Gove says lengthen school days and shorten long summer holiday

[juneau]

Here: www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22202694

I think it's a great idea and I'm sure working parents will welcome it. I also think it's bollocks that teachers need the six week summer break to recharge their batteries. Do they work harder or longer hours than other workers who only get four or five weeks a year then?

Having just endured a bored DS1 over the Easter holidays I think any break of more than two weeks is actually pretty dull for kids and I'm sure poorer kids really suffer from lack of stimulation and/or money to do stuff.

Dollytwat, you say "My dc wouldn't notice the difference" between holiday care and extended school opening - seriously, between a sports/craft/fun club and a maths lesson?
(Not saying maths isn't fun of course)

Mathanxiety

You are correct there, all that hard work and training to become a childcare provider. I feel sorry for teachers today and would support them 100% for not wanting this.
Fair enough, perhaps use school premises for outside contractors for childcare before and after school. It isn't fair to disadvantage dc of parents who don't work by offering those that do extra tuition.
There is no way my dd would go to school for that many hours or fewer holidays. I just won't do it.
I also wonder what the transition to high school would be like, as dc no longer need the child care aspect, would the day be shorter again?

DollyTwat - would you support your tax bill going up to provide it?

maths MP's have for a long time assumed teachers are childcare

Id rather I was paying £70 a day for them to learn something and for them it's the same, they have to be up at the same time. After a week or two even a sports club becomes the norm

They feel hard done by as I can't take 13 weeks off a year
It costs me a fortune but I have no choice if I want to work

I'd like to see the Holidays cut from 13 weeks as I just can't cover them. Xmas takes most of my holiday as there's no cover

I think if my tax bill went up to support it I would support it
It wouldn't go up by the £ I'm paying now

Dolly - of course it would as you would still be paying the tax bill long long after your dc left school

And to say teachers aren't there to provide child care isn't an argument when the holidays I need childcare for could be time spent in school

We all have to work.

DollyTwat

No we don't all have to work and some of us don't agree with childcare.
You do need childcare but why is that the concern of teachers or other parents.

That is a point too, but teachers are generally far more highly trained/educated than childcare providers, and if teachers are to work longer hours as teachers then that is going to cost people (via taxes).

For me earning just enough to not get any tax credits at all means that I pay for 9 weeks holiday care at £35 per child

If the government want people to work then they have to make it easier for people to do that. If making the school holidays shorter is the way they do it I'm all for it. Even after my dc have left. I'd happily pay more tax for the generations below me, why wouldn't I? Single mums get left with the whole lot to cope with, my ex doesn't work, I know I'm not the only one

Let's make the system work for those of us who struggle to finance it all

Lucky for you you don't have to work and have never had to use childcare because you've had to work

I think the majority if parents do have to work
And use childcare because they have to

No choices

Have only just registered with mumsnet (to research a particular thread) and stumbled across this one. I'm a teacher and assumed all the mums out there would want more school for their kids ... how lovely that most people on this thread don't (and as a mum neither do I).

And whilst I think teachers do a great job, so do I
Most of the people I work with work much longer hours, unpaid because their careers depend on it, without 13 weeks holiday

We all work hard, not just teachers

As a parent I would love the school day to be longer to make my life a whole lot easier (no worries having to pick-up at 15:15 or pay £12.50 per child for after school club pick up).

However, when I drop my dd off at 07:30 for breakfast club her teacher is just arriving too most days, this being the case if an extended day meant my dd didn't get to do things like watching chicks grow from eggs the chickens or be taken to the allotment to grow fruit and veg to highlight two things she enjoys that I am sure go above and beond the normal run of the mill running a class room then no I don't.

Perhaps if more teachers could be introduced across the board or such like but thats not going to happen either.

why pay for 9 weeks holiday care when they only have 13 weeks holiday - your employer legally has to give you 28 days a/l per year - take off weekends and that makes over five weeks a/l

I used to take all my a/l in school holidays which left me with just over 7 weeks of school holiday time to find cover

I could rarely ever get my ex to have the dc in school holidays
But there is no way I would put them in holiday club more than needed

Its a crap idea, my children need the break to recharge their batteries and im sure the teachers need a respite from some of the challenging children they have to deal with.

When DS told me about the reduced school holiday I thought "well what a crap idea, first take the knees out of our tourism industry by not allowing term time breaks....now kick it in the face and finish it off by making the holidays shorter" It will depress our coastal towns even more when they are already strugging (of course the MPs wouldnt thing of this as they generally p*ss of to the Caribbean or Maldives)

My children only have 10 minutes to walk to school but how will making the day longer impact upon those who have longer trips...this idea is unworkable too if we are taking into account what is good for the children. Of course the motivation behind this decision will be business profit related.

Dolly.

Of course the majority of parents don't have to work, and of those that do many also don't need childcare.

My point is if I choose to send my dd to school again, I certainly wouldn't if it was a longer day to suit parents that work and need childcare.
Ok if the hours were optional and not educational and was childcare by a childcare provider, maybe fewer would object.
I have nothing against child care workers, but they are hardly as qualified as a teacher. Why should a teacher having worked for many years to become qualified have to become a childcare worker. Having their terms and conditions changed, to suit working parents. It stinks tbh.

Utterly ridiculous to extend the school day for primary age children - they're only CHILDREN fgs. Michael Gove will presumably expect us to shove them up chimneys or send them off t'mill soon.

I speak from experience when I say that secondary English teachers some times stay up all night and go to work the next day because of the marking work load... it never ends and then there's the planning for new educational strategies and exam specifications and of course devising new behaviour strategies for the 'unteachable' classes. Other than that it's easy peasy!

Bearing in mind the amount of children now in counselling and the rise in children harming themselves I would say something is already not working, piling more pressure on them so parents dont have to pay so much child care is ridiculous. It makes me quite angry that people are pushing for this to support their life choices.

It's not childcare if they are in school learning is it

And I would say that the majority of parents DO have to work. What makes you think it's a minority? Are there really lots of parents sitting at home not working waiting for the holidays? Not at my dc's school

Most working parents I know are faced with a nightmare every summer, how to cope with 6 weeks juggling holiday entitlement and paying a fortune for going in holiday.

Pay the teachers more money and cut the holidays.
Only those lucky enough to not have to work and teaches would be against this.

morethanpotatoprints
No we don't all have to work and some of us don't agree with childcare.
You do need childcare but why is that the concern of teachers or other parents.

That is patently not the experience of most people in this country!

I don't agree with benefits/tax credits subsidising SAHPs- if you need a handout to stay home, you do have to work.

LazarussLozenge
My employer offers flexible working. It's not quite flexi-time but it is possible to stagger work times so some people can start at 8am and finish at 4pm while others start at 9.30am and finish at 5.30pm, and all the times in between. A large number of people choose the early start and finish times rather than the late ones so our car park is pretty thinned out by half four in the afternoon.

I get quite annoyed with people who simply equate longer hours with working harder. I work a 35 hour week and get 30 days holiday a year. In my previous job I did 37.5 hours and got 22 days a year and got paid less. In both companies, I have worked as hard as I needed to to get my job done which may not be as hard as someone else or may be harder. It's all relative to your individual job, training and salary Why do so many people devalue the work that teachers do? They are giving children skills and opportunity that they need to grow up and become valuable members of society.

And I agree with the majority of other posters here - it's a stupid idea. Long summer holidays where I could play outside and have fun were brilliant. Some of my fondest memories are of that time. Children need to learn skills other than academic ones in a structured environment, and the social skills they learn playing out are just as important.

Working isn't a life choice, it's a necessity

Children of working parents already do long days

If the the holidays were shorter perhaps the teachers work load could be managed in normal hours? Perhaps the same curriculum could be spread out?

Im sorry Dolly I appreciate your predicament but I think serious thought needs to be given to the impact this will have upon campsites, hotels, B & Bs and in fact the wellbeing of all of the shops, cafes, wildlife parks - the knock on effect from this would be massive

In the days when you could take your children out of school the season was longer but now they all have to make their money within such a small time in the UK.

I scaled my lifestyle back massively to give my children a proper childhood - where holidays are spent at the park and in the woods hanging out of trees. I dont want them to be stuck in a class room being turned into mini adults for their entire childhoods. Let them worry about targets and achievements when they are older.