Shorter summer hols

[Queenie72]

I’m sure summer hols have always been 6 1/2 weeks and now are only 6 ? Just wondering if anyone knows why.

DS is off for 7 weeks. I wish they were shorter 😂

I always remember it being 6 weeks going back to my childhood in the early eighties!

Schools (state schools that is) are required to be open 190 days a year. Once you take out weekends, that leaves around 71 further days. One of those days is the early May Bank Holiday, which does not usually coincide with any other holidays. Most schools have 5 days off for "half-term" three times a year, and 10 days at both Christmas and Easter. That leaves 35 days. 5 of those days are set aside as Inset days, which leaves 30 days - or 6 weeks - for the summer. A lot of schools used to have a couple of their Inset days at the start or end of the summer holidays, but an increasing number no group them in to a whole week to allow a two week "half-term" in October. It may be that previously the extra half week you remember was made up of these days, and they are now scheduled elsewhere in the school year instead.

When they were introduced (in the 1980s?), the 5 Inset days we have now were taken out of teachers’ holidays.

The Isle of Wight is only having 23 July - 1 Sept off this summer with a 2 week autumn half term. The arguments is that children lose a lot of learning if they are away for too long in the summer and many families on the Island can't take any time off during the summer.