Curious: Why do private schools have such long holidays?

[Erebus]

Genuine question- I mean, I know why state schools hols are what they are, more or less (helping with harvests... etc) but why the 8 or 9 weeks, for example, in private? How did that come about? There must be an historic reason seeing as they all pretty much do the same thing, with 17 weeks holiday a year.

To put it more succinctly ( I hope). The problem with education is that it is not like other jobs or activities. You cannot just put it away at the end of a day. As long as you have to do it again tomoorow ,its taking up your time - and your " down time".

Its not just true for teachers but that is true for the kids as well.

The only time you can put it aside and give yourself a break is if you have a that block of time where you can say - thats it , I am not doing that and I dont have to think about it tomoorw orfor the next weeks. Kids need to do that too.

Unlike other jobs and activities it is stressful and that is why we seriously need to be able to put it aside for longer periods. Otherwise its a permanent feature of life and its like being in a prison - no respite.

Oh come on jabed, lots of jobs aren't put downable at the end of the day.

'There is little you can dowith the additional time off from working part time'

Speak for yourself!! I have no problem filling that time! But we can get tetchy after 6 weeks together in summer. September is a massive shock to the system.

jabed, your views are often unique to you. You cannot speak for other teachers and pupils. Your opinions are not shared by me or my family who would value a more even spread of school hours.

'its like being in a prison'. Maybe for you. I enjoy my job and my kids enjoy school. We like being there but we would almost certainly teach and learn more effectively if we weren't moving from one extreme to the other during chunks of the year: either working without time to reflect or relax or doing no work at all.

I love teaching fivecandles but I alsolove my family and sometimes I want to do something else - or even nothing at all.

Durning term time , even though I work part time , I am always coming home with the job. I leave school and find a dozen e mails waiting for me about work - many from pupils as well as things I have to do for work. I am only contracted to teach, the erest is on my time.

The summer break of 8 weeks is the only time I do not have that constant barage of e mails and demands for things to be done and the constant thought of what I have to do tomorrow.

Its really the only time I have for my family. Tonight is classic. In between doing this I am writing a revision sheet for tomorrows ( last) lesson. I have three e mails from parents and pupils askining me what I will bedoing tomorrow because they will not be in!

I have to e mail them, do a bunch of paper work - and then its bedtime. I finished work at 1.00 pm today. I havent stopped yet.

On Friday I will be going away for 8 weeks. Thats time I will not be reached by e mail and I will see my DS and my DW and have time without having to think about school, school, school.

If school were spread evenly I would not have that. I would be on a treadmill. As I said, unlike other jobs , this is not 9 - 5 and then away.

'Unlike other jobs and activities it is stressful and that is why we seriously need to be able to put it aside for longer periods'

Teaching is no more stressful than a great number of jobs. It would be significantly less stressful if you had less contact time in a day and more time for planning and assessment. This would be possible if the hours were more evenly spread.

I don't know about you, Jabed, but at this time of year, I've lost my GCSE and A2 students so my timetable is lighter, it gives me time to do some really effective evaluation of this year and planning for next year and time to enjoy my job and my home life much more. I would be very willing to work an extra 2 weeks in the year if I could have fewer hours teaching during the week.

I doubt fivecandles, your idea of longer evenly spread terms would go down well with the kids. - that is the kids in most schools. They love the holidays.

I actually feel sorry for your kids, jabed. I genuinely do.

'sometimes I want to do something else - or even nothing at all.'

Me too. Which is why I would like less contact hours on an average day which would mean less planning and assessment time. I don't want to have weeks and weeks of no down time and constant work followed by a long stretch of nothing structured to do. I'd rather have a better balance throughout the year.

jabed, you don't have to tell me what life is like as a teacher. I am a teacher and so is my dh. I am the child of teachers.

What you say about teaching really just adds to my argument. If you had less contact time at school you could bring home less work. You could spend more time with your family. Likewise, if my kids had lessons more evenly spread they would have less of a squeeze to fit in extra-curricular activiites and homework and school.

I think a 10% reduction in contact time for teachers together with a 10% reduction in holidays would make a big difference.

jabed, I think a lot of kids feel the same as I do. Mine certainly do. They get tired during the term, they don't have enough down time and we don't have enough time as a family. In summer, it's the opposite. We can get bored and irritable.

I have indeed lost my classes but I am now doing all the cover whilst full time teachers get planing and evaluation time. I will have to do mine in the holidays.

Therein lies the problem. Seemingly having more time free in a week and working more weeks does look attractive but in common with many who do that, I can tell you, those extra hours in a day get taken up and you do feel the loss of the extra weeks. It may sound implausible but it is true nonetheless.

I feel sorry for my DS too erasbus. I rarely give him as much time as I should. My job you see.

jabed, as on previous threads, I do get the impression that you sometimes argue for the sake of it. In principle, I would imagine most teachers would be willing to lose a bit of holiday for the sake of a more manageable working week. How lovely to have evenings, lunchtimes and whole weekends back for example!

Sorry , pressed the go button - My job takes up too much time but I will now give him 8 weeks without interuption and that is golden for all of us. I do not like missing out on my DS's growing up.

Why are you covering? Didn't "rarely cover" do away with that?

But I am trying to explain to you fivecandles - you will not get those evenings and weekends. Its not the nature of the job ( and you know that - all the prep and marking etc that takes that time and teaching expands to fill those hours).

No, I have no classes , I am contracted to teach, I am given the classes other teachers would have and are not foing because they are off on jollies or off doing other work. Rarely cover doesnt cover that.

Anyway, I have finished now. DW wants me to spend an hour watching Edwardian h ouses or something and then I have to go to bed. Up at 5:30 and out for work. I have no lessons of my own tomorrow but I have all four periods taken as cover on year 9.

I cancelled my own in favour of a worksheet since my students are mostly off on holiday now. But it doesnt stop the work rolling in

I don't understand how you are covering while other teachers are 'off on jollies'. I don't understand why 8 weeks in a block is more valuable than a more even distribution of time. And I have said that I am talking about a more even distribution in principle. In fact, since you and I are part-time we must believe that it is possible to have a better work life balance with less contact hours than a full-time teacher. I am strict about when I leave work because I have to pick my kids up from their school every day for example.

Jabed - you need to get yourself a job in a state school. There are rules about using "gained time" (ie once exam classes are gone) to cover - it's not allowed. My Fridays used to be hectic - one Yr 11 group after another, now they're bliss.

Fivecandles - I'm largely ambivalent about the spread of terms vs holidays. I don't believe that less contact time in a day would mean that I get to relax at lunchtimes or in the evenings TBH - I think I would still find I had stuff to do. That said, an occupational health professional who visited an INSET run by a school I used to teach in said that it is an accepted fact that the "short" bursts of intense work done by teachers during term time followed by periods of unstructured time in the holidays are bad for our health - the immune system responds to the stress in term time and then collapses (IYSWIM) at the beginning of the holiday. Spreading the workload more evenly ought to help with that.

That's whatI was going to say Eviltwins

I think private schools realise that kids don't forget over the summer and increasing the school year does not equate to bettter results.