Have your school holidays gotten longer.

[Skyechasemarshalontheway]

When i went to school i always thought we had 6 weeks off.

My children are off a day short of 8 weeks this year.
It was 7 weeks the previous two years.

Has anyone elses councils done similar. They must be taking days from other holidays as we do get the 190 days in school normally.

I think i would prefer them split up throughout the year than in one big block.

They have an extra week this year due to going back a week early in August 2020.

Yep. We had 1 yr of 6.5 weeks a few years ago. Been 7wks or more ever since. Along with 2wks October. 2wks Easter. Another 2wks at christmas.

Me and H worry about having enough leave to cover the holidays. Don't get me started on holiday childcare, or lack of local provision. And I don't have helpful grandparents who do more than 1wk per year of the kids holidaying with them.

It makes me a little panicky thinking about it all

Yes ! I said this. I used to get 6.5 weeks growing up in Edinburgh. My kids in Fife are getting one day short of 8 weeks when they've missed loads in the last 16 months!

We were meant to finish on the 2nd July but due to going back a week early they took a week off the holidays. I'm off 7 weeks and the children have an extra 2 days.

I remember 6 weeks growing up in Edinburgh. In Stirlingshire, my DC had 7 weeks every year (or sometimes a day or two over) apart from when they had 8 which was to do with some issue where they miss out on a part of a day every year and the that got consolidated into another week in the summer.

Very hard and expensive trying to cover that as working parents. I'm glad my DC are adults now.

Every few years you seem to get another week added on. 2022-23 might be shorter if this is a long year.

In england

When I was younger.

We used to get 5 weeks.
But the kids now get 6 weeks

Just short of 8 weeks here too. We've also had October extended to 2 weeks (previous years it's been 1). 2 weeks at Christmas and 2 weeks at Easter.

1 day for september weekend and 2 days in February, 3 days in May.

They still get 190 days in school a year though, even if they are divided up differently.
The going back a week early (in some areas) has led to there being an anomaly this year and some regions have the extra week paid back.

Seven weeks. Far too long. Sure it was six when I was at school.

It was definitely shorter in Edinburgh in the 80s. It was always into July (just) when we finished and now it's always a week before the end of June.

7.5 for us this year but that's due to going back a week early last august. Should have been 6.5 weeks. Every few years it's 7.5 weeks.

I'm sure they were 8 weeks in the 80s and then inservice days were added to teacher conditions so they took a week of teacher school summer holiday and spread it across the year, thus reducing the summer holiday but not pupil holidays overall. Pupils have 190 days in school and teachers 195 whichever way it is split up by the local authority.
In recent years our LA has reduced the February holiday and the second May weekend which has pushed the summer holiday from 7 to 7.5 weeks for pupils.
In 2020, the way the holidays fell would have actually meant an 8 week holiday here for the first time in over a decade. It didn't happen due to the government putting all schools back on the same date and we got those dates in February (during lockdown when everything was closed ) instead.

I understand its the 190 days regardless of how the holidays are divided up on the callendar, it just feels like a longer holiday, pushing 8 weeks. Maybe it's all the restrictions and the relentless nature of the last 18months, but it's a long and expensive time to fill for families.

Dp has just had his shifts moved around for August (nhs) and it's threw us into a spin as our childcare was sorted, now I have another 3 days to cover with holiday clubs now all booked up and no annual leave available.

I think it's also that in more families both parents work these days so juggling childcare is harder. When I was at school my mum worked mornings as a cleaner and was allowed to work evenings instead during the holidays so my dad could care for us. It wasn't ideal, but did mean that there was no need to find or pay for childcare.
I'd imagine there is reduced provision of available childcare this year due to Covid and what's available is more costly too.
I believe children generally benefit from a long holiday in the summer months if they can take advantage of the longer days, (sometimes) better weather and have time to relax and play. (I know that lots of children don't get this benefit for a variety of reasons.) Its obvious though that our working lives and school-day times and holiday periods are not compatible.
I'll admit it worries me that there seems to be a desire from politicians to adapt schooling to fit around work instead of look for affordable and useful childcare solutions to help families who need them to bridge that gap and to protect those children who are more at risk from longer holidays from school.

We are 7 weeks and 3 days holiday.

The extra days for last year were given back in September/October (can't remember which but it was all on the holiday sheet) and prior to Christmas so nothing to do with starting back a week early last year for us.

We have 7 weeks this summer as we had to go back a week early last year, We normally have 6 in the summer and 2 in October but I think some areas may have 7 in the summer and only 1 in October. We also have a mid term long weekend and one occasional day which is usually the June local holiday about 2 weeks before we break up, so totally pointless.

Yes, we've had eight weeks two or three times in the last six/seven years.

I think it's FAR too long. My kids have been off since the 24th June, and don't go back for another four weeks today. They're mostly bored shitless as DH and I can't take enough time off between us to cover it.

The 11 year old at least can go out with her friends to the park, but the 8 year old is really relying on us finding a spare 30 minutes to do something with him.

It's a shit outdated system.

The holidays were definitely shorter when I was younger.

I believe children generally benefit from a long holiday in the summer months if they can take advantage of the longer days, (sometimes) better weather and have time to relax and play. (I know that lots of children don't get this benefit for a variety of reasons.) Its obvious though that our working lives and school-day times and holiday periods are not compatible.
I'll admit it worries me that there seems to be a desire from politicians to adapt schooling to fit around work instead of look for affordable and useful childcare solutions to help families who need them to bridge that gap and to protect those children who are more at risk from longer holidays from school.

I totally agree with you kidd benefit from being out with friends and a proper break from school.

Many work places only allow a limited number of people off at a time. So shorter summer means more people fighting over the same week's off. Nobody really wants to have time off in winter when it's dark and gloomy and you have less chance of decent weather.

I'm a definite vote for keep summer. Boost vitamin D levels and provide better access to childcare. I pay my after school the same price all
year round to cover all the summer holidays and days we need

Another argument for keeping the summer holidays is days out in good dry weather (parks / beaches etc) are cheaper and healthier than days out in Autumn and Winter (softplay/ cinema / museums etc).

Fingers crossed they are left alone. But more and better care providers.

Also if you cut the summer it would make holidays more expensive. Shorter season for the industry.
Assuming we'd still want Scotland to stop before England for the cheaper holidays, it would cut the number of weeks people can visit English relations.
More parents would he tempted to take kids out in term time for holidays and for English visits.

Really leave the kids to have their holidays! We enjoyed them don't rob your kids and grandkids of long summer holidays.

The problem is more quality and price of holiday club options when you're working than length of holidays. I'm sure this summer feels longer because of the last 16 months!

My dc can't do all day sports clubs and it is really hard to find nice alternatives.

My eldest goes to a brilliant out of school care. They run 4 days over summer, don't have enough demand for Fridays.

So in the 4 days they aim to be out at least 2, and bring activities in for the other 2. Loads of places that you'd do in a normal family day out. Splitting them into older and younger groups as appropriate.

It amazes me people struggle to access the same sort of provision.
Although Covid nearly killed the afterschool off. Little support other than furlough. No grants that they could receive. No rates relief as they rent from the school. They didn't know if they'd get access to the school until the last minute. And struggle with other places because of the need for outside space.

I live in a small town, so here's what we can access:

Tennis Club (runs for two weeks, 10-1 or 2-5 only)
Football Club - runs for four weeks, 10-3
Mixed sports club - runs through the holidays, hugely expensive, booked up months in advance
Out of school club - not in our school, but a school about an hours round trip away, with kids from all the schools in the area attending

DD is not into sports at all. She's also had a fairly tough time during the pandemic. My only option would be to send her to out of school club, but I know she'd be miserable in a gym hall full of strange (and younger) kids.

We're still WFH so she can be at home, luckily.

I do think there's a problem with most clubs being sports based. We know that less girls continue with sports as they get older, particularly when it's a mixed sex provision. I'd love to see an alternative for girls who are into crafts, etc.

The out of school club will probably have kids up to age 12 / end of P7.

The sports clubs are only good if Granny is babysitting then they give her a break but no real use for working parents.