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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Curious: Bristol girls state secondary- with 9 weeks summer holiday??!

31 replies

Erebus · 18/07/2011 21:51

I am just curious! My mum was telling me about a neighbour's GDD in the Bristol area who attends a girls secondary which apparently was private before gaining presumably academy status, though it would have been in an early round, not the latest 'free-for-all'.

Whilst my mum, bless 'er, has been known to get her facts confused, she was adamant that this DD had begun 9 weeks of summer holiday along with the private schools over a week ago!

Can this be true? Could it be a throw back to private status?

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HauntedLittleLunatic · 18/07/2011 21:53

I thought that the lea holidays were fixed...so I would have thought it was private.

But then - having said that I haven't worked out where the academies fit into that.

franticallyjugglinglife · 18/07/2011 21:54

This will be my old school in Bristol... And yes, they started summer hols on July 8th!

Ohforfoxsake · 18/07/2011 22:05

I'm wondering if that's my old school...

franticallyjugglinglife · 18/07/2011 22:13

OFFS... CGS I reckon....

RitaMorgan · 18/07/2011 22:16

Colston Girls' School I expect - academies are still independent even though they are state funded.

Original poster

Erebus · 19/07/2011 08:16

So, let me get this straight in my mind- this is effectively a girls private school where the government picks up the fees?

I had no idea they existed! I though that the moment a school became wholly LEA funded they had to tick the same boxes as other state schools! Like length of teaching day/holidays etc etc.

But there you go!

My DS's secondary became an academy recently (on the 'outstanding' program)- but there's no way it's anywhere near that free of LEA rules!

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Ohforfoxsake · 19/07/2011 09:47

Yes, CGS - going back 23 years now! Blimey - how did that happen?!!

robingood19 · 19/07/2011 09:57

9 weeks? Its more than MPs. Lucky for some

crazymum53 · 19/07/2011 11:40

Academies are funded directly from the government and are outside LEA control so they can have longer holidays. Most academies still stick to LEA dates though.
Colstons Girls School and Bristol Cathedral choir school are both former private schools who coverted to academies under the previous government. They are very oversubscribed with almost 10 applicants per place and a banded lottery system for entry.
The longer holidays do not seem to put most parents off applying !

Original poster

Erebus · 19/07/2011 12:29

Well, the GDD applied, failed, went to a local comp which her mum hated, then one term into Y7, get a letter advising a place had come up, hence DD was moved.

So perhaps competitive, but...

I certainly wouldn't be applying at a school with such long holidays! I mean, our own state ones are ananachronism with the 6 weeks 'helping with the harvest', but where 9 weeks comes from, I don't know! I shall post that Q separately!

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TalkinPeace2 · 19/07/2011 12:53

Do not forget that State schools have to provide a certain number of HOURS teaching a year.
So if they timetable a longer day by 20 minutes every day, that adds up to an extra week and a half on the holidays...

Original poster

Erebus · 19/07/2011 13:02

So I guess their school day must be longer to compensate. That would be handy- 8.30am to 3pm, anyone?! Secondary!

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TalkinPeace2 · 19/07/2011 13:12

They get away with the 3pm because the lunch hours are short - because at the Chandlers Ford school otherwise they would all wander off in to town.
The two Romsey schools have their lunchbreaks at different times
and DH was at a school where lunch was 20 minutes (in total) so they could keep the 1200 kids tightly on site

Original poster

Erebus · 19/07/2011 13:17

Yes, interestingly the (new) HM at MB said a couple of years ago at an Open Day, in as many words their lunch break was deliberately longer so the DCs could a) attend clubs and b) learn how to manage their own time constructively without being tightly guided. I think it's a good point. I don't think they're allowed to wander around Romsey any more, are they?

Thornden's break is so short DS barely has time to eat!

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TalkinPeace2 · 19/07/2011 13:23

No, MB kids are not meant to leave site without permission.
Romsey kids are often in town at lunch.

Its a tricky balance - but personally I would rather a slightly longer school day and then longer non summer holidays to make up for it.

Original poster

Erebus · 19/07/2011 13:39

Yes, I don't know what this unfettered wandering about the local shopping centre- by 11 year olds!- is all about.

I wish DS had a slightly longer lunch break AND finished school a reasonable amount later- so maybe half an hour extra at lunch so that say choir isn't 20 minutes all up, but an hour later in the afternoon. I am not cruel and heartless, I just think it would be of long term benefit to DC, esp older ones, to spend a bit longer in a learning environment each day.

I don't regard the school as 'babysitters'- I can well manage the 'being here' at 3.10pm but, given the derisory amount of homework DS has been set over the past term, I think that the school might like to spend a bit more time teaching him! We are back to the 'battle' when he does get more than 'remember your piece of coloured card for Thursday' as homework! But I won't turn this into a Thornden rant!

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Original poster

Erebus · 19/07/2011 13:41

And bring on 2 weeks in June and 5 weeks in August! The weather's practically always better earlier on in the year these days.

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TalkinPeace2 · 19/07/2011 13:42

I know Thornden well. Your kids have almost certainly met my husband!
DD is in year 8 at Mountbatten - stuff all homework
roll on year 9!!

Original poster

Erebus · 19/07/2011 14:43

My friend has a DD in Y7 at MB and she says the poor girl's been given stacks of 'project' type HW to do in these last couple of weeks! There's the perfect balance there somewhere.

My 'objection' to Th. and HW, such as it is (no other complaints, really!) is that they make a huge song and dance about the sanctions against the DCs for failing to complete the oh-so-important task of HW- yet, out of a possibly 15 HWs a week, DS1 has possibly been getting 4? I don't think it encourages the steady, bit at a time, constantly committed approach that 'pass-as-you-go' GCSEs demand.

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Riveninside · 19/07/2011 14:55

Colstons and the Cathedral school both finish near 4pm so have longer days. I dont see how a longer summer would affect parents. 11 yo's can be left surely?

TalkinPeace2 · 19/07/2011 15:01

Year 7 is hard.
Year 8 is easy for those in the higher sets
Year 9 is a pig

freerangeeggs · 19/07/2011 16:15

Talkinpeace and Erebus, I know this is off-topic but you really shouldn't judge a school by the amount of homework it gives. Evidence suggests that homework is of limited use and only certain forms of homework are of any use at all. Homework is usually given to placate parents, who for some reason think it's really important.

Of course if the quality of teaching is poor then that's a different kettle of fish.

jenniec79 · 19/07/2011 16:21

Riveninside If you have a longer holiday to deal with you have to sort out more childcare (admittedly not so much with older teens perhaps) Most people don't get 9 weeks of annual leave from their job in a year - ie bigger problem for the parents until the oldest can be in charge at home for a chunk of the summer (that would have been me, aged about 14 with 9-10 yo DB, until mum's state school broke up)

Riveninside · 19/07/2011 16:36

total schools holidays is 13 weeks or more. Once they are 11 I dont see why they cant be left unless they have SN.
I dont really have an opinion about school holidays for NT kids. Its a total pain for kids who require constant care.

Original poster

Erebus · 19/07/2011 18:25

Left alone for 9 hours a day at 11? I don't think so, however NS. They may be 'safe' enough but they'd be lonely and bored- not to say occasionally frightened. In the course of a week several 'situations' arise that we, as adults take for granted as we deal with them: delivery men, meter readers, elderly neighbours not well known to the DCs asking a favour, lawn fertiliser bloke, unknown visiting teenager from next door asking to retrieve a ball, JWs- all to be met with either 'mum's not home' (read: I'm all alone) or a DC huddled silently and still, pretending there's no one's home. And in winter when it's dark at 4pm?

I fully recognise that your situation is different, riven but it doesn't make ours without issue.

And eggs- purleese don't judge me or TalkinPeace as being as shallow as to be merely assessing our DCs schools according to 'how much homework they set'. HOWEVER, if a school makes a big deal about the punishments for not doing homework, about how it gets its boys to succeed in GCSEs by constantly keeping at them to produce little but often, (like many girls do!); please expect that at least I might be at how they are currently setting 4 out of a possible 15 pieces a week! Believe me I don't want 15 pieces coming home but a bit of consistency would be nice! At peak he was getting 10 pieces a week, some of which was 'remember to bring in...' which was fine, plus some project work, and some lesson prep.

Finally, fwiw, research has shown there is value in HW for secondary school DCs.

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