
if the days were more evenly spread over the 52 weeks then surely the amount of time spent in the class m-f would subsequently decrease (a quick calculation comes out to just over 4.8 hours a day).
not many jobs are from 9-2, so more money spent on wrap around care.

Read that back to yourself.

Seriously.

It’s being looked at in the wrong way. Summers are not long, they are needed for children to rest and recharge. Instead we should be asking why we have a society and economy in which both parents need to work full time to make ends meet? Family life isn’t considered and we are all supposed to just accept that. In some European countries August is the holiday month when work slows down and people get to spend time with their families. Why can’t we have that here? Why can’t we survive on parttime work? We are wage slaves and that’s considered normal and now people are pushing for shorter holidays so that children can be taken care of by people who are not related to them. It’s weird. It’s odd. But the British public have been brainwashed into thinking this is progressive.

Please enlighten me. As a child I enjoyed long holidays, as do my children, nephews, neices and every other child I know. Seriously, what is wrong with you?!