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.

Solopower1

And the reason I think Gove keeps trying to paint teachers in such a bad light is because he knows that they would go on strike if he did try to lengthen the school day and shorten holidays (wouldn't it be illegal for him to change their terms and conditions like this anyway?). So he has been trying to erode any public support for them beforehand.

I think they're doing a good job eroding their own public support - NUT demanding a 35-hour week with 20 hours of contact time is a pretty good way of doing it.

Like the Tories have been doing with the NHS: running it down, publicising everything that goes wrong as a result of understaffing etc and then saying it's terrible so we need a private health system.

I suppose the Labour government's body count should be covered up to ensure that people continue to love the NHS unreservedly, because heaven forfend we put ideological zeal above patient care.

No cover ups, flatpackhamster.

The NHS ethos is deeply political. It was set up as a direct result of a left-wing political ideology. The idea was to try to give everyone equal access to good health. You couldn't get more political than that - it's a central tenet of socialism or even communism.

Equally education was seen as the right of every child (= communism, socialism), and both were thought to be good for the nation.

It's funny isn't it, that no-one can openly say, even now, that equal access to good healthcare and education is a bad thing. So the people who want to privatise it have to fall back on excuses like bad service, bad education.

If they really wanted to improve it for everyone, they would and they could.

It might be better for some people/working parents but what about the kids? Stop and think about how they would feel about having shorter holidays and longer days. Mine would hate it, and I really enjoy the holidays too, even if we don't do anything.

Wow there's actually 29 pages. leaves quietly staring at out of place post

ridiculous. You would get rebellious little sh*ts like me walking out left right and center. You would get stressed students and a higher dropout rate as they resent being forced to stay in a stressful place they hate. students would be forced to work for a stupidly long amount of time and would have no time for the important stuff like being a kid. kids need time to be a kid when not almost exhausted from school.

We really must make children the priority. As an early years teacher I already have children with attachment disorders, caused by attending poor day care settings from being a baby.

These children then start school at the age of 3/4/5 but with working parents continue with very long days, attending a provider for breakfast at 7.30am, coming to school, going back to a provider until 6.00pm.
These children attend the day care centre full time for holidays.

These children don't form relationships with anyone as this has never been constant. These children react against anyone who tries to care for them, often agressively. People don't mean anything to them. I have been bitten, hit, punched. I have watched chairs thrown, doors kicked. These children don't care. They don't care because they think noone cares about them.

These children arrive home after 6.00pm, have a bath and go to bed (an early start demands this). These children don't share books at home, or do their homework. These children don't have time to relax and play at home. These children never get time to build relationships with even their own parents.

These children are the product of busy professional parents.

What will the quality of life be for children with even longer school days and less holidays? What will society be like when all children are living this life?

Michael Gove hasn't thought this through. I am proud of the people on here who voiced there concerns about his ideas.

We really must make children the priority. As an early years teacher I already have children with attachment disorders, caused by attending poor day care settings from being a baby.

These children then start school at the age of 3/4/5 but with working parents continue with very long days, attending a provider for breakfast at 7.30am, coming to school, going back to a provider until 6.00pm.
These children attend the day care centre full time for holidays.

These children don't form relationships with anyone as this has never been constant. These children react against anyone who tries to care for them, often agressively. People don't mean anything to them. I have been bitten, hit, punched. I have watched chairs thrown, doors kicked. These children don't care. They don't care because they think noone cares about them.

These children arrive home after 6.00pm, have a bath and go to bed (an early start demands this). These children don't share books at home, or do their homework. These children don't have time to relax and play at home. These children never get time to build relationships with even their own parents.

These children are the product of busy professional parents.

What will the quality of life be for children with even longer school days and less holidays? What will society be like when all children are living this life?

Michael Gove hasn't thought this through. I am proud of the people on here who voiced their concerns about his ideas.

I agree with you-this hasn't been thought through at all. It's simply been jumped on as a 'fits all' solution by those with childcare issues. Do we really want a nation of institutionalised children?! In other parts of the world, summer holidays are far longer!

good post Milly. Who wants institutionalised children. longer days don't mean more learning as we can all only take in certain amounts of information.

don't tinker with the school holidays Mr Gove.

Home ed is appealing more and more.

Gove's a fecking hypocrite - as an MP he gets far longer holidays than any schoolchild or teacher. OK, so they are supposed to pop into their constituencies occasionally, but that doesn't require breaks that are much longer than any school allows (apart from some public schools, I guess).

if you really believe that school is a stressful place they hate, that is what needs to be addressed! Students should not spend any time in an environment like that, so if you can glibly make a statement like that, then quibbling over extra hours is nonsense.

I don't think children think school is a stressful place that they hate but it is tiring and intense and little children need time off to play, have fun and recharge their batteries.

You can't just do more of the same and expect better results. If you work 9-5, but were suddenly asked to work 7-7, would you be as productive? Where does it stop- why not work 6-9? Who decides the optimum working hours? Someone who's commissioned quality research? Or someone who comes up with a half- arsed idea on the back of fag packet...

I don't think its right to start having a go at teachers. It must be hard trying to get children to actively learn and take part in lessons. Also what about the teachers that have young children themselves?

I think the length of the school day is adequate for both students, teachers and parents. I do think the summer holidays are quite long, perhaps they could be staggered in some way?

i think school day is long enough,i would personally prefer three medium sized school holidays at summer,christmas and easter.

in MY ideal world school would start at 1o and finish at 2 aswell,i think they would get more out of them that way,espescially teens,its been tried and tested a few times.

I think it's a terrible idea, since when was our education system about producing children that could tolerate long working hours. What about education for enrichment and for the development of social skills and god forbid to have passion for a particular subject.
Children and parents will be exhausted and family life will certainly suffer. Rates of depression in children I'm sure, will soar.

Also what's wrong with children being bored once in a while? From the state of bordom rises many great and creative ideas. Give the children room to just be.

Very bad idea. The reasons stated were mainly about parents; both could work full time, those on welfare could be made to work more, and part timers could work more. Nothing about the child's welfare. It's quite horrible.

I wouldn't want my DC stuck in school till 6. There were some not so nice kids that bullied them and I wouldn't want them stuck with them any longer. What about swimming etc after school? What about parents who have one who works say 5pm-12, they wouldn't see their child all week. Much better as it is 9-3 and with childcare for those who need it, not more school!!!

I worked for 14 years in marketing, rising to Account Director in a prestigious agency. Then I retrained as a primary school teacher, partly to have hours and holidays more compatible with my three children. So I feel absolutely qualified to say that nothing ... NOTHING ... compares to how utterly exhausted teachers feel at the end of the school year. "Burn-out" does not do it justice. When I look at photos of myself at the beginning of school holidays and again towards the end, the transformation is incredible. I return to school in September refreshed and ready for whatever challenges and curve balls the government decide to throw at us in the coming academic year. In this country the education system is an even greater political football than the NHS and teachers exist in a constant state of flux. This creates stress that non-teachers cannot comprehend. What people forget is that many teachers are parents too. We already sacrifice many hours during the evening and at weekends preparing, planning and marking. I rarely worked outside office hours when I worked in marketing. What Gove is proposing is intolerable, not just for teachers but most importantly for the children. Mumsnet - ask your children this question: "Would you want to be in school from 9-6:00pm every days and then have your holidays reduced by half?" When I asked this to my Year 6 class recently, one child actually started to cry. There is your answer. School is not a childminding service for working parents. Any person who thinks that teaching is easy or in any way comparable to office work really need to take a reality check!

I have always thought that as a teacher that I was a child-minder. Working ina private school I start at 7.50 am and work almost continuously with about 20 minutes beak during the day until about 5.45 pm having marked books, prepared from 8-10 periods of lessons for the next day doing a practical subject with no technician to help me. Coupled to this teaching other mummies and daddies hyperactive children all day with no break is no easy task. Most good teachers are nackered by the time they get home. We also cannot take hols when we want so pay high prices for breaks if we can afford them. During the day I have to plan my toilet breaks very carefully as I teach many double lessons. In summary if you are not a teacher do please shut up about teaching as you simply do not have a clue what goes on in the class room. Mr. Gove bless his little heart has absolutely no idea at all either.

Mr is a poor Education Secretary. But he is brilliant at publicity stunts. The media should wise up on him.