Extending school term at end of July

[NeverForgetYourDreams]

That's not going to work. Another ridiculous idea. What about all those people that moved their cancelled holidays for 2020 by a year. Summer holidays may go ahead if vaccine roll out happens and who is going to cancel and lose their money - I'm not. Will be lots of absent children.

@Gobbolino7825

I think it makes sense to have a shorter 4 week summer holiday with a 2 week October half term and 3 week Christmas holiday - even without covid!

One of the great joys of childhood is the long summer break free from school. It would be such as shame to take that away from children. Plus think of everyone trying to fit in their holidays away - prices would increase even more.

Last year we could not go on our holiday at the end of August due to quarantine so postponed it to the start of the school holidays this year so that we would be able to quarantine after if necessary. The government seem to have an agenda to stop families and teachers going on holiday.

First sensible idea I’ve heard for a while. Work into the summer holidays, plan to have 6-8 weeks off at Christmas. Would really have helped things!

😂 hilarious

@TheMoth, too right.

@CallmeAngelina

Well, in fairness, the media reports on this are saying that this applies to schools in England, hence the thread.

There's no linked media report, nor any mention of this being applicable in England only. The other day, a poster was treated like shit because she posted a thread about lockdown being over, and some MNers took the hump because she didn't mention in the thread title (only in the first line of the post!) that she wasn't mainland England. MNHQ felt the need to edit her post and title to say her post wasn't about England. Yet every day, there are dozens of threads posted that are about England, English schools, English law, etc and not only is it never expected for an English poster to clarify where they live, but anyone who lives elsewhere is often accused of lying or trolling when their circumstances don't match up.

England are only 1/4 of the UK nations, so why are they always seen as the default?

School building works always take place in the summer. We're due to have a new roof on a building this year... can't see them doing that in the winter in the frozen north.

I am a teacher and I have a holiday booked at the end of July.

I am not going to pay to go to work via having to pay two weeks extra childcare and pay for a holiday I can’t take. I would be nearly £3000 out of pocket.

No!

Who will be doing the teaching, and who will be paying them?

For the first time ever last year we planned to go away as soon as term endwd, of course our plans were thwarted so we intended to do that this year and, we shall.

I'm not staying behind or keeping dc in school.
I don't expect the teachers to either.

@DumplingsAndStew, You seem determined to have the hump about this, so I'll let you get on with it.

Private schools won’t need to extend the term. most did a full curriculum during both lockdowns, so no
need to catch up.

We moved our 2020 holiday to 2021 and at the time we had a clear week after end of term to us going away. The school reinstated the INSET days in July so now we have 3 days gap. Extending term isn't going to help us if we are actually able to go away. As yet we don't know if we can as we are unlikely to be eligible for vaccination and whether France would let us in

As far as I was aware it was shorten the summer holidays by 2 weeks and add those to Christmas when cases are likely to go up again? Nothing to do with extra teaching time?

I'm a primary school teacher. I wouldn't be completely against this to be honest. Many saying they won't get paid. Well if they simply extend october half term and Christmas they wouldn't need to be paid any more.
Yes it will affect booked summer holidays, which is why this decision should have been made ASAP before people even thought of booking holidays.

An extended schooll day would be harder to do, because you would have to pay teachers for that.

The long summer holiday us an anachronism, left over from the days when children helped with the harvest.

This is a myth. Never been true.

www.oxford-royale.com/articles/a-brief-history-summer-holiday/

Where will the money come from? TAs are only paid for 38 weeks a year. I will have worked all of them by then, and am not prepared to work for free in the summer, especially having been in school everyday throughout lockdown when schools are ‘closed’.

@ohnothisagain

Private schools won’t need to extend the term. most did a full curriculum during both lockdowns, so no need to catch up.

So did lots of state schools.

But I don't think this is being touted as a catch-up, but to restrict infection spread by having the classroom windows open. I should have thought an even better way of reducing infection spread in July/August would be to keep to the current term dates, whereupon no one would be in classrooms at all!

England are only 1/4 of the UK nations, so why are they always seen as the default?

78% of the U.K. population though, maybe that might have something to do with it 🤔

@Disneyblue

What about all of us who have been teaching a full online timetable for the last five weeks?

I think as a blanket policy it is stupid. Surely it is better looked at on a case by case basis.

Out attendance for online is over 90%!

Fuck that. I won't be sending DS. He's attending school as a KW child, I'm not sending him in the summer too. I've already booked time off work so we can spend some time together.

Nope. Not happening.

Somebody costed this out during the first lockdown and it would run into millions. Literally millions.

Millions to pay the teachers, TAs, support staff, kitchen staff, maintenance staff, bills, etc. for extra hours that they would have to provide as currently this is not in the contracts for any of them.

Because I doubt the entire education workforce would work for free. Even if it is 'a vocation.' Doesn't mean people should work for free to deliver some meaningless catch-up to arbitrary targets set by the DfE.

Rest, play and non-academic pursuits are just as important as academic ones. In fact, they link into each other. All work and no play....

@ohnothisagain

Private schools won’t need to extend the term. most did a full curriculum during both lockdowns, so no need to catch up.

Just because they officially put on a "full curriculum" doesn't mean that pupils will have learnt it. The expectations on families from our school has been completely OTT. We are not keeping up with everything... it just isn't possible.

So called Key worker parents who don't actually do a KW job but have had a child in school this whole term were up in arms when it was suggested that term dates might change, because they might have to find childcare for one week. Hang the fact we've all been bleeding through the eyeballs these last few months and our kids are really suffering... the level of entitlement I've witnessed this last week has been horrifying. I really hope the government do change the dates and keep kids in school longer over the summer.

The long summer holiday us an anachronism, left over from the days when children helped with the harvest.

But doesn't England have really short summer holidays? Six weeks or something?

Of course it won’t work. Schools haven’t actually closed and most are providing online learning. How on earth will they staff it and navigate the changes to teacher’s contracts, evening even if they were willing.

If there is a real gap, then needs to be an adjustment of expectations rather than a cramming exercise. For children who have completely missed out then I would be in favour of targeted tutoring in smaller groups at weekends, but it would need to be provided by additional teachers not existing ones.

I do think there will be an increase in demand for tutors over the holidays though. Parents who are concerned and can afford to will hire tutors just as they would have done previously.