School holidays

[Hope]

From this year, individual schools in England have been allowed to set their own holiday dates.  Do folk see any advantage in this, or disadvantages.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-23129472
http://bit.ly/1i7h6tD

On a different, but related subject, should the length of school day increase as a child/young person moves through their education.  Most children start off their schooling by attending nursery/playgroup for either the morning or afternoon.  Once they move to junior and secondary schools, they will generally attend school for 6 hours.  Is it time that 'A'-level students, for instance, did a school day closer in length to a standard working day - 8 hours.

[Rhiannon]

They can already in the sense that individual schools get to decide teacher training days. Thus secondary and primary schools often break up and go back on differing days.

My children do a seven hour day in primary and seven and a half in senior, which is often then extended by another hour and a half for clubs. But then most primary children I know have to extend their days with some kind of after school care, clubs etc.

[jeremyp]

I think, if schools stagger their holidays a bit, it will reduce the problems that families have in affording holidays, since the peak demand will be more spread out.

Also, for people like me who commute to work, the nice period when there are not so many people on the trains will be slightly less nice, but will last longer.

[Rhiannon]

It should make holidays more enjoyable too. Jammed beaches, roads, museums, farm parks, zoos etc are no fun. Staggering it a bit makes it all more bearable, if not downright pleasurable.

[Udayana]

I don't think it will make much difference.

On the hours question, children already have too much "structured" time and need to learn how to manage their own hours - a skill they need to have for when/if they get to university.

[Hope]

I think, if schools stagger their holidays a bit, it will reduce the problems that families have in affording holidays, since the peak demand will be more spread out.

But what id one child goes to a school where the summer holiday, say, is half of July and half of August, whilst another is half of August and half of September?  How are they going to have any family holiday?  Won't this also exacerbate child care costs?

[Udayana]

They will have to be a compulsory overlap, probably most of August?

[Hope]

They will have to be a compulsory overlap, probably most of August?

So the timeframe for family holidays will get even shorter for our families.  Leading, no doubt, to even higher prices during August!!

Isn't it better to at least do this on county or some other regional level, as opposed to each school making their decisions - often in isolation from other schools.

[Outrider]

Part of the problem is that school holidays are still set for agricultural events rather than what benefits the children in terms of a break.

How many kids need a six week break in order to help with the harvest? How many kids need a two or three week break during the lambing season?

If the school year were split up with more, smaller breaks - especially if they were co-ordinated between secondary schools and their feed primary and infants schools - then there wouldn't be a 'peak' season based on term-times.

O.

[Hope]

If the school year were split up with more, smaller breaks - especially if they were co-ordinated between secondary schools and their feed primary and infants schools - then there wouldn't be a 'peak' season based on term-times.

O.

Still not sure why the then Governments chose not to go with the 6 terms a year proposal that has been around for almost as long as I can remember.

[jeremyp]

I think, if schools stagger their holidays a bit, it will reduce the problems that families have in affording holidays, since the peak demand will be more spread out.

But what id one child goes to a school where the summer holiday, say, is half of July and half of August, whilst another is half of August and half of September?  How are they going to have any family holiday?  Won't this also exacerbate child care costs?

Oh no!  If only there was a way for siblings to go to the same school.

[Rhiannon]

Some have children at primary school with siblings at secondary.

And some go to special schools with siblings in mainstream school.

[jeremyp]

Some have children at primary school with siblings at secondary.

And some go to special schools with siblings in mainstream school.

Oh no.  If only there was a way for schools to coordinate holidays with their feeder schools.

[Rhiannon]

Some have children at primary school with siblings at secondary.

And some go to special schools with siblings in mainstream school.

Oh no.  If only there was a way for schools to coordinate holidays with their feeder schools.

They don't do that now, where I live the primaries all took one lot of inset days and the senior schools another (they tend to share resources, training sessions etc) resulting in the senior schools breaking up and returning earlier - an extra six days for parents to juggle.

[Owlswing]

They will have to be a compulsory overlap, probably most of August?

So the timeframe for family holidays will get even shorter for our families.  Leading, no doubt, to even higher prices during August!!

Isn't it better to at least do this on county or some other regional level, as opposed to each school making their decisions - often in isolation from other schools.

Ever the optimist aren't you, Hope!

[Udayana]

Do people in other countries have this problem? I've never heard of it. It is all about the Tony Blair generation and later being able to save money on their hols!

[ProfessorDavey]

Do people in other countries have this problem? I've never heard of it. It is all about the Tony Blair generation and later being able to save money on their hols!

What a bizarre comment.

Although we don't readily see it I'm sure many other countries have the same issues. Certainly there has been a long-standing summer rush in France which aligns with school holiday, which I think have even less flexibility than in the UK.

And in what way is this anything to do with Blair. The issue of rigid school holidays and the cost in the peak summer (and other school holidays) has been around for decades, certainly way pre-dating 1997.

[Rhiannon]

Milan empties on the summer, as does Paris, as PD says.

[Udayana]

Exactly, it's been around forever, but no-one needed to do anything about it before prosperity in the 90's.

[Udayana]

Paris is empty in August, but who complains about it?

[Rhiannon]

The difference for most families now is that they can no longer take holidays in term time. In this area breaking up in early June would give farming families the chance to get away before the harvest; staggered holidays across the country will break the summer price hikes that push holidays out of the reach of many.

[Gordon]

Should school holidays be more flexible over the summer months the cynic in me wonders if the travel industry would then designate the entire calendar months of June, July and August as being the peak period.

[Owlswing]

 . . . staggered holidays across the country will break the summer price hikes that push holidays out of the reach of many.

Please, Rhi, don't be so naïve!

The holiday companies would just spread the "high-price season" to cover the period of the "stagger"!

[Outrider]

Some have children at primary school with siblings at secondary.

And some go to special schools with siblings in mainstream school.

Oh no.  If only there was a way for schools to coordinate holidays with their feeder schools.

Unfortunately, with the massive reduction in numbers of special schools, most of them serve areas containing multiple secondary + feeder regions - they'd all have to co-ordinate in order for special needs children not to be disadvantaged... or the holidays in general would need to be spread out such that there wasn't a 'peak'.

O.

[Udayana]

Also, it's no use only considering UK term dates .. what about the rest of Europe, with Russia and China, India, South America and eventually Africa coming on-stream, you can't control supply and demand in a global economy by manipulating a few dates in one country.
 
I don't think it's a problem worth changing the traditional school year for, or that can be solved at least until there's no requirement to be at school in order to get an education.