Long private school holidays

[lemondaisies]

Considering school options, but wondered why private schools have much longer holidays - does anyone know?

I love the longer school holidays. DS1 is at state school now and I miss being able to go away as much.

Oh and his school is 8.45-3.45, the other two (indie) 8.15-4.05

Mine is a boarder and is hardly ever there, so many long holidays.
it can make the time difficult if you don't have much money, but when they get older they can work quite a lot.
She doesn't get homework as they complete this in school, so no need for it at home.
Smaller classes and no disruption means they get more done during the school day.

Oh academic school days are 8.30 until 12.00 / 2,00pm until 4.30.
Practice, prep, rehearsals, and music lessons are between 7.30am and approx 8.45pm. Tea is 6pm.

We have 1 child at state primary and 1 at prep school.
State primary day 8.55 til 3.15
Prep school 8.30 til 3.45
So an extra hour a day.
Plus one hour bus journey each way to get there. DC1 is knackered by the end of term and I kinda like the long holiday

Boarding and travelling home abroad it would be better for 4 weeks than 2

Think also about the availability of childcare in the weeks that are term time for state schools. It's not impossible but many of the organised holiday clubs tend to be limited to state school hols.

Thinking back to my own experience, it was probably the result of longer days combined with two day half term holidays. We did get most of Wednesday afternoons off for sporting activities though.

Not too similar to the current university format. Apart from the absence of half term holidays.

That should be "dissimilar".

DS’s school has amazing holiday club provision onsite, which is one of the reasons we chose the school as despite the longer holidays it was still a better set up for working parents than the state options.

My son is in Y7 - lessons start at 08.30 - 4.10. He breaks up on Friday and is exhausted - it's not just the long school day but also have to factor in the travel time - some of the children in his school have quite long distances to travel. There is a lot of sport he participates in which take place on weekends as well, so by the time the holiday comes round he just wants to chill.

Compared to friends at state schools there is the large volume of homework that needs to be done each day as well that his primary peers just don't appear to have.

Looking at older year groups there is a lot of school educational trips that take place during the time most state schools are still teaching so perhaps that may be a factor.

My DS's Prep does:

8am - 5pm on week days (then 5-7pm is optional)
9am- 1pm on Saturdays (optional unless in a match)

2 weeks Oct half term
4 weeks Easter
9 weeks Summer

It’s typucally the boarding schools that gave longer holidays ime

Our school is 8:15 to 15:45 3 days, 8.00 to 15:45 2 days. so much longed than state schools (9:00 to 15:30), about 5.5 hours per week.
1 week more holidays at christmas, autimn half term and eastern, 2 weeks more in summer, so 5 weeks more holidays. much the same in terms if childcare etc necessary - we pay less for after school care, more for holiday care. if you go away, you easily save a terms school fees by going outside state school holidays

add pn: we also have breskfast club available from 7:30, and after school club until 6:30. Much better for 2 working parents than state schools (at a price, of course). its much easier to find holiday clubs than breakfast/after school care.

Our prep school has a four term year, holidays are 2 weeks at Christmas, 2 weeks at Easter, 4 weeks in May/June and 5 weeks in August, plus two weeks at Oct/Feb half term.

There is a holiday club included in our school fees 51 weeks a year, the school day is from 8:45-4 but children can go from 8-6 if needed. It’s good for working parents and the holiday club is fab.

Private schools vary, of course. But typically they have a much longer school day and sometimes Saturday school as well. The result is children get a lot more lessons and do a lot more work, even though they take longer holidays.

Staff absence and useless teachers are also much rarer, which makes a big difference over the years.

And a lot of families also hire tutors during the holidays to ensure catch up. So the poor little (&^%$$%&(s never get a day's peace.

The boys at my prep school in Year 7 and 8 start at 8.30, and finish at 5.45. They also do some sports on a Saturday, and also some late evening clubs/events such as debating and chess.
Year 5 and 6 finish at 5.10, so it’s staggered when the boys finish.

And a lot of families also hire tutors during the holidays to ensure catch up. So the poor little (&^%$$%&(s never get a day's peace.

This is a big difference from State, because in State schools tutoring is really rare.

My son's private school day is shorter than state. It has to do with when the trains run so all the kids can get home, some of them commute a long way. They still have longer holidays.

But the classes are so small they get through the content much quicker so I don't begrudge the schedule. The teachers all seem very happy, even though they make less money than those at mainstream. It helps that DS is older so I don't have childcare issues. I'd never choose it for primary.

I work at a boarding school; the day is 8:15 to 4:15 with most Saturdays too. In 16 years there I’ve never had a parent mention the longer holidays as a problem. However, they are generally wealthy and have nannies etc.

And a lot of families also hire tutors during the holidays to ensure catch up.

It's a pretty shit school if that is necessary.

DS school day is 8.40 -3.30.
He has 2 weeks for half term in October and May and a week in February. Christmas and Easter are 2 weeks. Summer is 8 weeks.
Guess we get maybe 4 weeks longer than State schools.
School do run holiday clubs and I work PR but it would be tricky without local grandparents.

DD's primary and secondary had three weeks extra: an extra week at Christmas, Easter and summer. They also had the odd earlier finish - so finishing at lunch before each of those on the final Friday. Plus the 5 days inset tagged on.

Re length of day. It wasn't really that much longer for us, though the wrap around care at primary had longer options and some support or music lessons could be before school at 8am - though only if you agreed.

Primary - Infants : 8:30am to 3:30pm
Primary - juniors : 8:30am to 3:45pm
Secondary: 8:30 to 3:30pm

At primary you could leave children in the supervised playground from 8:15am.

Dd is at state sixth form and if she has a full day (rare!) it's 9am to 3:10pm I think.
My school - Infants - is 8:50 (can drop at 8:40) to 3:20pm.

Didn't know anyone who used tutors during holidays at DD's schools. Occasionally in upper secondary people had the odd tutor in a subject, but that's no different to our experience of children at state secondary.

DD's primary, and secondary too at times, had holiday club options especially to cover the time off when state school holidays hadn't started.

Breakfast club was from 7:30am and after school club until 6pm. You could use it til 4pm for free.