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 understand your point.
It's just nice to have a break from the academic once in a while but I know you have too much curriculum to cram in 😕

That's what the holidays are for!!

I don't agree. They have 190 days with experts. Our job is to increase their expertise.
The "fun".... that's for their parents to deal with.

Yes but my idea was based on the concept of having a longer summer holiday (your suggestion 😂) so the half-term breaks wouldn't exist.
But this would give children a "brain break" during the school term.
I know it will never happen.

7×2 = 14
14 x 25 = 350
9-8=1
Take the 1 away from the 350

😁😁😁 what did I win????

Half term breaks would still exist, see Ireland for details!

7×2 = 14
14 x 25 = 350
9-8=1
Take the 1 away from the 350

😁😁😁 what did I win????

Well done! Would you prefer a maoam, a sticker or a house point?

I agree and disagree! Yes as a parent school holidays are traumatic from getting the time off work/childcare/expensive clubs/keeping them entertained/days out etc BUT i do think 6 weeks is good and needed gor the children. However having 25 days holiday in your job to cover around 64 days of school holiday over the entire school year is insane.

my kids have always gone to s mixture of holiday clubs @£20 a day (830am-330pm heres the thing, i work 9-5? How does that work, it doesn’t), my annual leave, grandparents in their 70s helping out.

i do think a floating week during the school year for families to go abroad on a more affordable holiday would work.

i do think that affordable holiday clubs 8am to 6pm should be available. Keeps minds occupied whilst being less informal than the school day

idk i just think that also the whole set up is one where they are expecting one parent doesnt work and the 845am-315pm school day is acceptable. Its out dated now with majority of parent working 9-5 plus commuting time

plus whilst im on a rant, they need more SEN schools and alternative provision units for those who are unable to attend mainstream schools. Its ridiculous in 2025 that they often punish and exclude adhd and autistic children as they are unable to accommodate them in their settings therefore the child is missing out on years of education in some cases/stain on parents inable to work etc

rant over!

I'd like a sticker please 😁

Yes but the over stuffed English curriculum is causing massive anxiety issues for those taking GCSEs and reading for pleasure levels are down for teenagers.
Not your fault. You teach what you've got to teach.
I have HUGE respect for teachers ♥️

Here you go!

@noblegiraffe sorry I missed your countdown question....lost my phone signal for a bit so didn't see it.

Thank you, Miss 😀

Now you’re just being deliberately obtuse.

Of course children need a break from constant schooling. Of course it needs to be taken into account when assessing the length of those breaks that some children will really struggle in low income families.

The correct striking of the balance is 6 weeks.

6 weeks is a long time! Really don’t know why you would want more (except of course that you’re a teacher and want to work less!)

I love the idea that '6 weeks is a reasonable amount of time for vulnerable children to be left with their unsuitable families but 8 weeks is just too much'

Like, is that assertion backed up by any evidence? How do all the other countries with the longer holidays manage? Do Irish children just need a longer break than English children?

Or does it just happen that '6 weeks is the reasonable balance' because that's what we currently have and have always had?

From an Irish perspective (9 weeks summer holidays in primary school and 13 weeks in secondary), I think that because the primary school day is a bit shorter and most schools don’t offer wraparound care, there’s less of a reliance on schools for childcare in a general sense. Families with two working parents need to have non-school-related childcare set up, whether that be with grandparents, a childminder or a crèche, and those arrangements often just continue through the summer.

As a parent - and having been a child here - I love our long summer holidays. But I do accept there are real dangers for kids who may be at risk of neglect.

It's obviously a problem in Italy, where the childbirth rate has declined drastically.

"We get monthly cheques but we need practical support, too, like free summer camps for the children," she says, pointing to the three-month school holiday from June that can be a nightmare for parents who work.

"The government wants a bigger population but at the same time, they're not helping," Eleanora says.

"How can we have more babies in this situation?"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c5y76483200o

But there are real dangers for kids at risk of neglect in term time too. Because even when they're in school and we're flagging it with other services, no one intervenes until there is a crisis.

The February half term came from private schools for skiing holidays. In Scandinavian it is actually called sports week and most people go skiing.

I grew up in Spain and absolutely loved the break from June to September. I like that my daughter gets to experience that too. A true break from school. She is off from 20 June to 7 September.

It’s not that 6 weeks is a reasonable time for children to be left with their unsuitable families, but it’s impossible to have school all year just to protect those children. It’s also unreasonable not to allow other children breaks because some others are vulnerable.

The trick is to have empathy with those vulnerable children and try to keep their time away from school minimal and also have empathy with students and teachers who need a well deserved break.

When you balance those things, 6 weeks seems fair to me - not because I think vulnerable children are fine for 6 weeks but not 7 and not because I think children aren’t deserving of holidays not because 6 weeks is what it is (when I was a child I had 9 weeks summer holiday so it isn’t even the norm for me) but because the decision makers have to do their best with all the factors given appropriate weight to come to compromise.

You clearly place your own desire to have two months off your job (no other equally high pressured jobs get anything like that!) over empathising with the fact that longer breaks are detrimental to some children.

Why is 6 weeks striking the right balance? What do you base that on? Are other countries not striking the right balance then?

We call it the ski holiday in Finland, because that's what people do during it. So much so, that they have to stagger it over 3 weeks so more people get a chance to visit the ski resorts (not us though, my poor kids are stuck with cross country skiing at home )

Everything is country specific though. You can understand when the temperatures regularly hit high 30’s/40’s through a very long hot Summer, that it would be difficult to open the school. Its currently 21 degrees in our Southern town in the UK and its peak Summer. It would be totally pointless closing the school for that long, 70 million people going on a ‘go slow’ for 2 months for perfectly normal temperatures. I completely understand why they do it in other countries though.