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!

I've done the math at DS2's boarding school they have 26 hours and 25 mins of timetabled lessons a week, this does not include games/extra curricular stuff three afternoons a week but does include free study periods which increase as you go up the school. I've no idea how this compares with other schools, independent or state, boarding or day.

I just checked - DC's school website says academic subject teaching hours go from 27 to 29 hours a week depending which year group.

happygardening - my DS's state school has 25 hours of lessons a week, but that includes about 2 hours of games/PE, and doesn't include any free study periods (not until sixth form age) - so slightly less than yours.

My DD is at a private school and the day is an hour longer, but that is mostly because of a longer lunch break for extra cirricular things. She doesn't actually have any more academic teaching hours per week, despite her longer holidays.

yellow I suspected about 25 in the state sector so not much difference and at DS2 they get about 19 weeks holiday a year plus 5 exeats where he comes home Friday/Saturday lunch time and goes back Sunday/Monday evening. If you added it up significantly less actual teaching hours than in the state sector. Lots of prep though at least 2 hours 6 nights a week from yr 9 but very very rarely prep in the holidays.

Yes, my DD gets a lot more homework at her private school than DS does at his state school. She gets about an hour a night, whereas DS seems to get about 2 hours a week, despite being in Y10.

19 weeks holiday is a lot though - my DD's private school has 16 I think - two weeks more than the state sector in the summer, and one extra week at Christmas.

I think some parents just like school holidays. Also I suppose some private school parents go away on holiday a lot. If there were enough demand for shorter holidays they would be shorter.

As a parent getting used to the idea of seeing dd at the weekends, instead of every day I think the long holidays will be lovely for us all.
I also heard the international students tend not to go home at half term, some don't go at xmas and stay with a guardian close to the school.
DD said she made a friend who was chinese and asked if she could visit for a while at xmas as she gets bored.
Obviously, i said yes if it's ok with parent/guardian.

On another thread some people did the looking up.

The number of teaching hours is pretty much identical in all schools : state, private day, boarding

and has not changed at all since state secondary education became standard just after WW2

how the school chooses to spread the hours through the year is its own decision
but the number of hours of lessons will be remarkably similar

in fact if you look at systems around the world, the number of teaching hours is remarkably constant - just how it is distributed through the day and year varies

There have been some calls for holidays to shorten a little at DD's school;

8 weeks in Summer, 4 at Easter and Xmas respectively, 2 weeks October half term and 1 week Feb and June half terms.

20 weeks off .

Not a huge surprise that retention of teachers is excellent .

I love the long holidays and am always sad when my DS returns to school.

'Only' three extra weeks here, one each at Easter, Christmas and autumn half term. There's no way I could cope with 9+ week summer holidays . There's a chance mine will only have a four week summer break this year due to moving countries [evil grin].

I thought I just check the dates 9 weeks and 1 day in the summer, marvellous I can't wait.

We do only get 1/2 a week for the end of May half term and unusually no exeat for the up coming bank holiday weekend.

It's simply another example of the working classes being oppressed by The System

More seriously, I've always wondered why no bright spark in a think tank hasn't pointed out that private schools have longer holidays, private school get better results, ergo, state school pupils should be given longer holidays.

If it were me, I could come up with at least as good a justification for it as for getting state school pupils to wear swanky blazers and it could save money, since teachers would be working fewer hours and their wages could thus be reduced

Joke, obviously, but god, if I were in charge I'd stick another week on the xmas hols, another on Oct half term and make the killer autumn term a bit shorter.

Takver
the point is though that fee paying schools have longer days
so to even up the number of teaching hours the terms are shorter

almost all UK teacher contracts, regardless of sector or age group are for the same number of pupil contact hours

I know, but reality doesn't usually stray into think tank proposals . . .

I think dd would prefer shorter more intense terms. I've always thought there'd be something to be said for a condensed week for secondary age pupils, with the same teaching hours over 4 long days, giving a three day weekend.

One of the reasons we sent our DC to the indie is that they get the longer holidays - a big bonus, they are only children for a very short time and we want them to have long holidays to do non-academic things.

Takver
I've always thought there'd be something to be said for a condensed week for secondary age pupils, with the same teaching hours over 4 long days, giving a three day weekend.
so till the age of 18 they are used to 3 day weekends
does that continue through Uni?
what about in employment?

the school week is set to partially mirror the working week to lead into employment

and TBH the only think tank I know of that wanted short summer holidays was the one closely aligned with a certain Mr Gove

Talkin, I doubt the majority of current pupils will end up in 9-5 Mon-Fri jobs. That's just not the pattern of work anymore.

indeed, but labouring jobs are still 8 till 4 governed by daylight
most office jobs will still be based around monday to friday
as do finance jobs

most of the western world works on 5:2
so the parents alone need their kids used to it

Oh yes, no recognition of the nasty socialist May Day Bank Holiday here, either. Extra bonus, IMHO. Shortly after Easter holidays, DH and I get a random bonus child-free day off .

What is exeat for, and is it the same reason as it was traditionally?
i mean are there several reasons or one particular?

Can't say how many holidays yet as don't understand the bloody sheet with all the if you are in this you have half term if you aren't you don't, if you do neither of these things you help on open day if you are from this group etc.
It's giving me a headache so stopped looking now.

I'm sure they do it on purpose to puzzle outsiders.

AFAIK exeat = long enough weekend for boarders living a fair way away (but mostly still in UK) to go home and be there for more than 5 minutes - so typically Friday afternoon to travel home, Saturday and Sunday morning at home, head back to school after lunch.