Summer holidays should be longer

[noblegiraffe]

Our kids have the shortest summer holidays in Europe, Italy have 13 weeks, even Ireland has 9.

They're under pressure so much at school they need more time to just be kids. Classrooms are so hot in the last few weeks of term that it's impossible to learn effectively anyway.

I think we should add at least an extra two weeks to the summer holidays, so break up near the start of July. This would bring us more into line with private schools too.

And with longer holidays it might help recruit and retain teachers, and reduce competition for summer annual leave slots for working parents. It could even reduce the cost of holidays as 'peak season' would be longer.

No it wouldn't as teachers & other education staff don't get paid for holidays

@noblegiraffe we have some great Gaelic football camps

So for example three weeks and it is 10 pound per day per child

I have to also pay for extra child care as I am working all summer
Off for a week in sept

I can't believe the summer holidays in England and wales are so short
Way too short I think

Yes attends Saturday mornings also
Our local state finishes at 2.30pm

@waterrat totally agree - there will be children who spend most of the holidays stuck indoors on screens, not frolicking around outside, unfortunately.

How can it be on me ?! I actually work from home and my kids are older so it wouldn’t be a big deal really personally , but I can at least see that this would be the stark choice many families would be faced with and what we don’t need as a country is more people in need of help from the state because decisions have been made that make it even harder for working parents. I’ve always worked full time since my babies were born but it was not easy, at all, when they were smaller ( and I was in the office 5 days pre covid) it shouldn’t have to be so hard to invest in your future and have a career.

Yes to longer holidays

As long as there are camps for kids to go to

And none of this flimsy 9-2pm shit - proper day camps like in the States and Canada

I agree with the suggestion someone made about 4 day school/work weeks instead

There don't have to be government funded. Our village has a variety of options free or low cost through a combination of village fundraising, getting grants, volunteers giving up time.
If I help for 2 days my children get a whole weeks plsyscheme for free. A drama related playscheme my oldest auditioned for and got a free week, a local church run free playscheme for my youngest, and older children 12+ can volunteer with this and get to do lots of fun activities for free plus goes towards things like DoE. We share childcare with neighbours/friends - I have their for a day whilst they work and vice versa.

There are HAF funded playschemes for those on low incomes. There are lots of options which are free or inexpensive, but it takes being proactive, doing research and planning ahead.

Saying all that, I wouldn't want to have to figure it out for more than 7 weeks!

Never going to happen unless parents annual leave is increased also

For 6th form that makes a lot of sense, at 17/18 children are getting ready to start work. And having 5th day allows for part time jobs, study etc.
But I think primary age may struggle to focus until 5pm, especially under 7's

So apart from Sweden and Finland, all countries were in will be very hot in the summer months.

Two weeks October and I think there's a day off in November IIRC. Two weeks off at Christmas too.

@Bushmillsbabe that sounds amazing but let's be honest that is a postcode lottery. Many areas have nothing like that. and plenty of people are not able to volunteer for two days a week. It doesn't just take organisation it takes luck/ what's available locally (and I'm speaking as someone who does volunteer with children so I'm aware of the benefits it can bring to do that - I do it to help my own child as you do with yours - but that isn't a replacement for proper long term services for children) .

I actually really dislike the way HAF is run as well - it's very piecemeal -ie. random depending on who runs what each holiday lots of children can't just 'jump' into any old childcare - sadly for me as a working parent my 11 year old has never been able to do that due to her autism.

My duaghters two best friends quality for HAF and she doesn't - how sad that they can't all try some projects together.

It's run very un inclusively - ie./ this is a 'haf' project - so kids go tot it because its free not because they actually want to or their friends are going.

One exception to this is the amazing provision of adventure playgrounds - which exist in some cities and I k now that they are run with Haf woven through the provision ie. ALL children are welcome - and the HAF money ensures ALL Children that attend can be looked after and fed. This is far more inclusive - children don't feel like they are getting special. ';poor child' provision.

It really isn't true that with a bit of organising all parents could cover the whole summer.

Not the teachers, miss Murphy, the kids.😁
Am aware that teachers work even when kids are not present!

The thing is, the kids who really really need that extra support over the holidays don't usually have parents who care to organise it for them.

It's a stupid idea. How will single parents possibly cover the cost of childcare? It would be dire for children living in poverty etc.

Support staff don’t get paid for all the holidays so get 6 weeks of pay deducted. If you added 2 more weeks to the summer they would get 8 weeks pay deducted. It would not be worth working in a school.

It’s an interesting thread - usually threads in the summer holidays say that they should be shorter.

Someone upthread said that ideally there wouldn’t be any half terms so the summer holidays could be longer. The problem is that many schools don’t want the children in for more than six weeks at a time.

It’s possible that if schools genuinely got to pick their holidays (subject to having a certain number of weeks - 13? - a year), the schools with a more affluent intake may choose a long summer holiday while those whose intake is poorer may choose to have more, shorter, holidays throughout the year. The problem with this (apart from cases where siblings are at different schools) is that the long summer holidays become a bit of a status symbol.

Someone else upthread said that parents at private schools don’t face consequences for taking them out of school - not true! They don’t get fined but they still have to share their attendance figures with the local authority. Taking children out of school is disruptive for the class.

Maybe do some more fun things with them if you’re bored. Enjoy them while they are young. I’ll never understand why parents want less time with their children. We all had 6 weeks off when we were children, why take that away from your own children?

Maybe not serious, but certainly very rude, even if it was in jest.

Jeepers teachers get long enough as it is.

Didn't you consider that before having children?
There are always parents who say there's too much holiday, what about work? But the holidays have been the same for years and you still make the choice to have children so you can't really complain about school holidays.

I was born and raised in Italy. We only had about 3 weeks off during the year, and then a 3 months+ off for summer. The last day of school was usually around May 31st, and we’d go back between September 15th and 20th. This hasn't changed and it due to the extreme heat. It can reach up to 50 degrees making it nearly impossible to stay in school. My parents didn’t struggle with childcare because my mam was a housewife, but nowadays many working parents do struggle. Most rely on grandparents or summer clubs, as childminders don’t exist there. Personally, I think 6 weeks of summer holidays is more than enough!

Teachers aren't paid for the school holidays, bar 5 weeks. They are paid pro rata. Tbh, teachers would leave in droves if the holidays were shorter, so that's a non starter.

You do know that most parents only get 2 weeks leave in the summer.