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.

I don’t know how kids and teachers do it in those hot July months! I think if I lived there I’d have to keep kids off school in that weather. It’s torture.

I agree it's definitely too long. I think it should be 4 weeks and add the extra holiday elsewhere. I was reading some research yesterday which found that children lose around 40% of information learned over the 6 week holiday. Having a shorter holiday would help to alleviate this and additionally having days added to the other holidays instead, might mean they are less tired other times of the year. I wish I could remember what journal it came from and I could share a link.

I have lived in Spain and UK with school age children. I loved the Spanish long summer holidays BUT we don’t have the support or culture within the uk to make it work (unfortunately).

Holiday clubs in Spain were cheap if run by the school (you are talking a month for about 90 euros) and even the privately run sports clubs are about 25% of what they are in the UK.

Also, they don’t have any half terms or teacher training days (teachers are expected to complete these during the end of June). i actually like this approach - but they do bank holidays different so there were odd days dotted around so you never felt the terms were too long.

Unless there was a huge shift in how we see and fund childcare provision, it would never work here.

This chart is skewed because it shows only the summer holidays, not the full holidays over the year which more or less are matching across Europe. Kids in Italy don’t have half term breaks in October, February and May and many people envy the UK calendar as the kids get to the holidays exhausted. There are actually talks in the Italian government to align the current calendar to a more spread out one.

in Spain - this used to be away from cities, school starts at 7am - home for lunch and midday heat

society has grown to slow at the hottest part of the day

that won’t happen in uk yet

Oh hell no

@noblegiraffeI agree with longer holidays but what do you mean by “even Ireland”?

Yes that wasnt an amusing comment at all.

I take it that you don't have to worry about childcare and have children that are easy to care for and have plenty of options of things to do.

Im glad you get 6 weeks. My school get 4 as we moved 1 week to October to make that 2 weeks

I voted yabu but only because I'd rather summer hols be 4-5 weeks and Christmas to be 2-3 weeks. Christmas is magical whatever the weather. Could see more people, do more Christmas crafts, watch movies with blankets and hot chocolate, take your time with the tree instead of having to rush it on a Sunday alongside all the washing/cleaning general chores required over the weekend!

As an aside, it would be easier to take unpaid parental leave too.

This is only anecdotal obviously but I'm Irish and when I was little, every family had either a SAHP or the parents worked opposite shifts.

I don't know about other countries, but I can talk about Spain (12 weeks). Parents cover this because first, grandparents are much more involved there, lots of family suport in general. Second...and very important!! holiday club prices have absolutely nothing to do with prices in the UK because this is subsidised by the government. Do you know how much my friends pay there for a week's holiday club? From 35 to 50 euros! A week! (That's the daily rate here). They wouldn't be happy to have 12 weeks and pay the prices here, I can tell you. They cannot actually believe we pay as much

Thats exactly how it is in Scotland. Finish 28th June till 17th August .

Because you could make the argument (and people have) that in the other European countries it is simply too hot to go to school in the summer and that's why they have the longer holidays. Ireland shows that longer summer holidays aren't just a feature of hotter countries.

It also shuts down any suggestion that kids with longer summer holidays are all suffering from lack of holidays elsewhere. Irish children still get two weeks at Easter and Christmas, and October and Feb half terms. They don't get the May half term but they don't need it because it's practically the summer holidays by then.

Does anyone know how much annual leave people get in other countries? How do the Irish cover it, for example?

Holiday clubs that are cheap & gp help

We also get a long weekend in May and in June, for bank holidays. This year we had Friday, Monday and Tuesday off for both. Summer holidays started on the 24th of June too. It’s great. Secondary school finishes a month earlier.

The only people who think this is a good idea are people who work in schools.

My DC is an adult now, but she attended a creche before and after school. During the summer she attended on a full-time basis (same with all the other kids). Except for the two weeks we were on our own holidays. We had to pay extra over the summer period for full-time care. The creche didn't charge for the two weeks when we took our holidays.

Sure but a lot of people here ‘need’ to go abroad and sit in the sun. We don’t need to do this. Guaranteed weather.

Not every holiday is cultural. Some people go to sit on a beach (where I’m from you can do this a half hour away) and sit by a pool (one in my parents backyard). Etc

And we also don’t need to go away to enjoy winter - skiing, tobogganing, skating etc. All on our doorstep.

This. I feel that wanting longer holidays is a middle class first world problem. Teacher retention is also about money not a tweet idea of “let’s give them more holidays”… how on earth would you cram the already pressed time re:national curriculum into 2 fewer weeks a year as a GCSE or A level teacher. What a stupid, ridiculous, thoughtless idea. Kids tired? Good … send them to bed early with food inside them! In case you’re wondering … I’m not in favour🙄

Absolutely not. 6 weeks is plenty. If anything make it a week shorted and split it between Christmas and Easter or have it added to the October half term. In eyfs and ks1 the autumn term is so long and a slightly longer break would help concentration.

The UK is not Spain, the nature of our climate means the weather is changeable and moderate through the year, we don't have 30+C for weeks at a time like southern European countries do. I've just come back from Northumberland where it was 17C with eight hours of continuous rain, that is the reality of the UK's summers. As an aside I don't want UK society to slow down even more, people fanny about far too much as it is (like taking an hour to get food after ordering the other day, for example).

Couldn't agree more noblegiraffe. Sorry to all those on their way to the SW but the weather predictably changes when the schools break up and for the last fewbyears, autumn has begun in mid August. Why not break up in mid June after the exams for eight weeks?

Obviously, any extension would rely on good holiday provision of the type available in other countries. Activities to enrich the lives of children and give them the opportunity to grow outside the ever growing restrictions of school. There seems to be money available for other things eg. road schemes but not for making the lives of children better. I guess it depends where your priorities lie.

In the US we don’t generally get as much annual leave (although I have had more in every job I’ve had than I ever had in the UK) but because summer holidays are longer, infrastructure is way more developed so there are loads of day camps and overnight camps for kids. It’s not hard to find care for DC. Uni students often nanny for summers and it’s worth their while because it’s a 3 month job not just 6 weeks. Everyone I know worked full time over the summer over the age of 16 so it’s not hard for camps to staff with uni students.

I am also feeling very sad for the poster who said their kids get bored after 3 weeks! 1. It’s good for kids to get bored and 2. How can your kids not entertain themselves in the summer?!!