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.

Excellent response. Am with you 100%. Parents stop feeling sorry for yourselves … if you don’t teach … you don’t know. Well said madsciencecovid2020.

My choice because main stream CANNOT meet need- therefore nowhere else for them to go- except for a specialist independent private school- my child would much rather be ‘normal’ and working at the same level as his age group however this is not the case-
so no, it’s not my choice I was left with no choice. As the schools, specialists and local authority could not place him in a school other than a specialist independent private school type.

The timing of the heatwave in 2002 was as you highlight during school term time, and it remains the hottest day recorded in England. Most schools have air conditioning now, and even I have had inconstant home!

Although incredibly warm, is it actually more challenging than in the winter months when parents and children brave snow and ice to go to a cold classroom, and A&E are filled with fractures from children and parents, who will also have faced flu, colds and the winter vomiting bug?

We live in a country with a variable climate, and claiming that children shouldn’t attend school due to inclement weather would see them attend school for such a short time it would affect their education.

I'm sorry, but have to disagree. I can't begin to speak for A-level teachers, but as a primary school teacher who has many friends who are both primary school and senior school teachers, I believe there is plenty of time to prepare. I worked in the private sector previously and as a teacher I have far more time after marking, lesson plans etc than I did in the private sector where there was a lot more pressure (not true of every job obviously). I love my job and I do my absolute best for the children in my care. I genuinely believe the children, as well as the teachers would benefit more from having holiday balanced throughout the year.

Most schools have air conditioning now

Eh? No they don't.

Private schools do longer days, more homework and often Saturday mornings. Be careful what you wish for.
As fir holiday companies reducing prices as the summer holidays are longer - well that’s a very naive view, it’ll just be an extra two weeks of expensive holidays.

What percentage of schools in the UK have aircon in classrooms?

Absolutely! I would bloody love it. Less vile school runs, less chance to run into one of the really nasty teachers, less chance of bumping into a horrible PTFA mum.
Plus, more time with my children, so we can focus on their mental health and physical wellbeing.

No way I’m in Scotland my kids get 2 weeks at Xmas, 1 week in Feb, 2 weeks at Easter 6.5 weeks in summer and 2 weeks in October plus occasional/bank holidays! There’s already more than enough!!

Only some parts of the UK would likely need air con, not all of the schools. Plenty of threads discussing the weather show that many regions didn’t get particularly hot and some heat issues are from the structures themselves being built to keep heat in, not the outdoor weather.

Plus, if they’re going to be hot at school, they’re likely going to be hot at home since most homes don’t have ac either.

I think, in a way you’ve hit the nail on the head … it’s different for everyone…A level and prepping students for Oxbrigde is tough and demands a lot of time. Private sector is different to state sector which is different for primary and secondary. Everyone’s experiences are different. However .. anyone who thinks teachers have 6 clear weeks off in the summer is mistaken… certainly for all the jobs I worked in anyway.

vs UK workplaces as a whole to put into context. As no one is saying workplaces without aircon need more than 6 weeks summer holidays!

It would have been 2 months at primary so it was probably more manageable. It's the secondary schools who get 3 months , finishing end of May in ROI

My school only has air con in the computer rooms to prevent them overheating.

Completely agree with everything you have written.

My kids love school, their friends that I know love school, and I think our schools and the teachers are brilliant. It’s routine, structure, fun, learning, trying new things, challenges, socialising, sports etc and the list could go on and on. Why is it always holidays must be fun and school must be awful? Mine love both!

We were warned by Chris Whitty that Covid would have an effect for a long time on our young people and schools have been dealing with this over the last few years. I know with certain years in our schools, you could absolutely see the effects of the kids not attending pre-school (I know that from parents and teaching staff).

I always find with these discissions it’s a competition (with some!) to declare they must love their children more by wanting longer holidays. Quite the opposite is true especially now. I can imagine the majority of teachers and parents must agree that the last thing we need when we are getting back on track after Covid is more time out of school.

Batshit idea, six weeks is plenty long enough. I'd rather have shorter summer holiday and two week half terms

I disagree, none of the classrooms I have taught in have been so hot it was pointless the children being there (and no, none of them have aircon). Additionally, what you are suggesting basically teaches our children that when the weather is warm you shouldn't have to work. Doesn't seem like a very good life lesson to me.

It's not about being hot at home versus school, is it?

No one is trying to get them to learn how to solve quadratic equations at home.

That probably includes Bank Holidays.

My daughters schools have had air conditioning, one is a 1930s school where it has been retrofitted, and my other daughter attends a new build school with both air conditioning and air flow ventilation.

I think it’s far more common in schools than you would imagine, as when choosing secondary schools we visited 9 in my local area and they all had air conditioning…

I have recently installed a wall mounted air conditioning unit, after having a portable unit for a few years.

New build schools generally have climate change adaptations such as green or biosolar roof systems, strategic shading, and strategic tree planting to create a more thermal stable learning environment.

The DfE have been providing retrofit grants for several years for retrofitting of these features.

I doubt given the fragmentation of school control LPA / Academy run schools you will be able to find accurate data for this, but it seems to be a common feature, especially as schools may hire portable air conditioning units for heatwaves as a cost effective solution if they do not have permanent units.

A tiny minority of classrooms have air conditioning. The suggestion that it's increasingly common is batshit.

Less than half of teachers even say their classroom is well-ventilated.

This OP is a great one for posting ideas about increasing teachers’ pay or improving their working conditions, always with a suggestion that it’s for the good of the children. They then proceed to ignore the reasonable challenges to the (generally stupid) stated position, like the one that someone posted within the first 10 or so replies about how awful the long holidays are for social inequality.

What is interesting is how those people ignore that school holidays exist. If long holidays are a problem for social inequity then perhaps people ought to get on with solving it instead of simply worrying about what happens to those kids when schools are closed. Schools aren't ever going to be open every day 24/7 so they can't be the only solution.

Err you’re not a maths teacher are you?

Your argument is that teachers aren’t paid for all the holidays. Ie Some of the holidays = unpaid leave.

But would need more pay if holidays were reduced?

Make that make sense.

That survey is from four years ago, doesn’t include the hire of air conditioning units or the number of schools that have been retrofitted or rebuilt since then.

Also it’s not raw data, but it states that it has ‘been weighted to reflect teacher and national school demographics’

As I said in my post, you will struggle to find accurate information on this that represents current conditions in schools.

I would also add that during heatwaves the country had to keep working and that there isn’t a maximum working temperature in the workplace!

I work in a building that doesn’t have air conditioning and do a job that requires acute reasoning skills…. are you suggesting that my employer tells me to take the summer off work? I work in the public sector and can only imagine the Daily Mail outrage if public and private sector workers were given paid leave on hot days!

Our climate is changing and we will experience more extreme weather conditions in the future including hotter drier summers, and we will need to adapt our behaviour to cope!

In Europe they start school much earlier to help deal with warmer weather, so perhaps you would support school starting at 7am in the summer term to help children achieve optimal school temperatures?