The weather has done that August thing again, hasn't it?

[Blushah]

Once again, for English school DC, the 'summer' pretty much happened over the last few weeks of school, didn't it?

However, I am aware that the dates of the school holiday are hewn in stone and cannot, under any circumstances, be changed, regardless of changing weather patterns.

And I'm glad this was our last summer of it, though admittedly, the experience of sitting in a sodden tent on Dartmoor,seven Augusts ago, with bored, chilly DC did it for us. Spanish villa ever since !

I assume you're all in wet tents on Dartmoor! 😊

I was in a slightly damp tent on Dartmoor last week (or rather had just got back this time last week). I swear it's somewhere hot with a pool next year, but then I said that last year too. Considering the amount of money we spent on camping fees, food and "attractions" it's probably much of a muchness in monetary terms.

I don't see why the term dates are set in stone. Why can't we have the summer holidays at the same time as Scotland?

I would like to see a wholesale reform of terms and holidays. It's ridiculous that Easter whizzing around the calendar dictates that holiday, that half terms vary from 5 weeks to, I think, 8 or 9; that imo, Summer term half term holiday weather in June is almost always better than anything after Aug 15th.

The issue is I believe that the teaching unions oppose change, and it 'only' affects most people for maybe 14 years, then they don't think about it again- oh, and it's usually women who bear the brunt of bored DC trapped inside by incessant rain.

We haven't looked back since the villa-with-pool-in-Spain decision. Guaranteed sun and warmth, which is why it's full of Norwegians 😂.

Yep the awful heat always happens while they're still at school, struggling in blazers and us parents have all the routine, then they break up and most of it is chilly and rainy. Which I love personally but feel for all those hoping for warm holidays!

I believe the average figures for rain in August have always been 20% higher than June and July.

If we switched to summer holidays in June/July, then we could have 4 terms of roughly equal length, with two terms before Christmas and two terms after, instead of a horrendously long and exhausting autumn term.

Indeed.

I agree and also think six weeks in the summer is too long.

I completely agree. There was a very sensible proposal for five 8-week terms mooted a decade or so ago. Four 2-week breaks and a 4-week summer break. As a teacher, I would find this so much better.

Do you know why it didnt go anywhere?

I guess the big sticking block is exam results and them being available before the start of the next school year. The exam boards would have to mark and moderate much faster than they currently do. How possible that is I don't know.

sticking block, that's not even a thing, sorry, not sure what my brain was doing.

You do realise, don't you, that whenever you set the term dates, the weather will just know and the pattern will shift again?

Expect the next warm sunny spell to begin Tuesday next week....

No, no you can't move your school hols to July, then us Scots won't be able to get cheap deals on holiday cottages then! Our exams are earlier than yours (May/June) - not sure if we have the same number of weeks in a school year as you do, but I'd imagine so. Even with the earlier finish to the term, the best of the weather is often in June rather than July - this year's been an exception.

We're in Scotland, we've had the best summer weather we've had for decades.

Totally agree though that the best of it was May/June/first three weeks in July and it turned crap pretty much a week after the English schools broke up. (Won't gloat that we broke up around 26th June and had three or four glorious weeks of it.)

It started raining literally the minute I walked out of the school gates with DS at the end of term here! We had rain (including flash flooding that had me bailing my cellar out and power cuts), thunderstorms and even when dry it has been gloomy, cold and grey for almost the entire holidays. Typical!

Thank goodness we got a week in Portugal with family in the middle so I could actually get some vitamin D. I've been shut up indoors working during the heatwave and despise being cold, so the very hot weather there was lovely!

[b]Satchell[/b] - It was trialled in a few councils and a couple of schools. There was a strong negative backlash in consultation with the public. One of the teaching unions complained about the "loss" of the summer holiday. The schools minister at the time made no effort to welcome it. I think a headteacher union backed it and there are lots of people who do support it but not enough. So it all fizzled out. Pity.

I live in Cornwall, and was saying this to a friend today. It’s such a shame that as soon as the schools broke up, the rain started. Especially after we had had such fantastic weather at the beginning of the summer.

The villa in the sun is a very sensible option, but of course you can still get caught out by strikes by airline crew or air traffic control, who wait until the holidays to cause maximum chaos.

I’m so pleased we are now past DSs schooldays