What do you think of the proposals for the new school year?

[Moomin]

Our education authority (along with a few others) is piloting the proposed new school year from Sept 2004. If it's popular it's thought that the other authorities will follow suit the next year.
It goes like this:
Autumn term: 6 week term / 2 week hol in Oct / 6 weeks / 2 week Christmas hols
Spring term: 6 weeks / 1 week hol in Feb / 6 weeks / 2 weeks Spring hols (which may or may not incorporate Easter: if it doesn't, there will be a long weekend off for Easter)
Summer term: 6 weeks / 1 week hol / 6 weeks / 5 week summer hols
Hope this is clear! Another idea that might feature is that the summer hols is cut to 4 weeks and the other week holiday is tacked onto the Feb half term. For now, though, our autority will be going with the first model.
What do you think?

Does anyone reall think that changing the temr's would actually do anything to improve education though? Persoanlly I just can't see it. And it does have bigger issues - if you change term dates this can affect exams, college courses, apprenticeship start dates, exam results day, uni start dates, etc.

And staggering holidays would make it a nightmare for anyone who has children in different authorities - quite possible if you live near a border. Also, as a teacher, I work in a different authority to the one my child wll go to school in - I would HAVE to move jobs for it to work!

Also, consider planning your summer holiday in holiday time.Shortened holiday time = even higher prices in those weeks. Less time to choose from too = more people going away at holiday time (or more going in term time, especially that last term). An how many would really go away in October or February instead?

Just some thoughts. I am interested int he fact that when this is decided parents , LEAs, Governers and heads are asked for their opinions. Not teachers though - strange as it is their job we are talking about!

And don't get me on the so called 9-3 hours!!! I just won't be drawn into that I'm afraid.Let's put it this way - of teaching is such a doddle, why is there such a huge shortage of them in this country?

Tallulah - the actual amount of teaching time hasn't decreased at all. Simply the break times.

Sorry, didn't mean to offend anyone. I wasn't suggesting that teachers only work till 3. It's children finishing school half way through the afternoon that gets to me, as a working parent. As I've said on another thread & won't go into in great detail, it's because the school day (for the children) is so short, compared to a "normal" business day, that lots of women end up having to work part-time, which causes problems at work in terms of cover.

When my children were at private school (no bricks please), they finished at 4 pm (juniors) & 4.10 pm (secondary). Admittedly they had a long lunch break, allowing them to go to "after school" activities then, or to finish homework, but from a parental perspective it made life considerably easier.

A 2 week holiday in May would cause chaos at work if all parents wanted that time off, because it's a popular time for people without children to go away. Somebody has to man the office/shop/factory. The week is bad enough.

But Tallulah, what are schools for? Effective education for pupils, or a cheap babysitting service?

I agree Rosimum ...
When I taught in a private school that finished at 4.15pm (for 9-12 yr olds) and 3.45 (for 7-9 yr olds) and had after school activities and homework until 6.30 pm every night I thought it was really sad that the children were at school for that length of time (started at 8.20am). Children need to go home and chill out and PLAY in the afternoon before they have dinner and go to bed IMHO!!!!

In Hampshire where they are going to bring in the 'shorter' terms in 2004, it was totally mis-represented to the general public. What they said they were going to do was bring in shorter terms. What they have actually done is nothing more than re-name each half term.So: first half of the Autumn term will become Term 1, second half of the Autumn Term will become Term 2 and so on. When you actually add up the days spent in school between the beginning of the year and Christmas it's actually 5 days longer!!!! So, how is this any shorter? Each term is still the same length as the old half terms. They think that by doing a simple re-naming exercise we will all be fooled. Unfortunately I think that will be the case here in Hampshire because of the way they presented the facts.

All they needed to have done is fix the Spring holiday to even out the Spring term and solve the problem of a moveable Easter by giving people an extra Bank holiday if it fell outside the Spring holiday - some years you'd dip in, some you'd dip out. At least it would be a more honest way of doing it!!

Lara2 - interested from your post to hear that changing the terms makes the school year 5 days longer. How did schools react to this? Will teachers be financially rewarded for having an increase in working hours. This is a BIG change to a teaching contract. There are talks of the system being looked into where I work but we have been told that it doesn't affect our working hours. I know to look out for this now! Thanks.

Ghosty the children at DD's school who are in from 8am to 5.30pm/6pm are the same ones who were in nursery/daycare for similar hours before they started school.

Fortunately, it seems that after-school care is very relaxed - some TV, some games, time to go outside and play/run around. They are offered the chance to do their homework if they wish.

BTW, I can understand a bit about teachers' unseen hours. When I first worked in banking, branches were open 9.30am - 3.30pm and everyone seemed to assume these were the hours we worked when of course we worked 9 - 5, often in the office by 8.30am and not paid overtime unless we went past 5.30pm (and we had a sadistic boss who would come round and throw most people out just before overtime could be claimed, even if there was a major problem that needed to be sorted).

SueW ... yes it was the same in our school more or less. But after school was quite rigid ... and old fashioned. Tea at 4.15pm ... supervised prep from 4.30pm to 5.30 pm (a lot of the children went home at 5.30) and then activities until 6.30pm but all supervised and planned ... couldn't be watching TV ... had to be sport or a club of some kind.
I know that after school care is very important for full time working parents ... and in some cases it is better to have the care given by the school so you don't have to pick them up and take them somewhere else ... but there were many parents (non working) who used the school as a baby sitting service ... those were the children I felt sorry for ... they would see their mums come at 3.45 to pick up their younger siblings and then be left for another 3 hours ...

Rosiemum, my DS goes to school (state) 22 miles away. He gets home at 4.30- 5, depending on whether they have to pick up DD, & is then supposed to do homework, so what's the difference? I don't agree with homework for anyone under 14, but that's another thread entirely. Once my other Ds got home, having stayed to prep at school, his evening was completely free, school forgotten & no hassles.

I didn't say school was a babysitting service, only that if society wants people to work you can't have it all ways. Either school finishes early & women don't have to work, or if you expect mothers to work, finish school later (and forget the homework). Doesn't alter the fact that schools USED to finish at 4pm- how did we manage?

When schools finished later, the breaks were longer, and kids still had to do homework at home!

If you pay for the privilage (?) of private education, then you can expect to have your child 'looked after' until it is convenient for you to collect them. If you choose the option of state education then you have to accept that schools are run for the benefit of the children, and the quality of their education, not to suit the babysitting needs of working parents. Harsh reality, but it is not the job of the state education service to babysit children, our job is to provide them with the education they need. Sometimes this means they get homework!