Is a four week summer holiday better than 6 weeks?

[MercurialMonday]

Could Wales' summer break be cut to four weeks?

A four-week summer break with five school terms of about seven or eight weeks. Three weeks holiday at Christmas and two weeks between the other terms

Would this be better - I can see some positives and some negatives but mine are teens so childcare is less and issue just wonder if people did think it was better.

I would love that model both as a parent and a school support worker (who works school holidays anyway).

No because the summer half term would be longer so more people would be able to have a two week holiday then rather than in July and august.

I definitely wouldn’t look forward to a longer October or February half term. Or a longer Christmas holiday. Rubbish weather. Also if all the parents want their vacation at the same time in a short 4 week summer holiday, many places of work will have a major staffing crisis on their hands.

No because the summer half term would be longer so more people would be able to have a two week holiday then rather than in July and august.

Do you mean May half term? I can’t see that being permanently made 2 weeks due to external exams.

That sort of decision should be taken as what is best for the children (and the teachers). Not as a consultation.

There has been quite a few studies around that subject. They show

• children need at least 2 weeks to be able to rest. 1 week isn’t enough.


• having a term longer than 6 weeks is counter productive. The children are too tired an don’t learn.


• children need a longer break in the summer, 6+ weeks where they get to be children. Playing, not doing anything whatever. But 6 weeks Wo the pressure of learning.


• id say that, in the U.K., teachers ALSO need a long break because they often start working again 2 weeks before the start of the school year to prepare everything again. If the summer was only 4 weeks, they would have had a grand total of two weeks. Too short.

The problem is that independent schools will probably keep the long summer holidays (they have longer holidays anyway). Getting to have a long summer holiday will become a status symbol (it seems that the more expensive the school, the earlier they break up in summer).

Fwiw the length of autumn term is stupid. Between the fact it’s very long and the fact it’s winter, children disengage by the beginning of December at best.

I'm sure more parents in Wales use unpaid childcare from family and friends than in England, I wonder if the "fight" for time off from the workplace wouldn't be as pronounced in Wales as in England?

I can't seem to find an article backing it up now, but I'm sure I've read it before! Although anecdotally almost everyone I know in the valleys uses grandparents/aunties/uncles etc to look after their children through the holidays.

It's over of the reasons cited in the, terrible, Wales online article about it today.

Also, that it will reduce social disadvantage as kids who get no enrichment for 6 weeks drop behind the most over the summer holidays.

I went to a private school where we had four weeks at Christmas, three at Easter and nine in the summer, plus a week’s half term in each term, so my children’s holidays always seem a bit stingy to me. My husband’s a teacher so we’re fortunate enough not to have to worry about term-time childcare, and I do see the issue, but I think children really do need a proper break. They need the summer to be long enough that when they break up they can’t “see the other side” and can properly allow it to stretch ahead of them.

My ideal would be 5 weeks in summer instead of 6 and an extra week for the May/June half term so it shortens the longer stint but still gives the children a break at a point where the weather is good or people might choose to take holidays then.

The weather for October/feb holidays can be shocking. I had one October half term when I (foolishly) booked an outdoor tennis camp for my daughter. It rained every day and she spent as much time in the hut as she did on the court.