Longer school days/shorter holidays?

[rosesinmygarden]

Do we think this might actually happen?

www.politicshome.com/news/article/ofsted-school-days-summer-holidays-covid?utm_source=upday.samsung.browser&utm_medium=referral

If it does, I'm out.

Same here. I am out of teaching if it does happen - I use holidays to plan, catch up on assessments etc

I got out in 2018 and this wouldn't encourage me back. I now tutor, so it would affect my business and be a bit irritating.

I can't see them paying teachers more so I wonder if it happens it may end up being like extended wraparound...

As a parent of a secondary child I'd be against it also. Her school day is long enough already and changing all the school transport would be nightmare.

I'm also not convinced that longer teaching days are in children's best interests.

It wouldn't be worth the childcare costs for me, but I did work casually through the holidays when I didn't have children abs might have been interested in something then.

I think the longer days are a bigger concern than shorter holidays (depending on how short). I would support a redistribution of the holidays potentially, but not a reduction.
I cant see how a longer day would benefit anyone much. Is this being considered for this year, or for academic years gping forward?

The article doesn't say.

if they are moving away form the 195 days and 1265 hrs it would be a complete rewrite of contracts and conditions.

If its an adaptation it will be interesting to see what they take away to make it fit the structure.

I have been teaching for 30+ years. If they drastically shorten the holidays and bugger about with the school day, I will hold on another year or so until 55 and take my pension early.

There’s no way they can put anything like this in place for this year. The consultation process would take too long. If they do mess around with it too much, I’m out!!

I’m not massively against a redistribution of the school holidays as long as there were a similar amount of sunny weeks, if that makes sense. Maybe a 2 week break end of May/ start of June would be better; sometimes the weather is already starting to turn in August.

I am worried about when this new calendar idea might kick in though. I have a delayed, mad expensive honeymoon booked in for our 2 week half term in October (our school already rejigged the calendar; the autumn term was deemed far too long.) What happens if the school year gets changed straight away and we are no longer off? I know it shouldn’t be my main concern, but still...

Yes to rejigging the holidays (still 13 weeks in total though) eg 4 weeks max in the summer with 3 each at Christmas and Easter. But no to a longer school day!

It's a classic case of being seen to do something. Nothing that's happened about Covid and schooling has had anything to do with the teacher's P&C, unless they want more of something for nothing.

I’ve always felt October half term would be better for kids and YP if it was two weeks, and same feb half term. So I wouldn’t actually be against redistributing those two weeks from the summer. But the longer days thing I think would be a mistake - unlikely to be productive, just tired children.

In Victoria we have a five-week summer holiday and three two-week breaks. This means that some terms are ten weeks long but you do get used to it. Add in Labour Day, Queen's Birthday and Melbourne Cup, Anzac Day when it falls in the week, and it works out quite well.

The day for students is 8.50 - 3.15. 30 minutes recess and one hour for lunch.

@Pugdoglife

If it does, I'm out.

Me too.

Fuck.that.
That is all.

I'd happily redistribute (not shorten) holidays. Longer days sounds miserable for all concerned. I want to start up extra curricular for the kids as soon as possible, if there are longer school days there won't be the time and the kids will miss out.

They would need to keep the same 1265 hours and 39 weeks wouldn't they?? Or they would need to pay more surely? It will mess with those who run after school care

My LEA did a two year trial a while ago of a 2 week October break and a 5 week summer break. Loved it for myself and for my children - we had a lovely week away in the October and 5 weeks was plenty long enough for us all to recharge in the summer. For some reason they decided against taking it forward. I think changing the holidays is a huge cultural shift and it'll be hard to get parents on board across the country (if they actually care about getting parents on board, which is unlikely!)

Many of our students already have a long commute. Longer days wouldn't work for us. We ran summer school sessions last summer like many other schools. It mainly served to increase the gap between those who'd worked in lockdown and those who hadn't even further.
More to the point, I can't actually see it going down well as a policy with parents.

The problem with them actually implementing something like this is that many teachers are actually only notionally on the STPCD. In academies their contract negotiations would be with the individual academy chains/ schools rather than national negotiation. Academies are also allowed to set their own holidays and would not be bound to go with any new regime that the government introduced. I just don’t see how they would actually make it happen in practice. I suppose they could force the issue by moving national exams into what is currently the summer holiday but I’d imagine there would be enormous pushback from independent schools on that.

I just can’t see it happening. Whenever it’s suggested, the discussions are fascinating. Some people want an extra week at February as they fancy skiing (most people don’t), some people fancy an extra week in June but accept that this would be a nightmare for GCSEs. Some want an extra week at October-some don’t. Some schools seem to do this in October anyway by jiggling insets around. Most accept that having 3/4 weeks off in the summer would be a logistical nightmare for working parents to try to get the weeks they want off when the rest of their workplace wants the same ones.

The only people who do seem to want long days and short holidays are either people who hate teachers (those who write in the comments section of the DM!) or those who want to pay less money on childcare. But the majority of parents don’t really want their kids in school longer and more just so that other people’s childcare problem is solved.

There is no single alternative that the majority would be happy with, which is why I can’t see it ever changing nationally.

Better childcare facilities should perhaps be a focus, but this has nothing to do with school and shouldn’t be the responsibility of heads or teachers.