Longer school holidays in private system

[winkywinkola]

Why?

We are just coming to the end of 3.5 weeks of Easter holidays. I'm wiped out!

Why do private schools have such long holidays?

I'm bracing myself for the 9 weeks summer holiday!

Word

Thats exactly what my dd said. There aren't so many clubs but their ensembles, prep, some loose time and of course tea time all happen after 4.30pm and even the loose time they can be involved with organised fun activities if they want to.
I was very lucky to get a text before lights out.
I don't think I'll get many when she starts full time.

morethanpotatoprints IME that taster your daughter had was a true reflection of a full on boarding school and the kids love it, but yes they are shattered by the time the holidays arrive but even better they can't wait for the new term to do it all again! We have just had 4 weeks and it has flown by but the boys couldn't wait to get back and I have just had a lovely email today saying how much fun they are having.."nearly missed supper as our tennis session was so good"!
Good luck to your DD I hope she has the time of her life!

Thanks Mrs Pepperpot.

She said she loved it and can't wait for September.
They have practice rooms and her friend in charge of her had to go to get her as she was missing tea, not like my dd at all

I've been told that my DS's school does the minimum legally required hours. We get loads of holiday, we've just done 4 1/2 weeks, we get over two months in the summer and three weeks at Xmas. I love it, and he needs it as he's completely exhausted by the end of every term. When at school despite lessons on Saturday, he gets three afternoons a week where there is no school in terms of lessons and they have a long break of I think 2 hours on the other three afternoons so Im not convinced he does any more actual classroom time than a child in a day school.

Aren't you moving area and changing to state, winky?

They are long, but full on term time weeks for mine. Out of house 7.30am to 6.00pm and Saturdays 7.30 - 2.00, or later with matches. I'm pleased when they go back after a long holiday, but equally pleased when the holidays are here after a long term.

Bowlers, yes we are considering moving and changing to state. Meanwhile I was just wondering about the origins of longer holidays in the private sector.

People say the long holidays stem from the days of the empire when many parents were abroad.

But that never rings true to me.

For one thing, pre air travel , it would take far too long to get to Indis or Africa etc by boat/road, long holidays or not.

Second, many DC of the empire never saw their parents from one year to the next and no one batted and eyelid!

There are other things that do or did work termly, such as Parliament and the some of the Courts.

I somehow all evolved together, allowing time for landowners to supervise harvests, the well-to-do to get out of London in the hot and stinky months, and the Grand Tour to happen (led, in word at least, by a tutor).

There also aren't as many feast days, so I bet there's a monasterial root as well!

In the colonial days, parents might travel back and see their children as well as vice versa; expensive, so not every year for most, but with two months to play with at least it was possible.

And then once adopted by some bodies, it would spread.

Other European countries do the same. Hence my suspicion that that church has something to do with it somewhere along the line.

When I was little (1970s) there were boarders at my prep school who only went to their parents' homes in the long holidays (summer and one of Easter or Christmas) because air travel was too expensive to allow for more than two trips per year.

My cousins, whose father was a diplomat, only got one return flight to see their parents paid for by the FO - ie one trip per year to Moscow/Chicago/Jeddah. Few, long holidays made sense when travel cost more.

In the 1940s my aunt was a full boarder, aged 5 (!), at a school only a few miles from her parents' home. She only went home in the holidays. Petrol and indeed cars were rare after the war.

There's no incentive to change it though is there. They all have the same ridiculously long holidays and the teachers clearly like them, we still enrol our children so why would they change them?

Mine are always shattered by the end of term (primary day school 8.45 - 3.50, no afternoon break time but no saturday school either) but the holidays do drag on.

They've just had three weeks off (and yet DS2 still managed to shriek "oh no I've got a spelling test today and Ive not looked at my spellings!" as we were leaving the house on day one…..)

I had friends in the early 2000s who were private school boarders as their family were in the army- it was too expensive for them to fly home for half terms etc, so they only saw their parents at Christmas Easter and Summer. So it was nice for those holidays to be longer, simply more time value with family for the cost of the flight.

IME having had DC in state and private, private school is much more intensive. They focus all day long - the lesson pace is very fast and at a high level. They have a proper almost adult commute so their days are long and they come home to a stack of homework. Weekend match fixtures are a religion. You can't miss one because you're away for a weekend. (I had to lie to get DS out of a match once when he had something far better to do.)

I wouldn't keep my DC at private school if the holidays were also short. They need the breaks.

I love the holidays, though. We get to go out and about and do stuff together.

The days aren't always different though. The two local private schools share transport with the state school so they're day length is the same and yet the still have longer holidays!

Most private school parents are dual income (to be able to afford it!) yet children are expected to be 'home' for so much longer. How? How are 2 working parents supposed to take care of children for several additional weeks in the year due to extra long holidays?

So many of DDs friends go to holiday camp - which is hardly 'restful' and thereby negates the very purpose of the holiday! And am not even mentioning the extra cost of those holiday camps!

I agree. There are very few families at the DCs school where both parents don't work to pay the fees.

The private school system just assumes that "mum" is sitting at home with embroidery, reading poetry or playing the piano waiting for the children to arrive home.

I now work from home and so just neglect my DCs during the holidays and threaten them with death if they interrupt me when I'm on the phone to a client but when I worked in an office the school holidays cost us a fortune in childcare.

"The private school system just assumes that "mum" is sitting at home with embroidery, reading poetry and playing the piano"
Having spent 16 years with children in the private sector I've never met any doing any of those things they're shopping and lunching with their friend.

Oh and going to the gym/hairdresser.

Shopping/lunching/gym/hairdresser all fit round school and DC's agenda, much as embroidery/piano/poetry do. They are essentially low commitment activities, and that is what many schools expect mothers to have.

Most parents at my dcs prep work to be able to afford the fees. That is the norm.

There is a small minority where one parent doesn't work.

I've gone back to work recently - part time and freelance so at home - and it's been a bit of a pita juggling it all for so long. With camps costing circa £45 per day per child, they aren't really a feasible option.

But as some kind soul pointed out, I chose this so I shouldn't ever moan.

I wonder though if there is room for change, ever.

Winky - it seems to vary massively by year group in DC's school, for reasons that I don't understand. DC1's year - one working parent and/or inherited wealth is the norm, I am definitely in a small minority as a WOHM. DC2's year - 2 working parents the norm, a couple of SAHMs. I was talking to another parent who has DC in the year 2 below DC2's and there you are back to SAHMs being in the significant majority (parent I was talking to also has a child in DC2's year and was commenting on the contrast).

The parents at dd school are a real cross section and representative of all walks of life, from the unemployed on full benefit, to the rich and affluent.
Over 90% receive receive funding.

I presume it dates to boarding school traditions. But I think it's hard to change once it's established - teachers would complain at longer terms and some parents like the chance to book off-peak holidays.

Also - even if there's not Saturday school the school days are longer (state schools usually finish around 3-3-30pm, not 4pm), and there's a lot of sports fixtures on Saturdays, so I guess the teachers feel they deserve the break.

I don't think you've much chance of changing it - bit a bit more chance that the school might lay on some near-affordable holiday scheme for those who want it. Otherwise it's childcare swaps with other parents, find a local teenager to mind them, or (for my 11 year old) often home alone. Not ideal.

Having children in both state and private sector though, I'd say that overall the state schools were more inclined to assume there was a SAHM - drama performances in the day time, parents "evenings" running from 4-6pm, etc. The private school my DD now attends is generally better at timing things that involve parents to be at times of day working parents can attend.

So I think the long holidays is more a tradition thing, than because private schools assume there's a SAHM in every household. The social mix is very different between the private and state schools my DCs have been to, but (for different reasons) there are probably a similar proportion of kids with a SAHM in each.

Mine have school on Saturday mornings. Extra time in class during the week = longer holidays.

Quite a lot of private schools use their facilities to generate extra cash during the school holidays - for example, letting their facilities to language schools or renting out sports/art/drama facilities for day camps.

European countries often break up much earlier than the UK. Private schools have every interest in starting their language camps as early as possible as June/July is prime season for children wanting English camps. August is for family holidays.