Why can't they change the school term?

[onedayinthefuture]

No one is willing to make a case for a pretty obvious solution. Schools close, bring down infections significantly and get the vaccinations ramped up. The winter was always going to be bad, keep the schools closed throughout January and February. That's 7 weeks that then needs to be made up later in the year. There are MORE than enough weeks in the spring and summer to do this. Cancel exams, the current cohort have had too much disruption this year and last but ensure a fair and proper accountability for exam grades awarded by teachers / exam boards.

I work in a school and don't want to lose my summer holidays but surely this makes sense? Have the kids in school in the warmer months where the virus will be less of a threat. No teachers will need to teach throughout this shutdown. ALL learning will be resumed in the classroom. The online provision causes even more of a gap between rich and poor.

Teachers working to supervise key worker children to be paid extra. Working parents (especially mothers are stuffed I admit, but aren't we anyway).

Socialisation I would argue is more important than education (which can be made up) that's the main issue for kids of all ages. That's my sticking point but in the main most kids are with loving families.

Can anyone tell me what I am missing?

@LacyEdge

I’d go for this. How are preserving summer holidays more important than getting this virus under control? It’s one summer ffs. It’s do-able.

And I honestly believe this is why this idea hasn't really been mooted AT ALL. The summer holidays are just too darned precious. In most jobs, you get your annual leave and you have to try and fit your 20 days in and around work colleagues. It's just one year to help the NHS. It was seeing the press report at UCLH saying they will not be able to treat non Covid patients that has hit home, I gave birth there in an emergency and dread to think of what will happen.

Yes I'd go for this too

I work in a private school and we are delaying our start and moving the Easter holidays later. If things continue to be bad we might move further weeks into the summer.

I'm unhappy from a personal point of view because I've really struggled mentally these holidays. I live on my own in tier 4 so can go days without seeing anyone. I was so looking forward to getting back to school and I'm gutted about more virtual isolation. But I do understand that it's a better solution for teachers who are unhappy about covid risk and probably the best way to guarantee a full year's education for the children.

It looks like this is something a number of private schools are doing. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. We run the risk of losing our jobs if parents are unhappy with the provision and too many children are pulled out. But it widens inequality if we can set our own terms to give us more face to face teaching weeks than most children get.

Lots of kids regress after the summer break so it can't be good to have them off 6 wks in the new yr, back in, then maybe back out again & then holidays.

Isn't it safer for the teachers too rather than trying to keep schools open?

@SE13Mummy

How would the seven missing weeks be caught up for those Y13s taking the IB (an international exam)? Or the Y11s who will need to finish their GCSE courses in some way, even if not with final exams? Having seven weeks off school now will mean many students would do no learning and would lose any momentum they may have got going at the moment. They'd have nothing to look forward to either, including no summer break. If exam years are somehow exempt from the idea, teachers will be needed to teach them and that will result in those teachers having no break this year, as well as the economic impact of no tourism during the school summer holiday.

I have a DC in Y11 who wants to be at school now, when it's cold and miserable. Their sixth form plans will depend on how the rest of the GCSE courses go and they're hoping to be able to at least visit grandparents outside in warmer weather. Both DH and I are teachers so if term is cancelled now, we are unlikely to be able to see our parents for many more months. As it is, I've not seen mine since August and that was a six hour round trip to see them outside.

To be fair A LOT of IB work is already complete.

I would go for this, it’s just one year. we should let the NHS, teachers and key workers decide? They are the ones who really understand the risks.

@EachDubh I agree with you about 5 year olds being tired, I have one myself but kids are much healthier in the summer, more vitamin d, more energy and daylight. They are also that bit older. There would still be the opportunity for a summer holiday, just shorter.

My class are in regardless of the changes to holidays so this would have no impact on me anyway apart from as a parent and my kids mental and physical health comes first. I am also in a privileged position to be able to teach my children to ensure they are at the levels they need to be even if I had to pull them from formal education for a term.

I'm very aware that a lot of the IB work is complete/nearly. For those Y13s to have seven weeks off now, without access to their teachers, isn't great timing. Their exams aren't something our government can cancel/reschedule in quite the same way as for national exams.

No for a number of reasons:

1. It would be a substantial change to our contracts and would take significant negotiation...which would go nowhere.

1. Holidays from 2020 will have been moved to 2021 and will be most welcome if they can be taken by then.

1. The autumn term is already horrendously long and is hard enough for students and teachers without extending it. I can tell you that learning would suffer.

1. Pupils and staff deserve not to be locked down for all of their holiday time. They deserve to be able to go and visit a zoo, do some canoeing or camping etc when the weather is nice enough to.

1. I am selling my house to enable me to get out of teaching anyway...but I’d quit on the spot before I worked through the summer holiday.

1. It’s unnecessary.

I was wondering this too, no idea why people are so territorial about their holidays - for one year? What sort of summer fun do you think you’ll have anyway, given the way things are?

Lots of people were able to go off and have summer fun in 2020. Lots of holidays went ahead. Why would they not in 2021?
And if you’re like me and have booked early (or perhaps rearranged from last year) why should you be told your plans have to change? Especially at your own cost.

Not much cop for dd who has external exams in January and March after having her GCSEs cancelled last year.

@onedayinthefuture
Where would key workers children all suddenly go whilst their parents are working in jan/Feb and schools have totally Closed for a holiday?

What learning is so essential it can’t be done later? The idea that there is some magical age when kids need to know Henry VIIIs wives or algebra is nonsense. I know this is anecdotal, but my YS missed 2 years of secondary school due to illness, he went to Cambridge and has a higher maths degree. So I don’t agree that all children will be necessarily disadvantaged for life If it’s the social aspect of school that is missed, I’d agree, but perhaps holiday clubs and summer schools which were more about sports and fun activities could be provided rather than sitting in a stuffy classroom doing RE or geography.

It's possible but it wouldn't be easy. Personally i'm one of the people who would advocate for a four week summer holiday with two weeks at October and Feb half term but appreciate others don't feel the same.

There is a lot of work that goes on in summer holidays in terms of school buildings maintenance: repairs, repainting not to mention classroom changeovers. I also think that the summer period gives a unique opportunity for teachers to focus on medium and long term planning of the sort that is much more difficult during the school year treadmill, when so much time is taken up with responding to the here and now.

@mummy203

I would go for this, it’s just one year. we should let the NHS, teachers and key workers decide? They are the ones who really understand the risks.

I suggested something similar but back in the summer on twitter and got slammed for it. I suggested going back two weeks early in August and taking a month for the Christmas break. It was pretty obvious that it was going to be a difficult winter and a month off school would have helped especially if it was preplanned instead of the mess we now have. There are practical issues obviously with term times changing but I think what we have at the moment is the worst of all worlds and the uncertainty adds massively to the stress for teachers, parents and students.

Ds who has severe sn struggles more in the winter than the summer when he can be outdoors more. He would find being at home primarily stuck indoors and finding it very difficult to entertain himself ( or being entertained) very difficult for a long period. He can't use computers or do activities like other children at home and we don't have all the specialist equipment and the staffing levels he has at school.

Special schools could keep the original term dates but this could create problems for families who also have children in mainstream.

Lots of people were able to go off and have summer fun in 2020. Lots of holidays went ahead. Why would they not in 2021?

I wouldn't say it was the same as a normals summer by any stretch. And there may be more restrictions for those yet to have vaccines. As someone in my 30s I presume Im way down the list.

It wouldn't be fair to spring this on working parents. Summer holidays will be a combo of annual leave, holiday clubs and grandparents, which wouldn't be possible now. The primary schools are in to help protect the economy, the importance of which shouldn't be underestimated. Loss of jobs and poverty also leads to deaths. Corona deaths aren't the only ones that matter.

But you're a teacher who will get paid regardless of when you work...

Imagine you're not a teacher and you somehow have to work and have children at home...

4. Pupils and staff deserve not to be locked down for all of their holiday time. They deserve to be able to go and visit a zoo, do some canoeing or camping etc when the weather is nice enough to.

I don't really understand why a full 6 week summer break is necessary in order for people to go camping or canoeing. Surely the vast majority of people, when going on a trip to Cornwall or the Norfolk coast or a Welsh campsite or whatever, go for a few days to a week, or maybe two weeks at the most? Who are all these people staying in a hotel or campsite for six weeks non-stop?

If the summer break was cut to two weeks, with the timing of this break to be taken basically at any time from start June to end September, and staggered between different regions, that would give people a chance to go away on a trip over the summer.

We managed this in Japan, and it appears that a lot of private schools here also did some version of this. Yes, it did restrict people's activities somewhat, but it's probably also a big reason why the kids here are not going to end the school year behind the curriculum and with underprivileged kids massively underperforming. We had two very nice short holidays in Japan over the summer.

I don't see why they couldn't at least use those 6 weeks for a bit of flexibility. Use 2 of them to extend the Christmas and Feb breaks, and have 4 weeks off in the summer. Why are those 6 weeks so sacrosanct?

Oh, and we went to the zoo and similar places too. Plenty of times. Not sure why extending the school break would mean that kids would be "locked down" and not able to go to the zoo etc.? It wouldn't be a lockdown. And you can go to the zoo and aquarium and museum and all those places at weekends, even during term time!

You can't cut the summer holidays down to two weeks! I usually spend two weeks of them recovering from the end of term (I usually get ill for a couple of days), then sorting out my classroom, then planning for the new cohort and getting displays sorted, enough exercise books etc. If I had 2 weeks off then something would have to give (and it wouldn't be my holiday), so I'd be starting the new year on the back foot.

I could manage with 4 weeks, so 2 for holiday and 2 for school stuff. I said last summer I'd be up for moving 2 weeks to the Christmas break. The problem is, this government haven't been thinking ahead and there were some good suggestions back in June/July for schools on here but none have come to fruition because U4T and the government are fixed on this "school as usual at all costs". Well, now look where it's got us.