Does anyone know why private schools have such long holidays?

[penguinsforever]

It seems excessive and is a major factor in my decision to send dc there. I work, so state schools would mean much less holiday childcare needed. I just wondered if there's any reason private schools have so much holiday time?

Because the school day is longer!
At least, it is in the school I work in. The pupils are up at 7.30am, and have started their school day by 8.35am. They have 40 minutes for lunch and are doing sport and supervised activities again by 2pm. They start more lesson at 4.30pm until 6.30pm, homework until supper at 7.30pm and evening activities (plays, concerts, debating, visiting speaker talks) from 8.45-10pm or later. They do this Mon-Fri. There are lessons on Saturday and matches all Saturday afternoon and they are occupied on Sunday mornings....
They also have to find 'extra' space for things like music practice or extra arts stuff.
They really need their holidays!! But they cover so much more each term...

I once read an article that theorised that the longer summer holiday was copying the Oxbridge long vac, during which the Grand Tour was undertaken and schoolmasters were in to a nice little earner in accompanying the offspring of the upper classes round Europe.

I know for some schools who have boarders, it's to give children time to travel and see their families for a decent period of time (some don't live in the same country). Where we live the state schools have a half day each Friday, but some of the private schools don't. The private schools also seem to have a longer school day, plus activities over the weekends.

It is a pain though. DS has nearly 9 weeks off over the summer. It's a long time to entertain them even if you don't work.

I agree that it is most likely historical based on many pupils boarding in the past. We live in Scotland our DS is at boarding school in London. Until relatively recently, boys, as it would have predominantly been in those days, would have to have travelled by train which would take hours. It wasn't worth going home for exeats so the terms were short with long days to allow for longer holidays.

Now the majority fly but due to his extremely busy schedule at school he is knackered when he comes home.

When at prep school in Scotland, his school day started at 8.15 am and finished at 6.00 pm (he didn't board) with many staying on who were studying for scholarships and common entrance until 8 pm around 3 nights per week.

Being at school from 8.15 until 6 suited many parents as the kids could be dropped off on the way to work and picked up after work. Hell of a long day for the kids though. Many parents were self employed so were able to work around it easier than anyone who was employed to be honest. This only applied to kids from Form 4 onwards, the younger ones had a shorter day.

the number of hours of teaching at private schools is almost identical to the number at state schools - but the days are longer so the terms are shorter
boarding schools have even longer days so even shorter terms

In general the hours are longer. At DD's school her week is 7hours longer than the state school day here.
As a working parent it is far, far easier to organise whole day care in the longer holidays than it is to organise wrap around care in longer terms.

DD's are only 2 weeks longer than local state.

School day longer and no random inset days. School runs a summer school for 4 weeks in summer so I have actually less holidays to find cover for not more.

I take annual leave the 2 extra weeks. Rest of holidays coincide with state so all the usual holiday childcare is running.

I thought that the long summer vacation, at least, was a hangover from the days where many boys would have had parents stationed in India and the other colonies: the journey home by boat would have taken so long that long vacations were necessary to make the trip worthwhile.

In the late 80s, my boarding school hours were:
Classes 8-4
Extra curricular activities 4-6
Dinner 6-7
Homework 7-8/8.30
A bit of tv time then bed.
Saturday there were 2 hours of homework time in the morning.

We had 1 week half term October, 3 weeks Christmas, 2 weeks Easter, then 8-9 summer (I think). Winter and spring term thete was also a weekend you could go home. We lived 5 hours' drive away, so I always stayed behind in the very old, very spooky school

(Now St Audries Park wedding venue!)

I think it's a bit much charging so much for, in some cases, very short terms. And not all private schools have holiday clubs. There is then no childcare available during those weeks when state schools are still running. It's a big problem for working parents.

Dromedary
but the number of hours of teaching is the same in teh two sectors

the long summer holiday is nothingto do with Injah, its to do with UK agriculture

School days are longer and also many schools have lessons on Saturday mornings. If there are boarders then they have to factor in travelling times I suppose.

I don't that the numbers add up. Some private schools (and many don't do Sat mornings) have extremely long holidays. The fact that they work for one hour longer on school days does not make up for the long holidays. Plus private schools tend to spend a lot more time on sport and other such extras than state schools. So overall the children spend a lot less time on academic work.
If you spend money on private school it would be nice not to be landed with a good few weeks a year when there is no childcare available for your child. It is far worse when you have one child private and one state (very common) as you then can't go away until the state child finishes school, by which time you've used all your holiday entitlement up looking after the privately educated one (as holiday clubs not yet open). Plus such long holidays are too much unless you have enough money to pay for the child to do lots of exciting stuff while you are working.

Round here independent schools have 2 weeks extra in the summer, one at Christmas and one at Easter.

Thought not an extra one at February half term Annoyingky which would be ace for skiing!

Does seem a tad too much but they don't have inset days so that claws back, what, a week?

I know some that have more extra time off than that. The more expensive the school the longer the holidays. I think it's a bit cheeky.

It'll be interesting whether increasing term times in state schools as proposed by Gove will put pressure in indies to increase their term times agree very long holidays can be a pain

I think its to let the foreign students time to go home to their families....

In state schools, several weeks a year are liteealky just babysitting. The kids are too tired to do anything meajingful. Private schools lose that bit.

I thought it had some historical link to the poor people going off to pick potatoes and the rich ones on their annual Henley type jaunts ...

The longer day/ no half term isn't always true. There are two private schools that share contract buses with us. Their days are shorter (by about half an hour), they have half term the same as us, but start a week later and finish a week earlier. Value for money? I think not.

My DCs standard school day has registration at 8:25 but they are expected to be in school before then so they are organised & ready to go. Pupils are allowed in the building from 8.00. They then finish at 16.00 or 16.15 (they are at two different schools). Our local state senior school opens its doors at 8:45 and finishes at 15:15, that's one hour and a quarter less every single day.

A friend of mine teaches at an infants & junior school which was rebuilt and its opening was delayed, this led to longer teaching hours for the first two terms. Attendance improved and the school has kept those hours. That school is in a deprived area. I think it would probably be better for teens if they started at 10 and finished at 18.00.

I think the situation actually is that private/public schools vary their times even more than state schools.
The thing that annoys me about the local ones having longer holidays than us is that their results aren't even that good.

At de's prep (year 3 to 8), they start lessons at 8:20 and the day ends at 5:30 except for wednesdays when it ends at 3:45.

Dromedary - it does add up to the same teaching hours as state schools in most cases. An extra 1 hour per day at private school equals 5 hours per week which over the term is a couple of extra weeks teaching time.
Key stage 1 in most state schools teach for 21 hours per week and key stage 2 is 23.5 hours per week.
My local prep school teach for 28 hours per week in key stage 1 and 29 hours per week in key stage 2 (other local,private schools are similar).
So parents are not being short changed on actual teaching hours.
As for the holidays, most private schools (all nearby to me) have wraparound care and holiday care on the premises so it's easy for working parents to manage. Most also have extra curricular activities after school most days which are inclusive in the school fees.

We work 8.30-4.45 but most children stay until sometime between 6 and 8.30pm doing prep and activities. Many also board. We have Saturday school (lessons in the morning and sport in the afternoon).

But I still think the length of holiday is ridiculous! Yes, we're all exhausted by the end of terms but so are children and teachers in state schools - it only takes a week to recover!