Long school holidays 'should end'
 

I agree, school kids have too much time off. What do teachers do in the summer hols when the schools are shut?
Link

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

You have got to be kidding me? We already test them far to much and now we are going to give less time off? They need to have some time to, you know, be children.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

As far as i'm concerned, they already have far too much time off. The kids these days seem to be off every other month.
It's mentioned in the link, that 2 weeks off after every 8 weeks in school would be a better option.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Seem, or are? Is this new?

Let's see some facts. Round here it's:

4/9/07 to 19/10/2007
29/10/07 to 21/12/2007
7/1/2008 to 15/2/2008
25/2/2008 to 4/4/2008 (with two days off over Easter)
21/4/2008 to 23/5/2008
2/6/2008 to 24/7/2008

Three terms, one week off in the middle of each. Each half term is about six or seven weeks each, which obviously means that you're going to have kids off every other month. In fact I think there's only November with no time off, although September, March and June are nearly all school time. I'm not sure what this proves, unless there's evidence of some diabolical socialist plot to allow teachers to slack while the kids go robbing pensioners or something, which would be rather at odds with the emphasis on exam targets (fattening them up for the next Labour Manifesto, basically).

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Personally I think its about right, maybe cut back the half-term break from a week to a long week-end, but what concerns me more is the time kids finish the school day now. When I was at school, many moons ago, the school day was 08.45am to 16.10pm, it seems now kids get out in a lot of cases before 15.00, I don't think staying to 16.00 would kill them, they could even make it sports for that last hour.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

It's ok saying kids should have more time off or more regular breaks rather then long ones but what about working parents where both parents are working. School time is onetime those parents can relax a bit and not have to worry about their kids and given so many couples have to work now just to pay bills i think more thought should be given to that.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo !!!

Keep the time off.
Think about it, it's the only time where you can truly forget what day of the week it is, and really relax and not think it's monday and back to school the following day.

You will find that there is a holiday, be it bank holiday, easter holiday or whatever approximately every 6 weeks.

---------- Post added at 09:52 ---------- Previous post was at 09:50 ----------

They have to mark exams and also prepare lessons for the next upcoming term.
Then, they can go on long holidays which is a bonus of the job but pay reflects holidays which means salary isnt always great.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

True & even next year with holiday entitlement going up to 5.6 weeks (including bank holidays) there is still a huge discrepancy in time off between children & parents & then when are they as a family (if there are 2 parents) supposed to get together as a family.

Daughter starts at 8:30 and finish at 3pm (2pm on Weds) but for the most part there are various after school activities which support the curriculum and mean they are there until 4:30 ish so we are fairly lucky.

IIRC there is a clause which states a Teachers year starts on 1st September & that August cannot be part of the school working year. :shrug: Coggy will know the truth of this though. ;)

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

The only benefit i see from children taking plenty of time off is i can actually get to work without any hassle of traffic jams :D

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Ah, summer is acummin in ... must be time for Fleet Street's annual "Are The School Holidays Too Long?(TM)" feature.

Leave the kids alone, we hothouse them enough as it is.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

But they say school days are the best days of our lives... So keep them locked in there, they'll thank us when they're older. :D

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Holiday companies will gasp when they see the hols reduced, then realise that with supply-and-demand the cost of summer holidays will rocket.

I think the 5 day week should be expanded to 6 days and 9-to-5, so that pupils (and teachers) get to experience real working hours....

Sport should be voluntary and out of school hours though.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

im with you on that one enuff,the school hols are to long and the majority of kids finish up p..... off to the back teeth.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

I would be nice if some of the other holidays were two weeks instead of one - Id prefer if the May holiday was two weeks and the xmas/new year holiday was a bit longer - then the summer holiday could be 5 weeks instead of 6+.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Look at the problem we have already with obese kids not doing enough exercise, if it was made voluntary it would be ten times worse. Besides sports in school is beneficial beyond just exercise, its great for building a sense of team spirit and also self worth, if anything kids today need more sport in schools.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

They have tried to tweak the term lengths here (we have 6) so we end up with strange bits of time off at Easter and still too long terms September to December. Any longer than 6 week terms you can see the children flagging and finding things harder to complete and concentration is lost.

Rather than fiddle with the curriculum yet again, there should be a proper look at term lengths versus holiday length with some more flexibility built in to weeks where it is OK to take your child out of school for a family holiday without letting it be a block period where travel companies can fleece you.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

I quite like the idea of having the holidays spread out more over the year rather than a long summer. I'd rather have the school year starting in January as well. They shouldn't have exams in January because who wants to revise over Christmas?

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Back when I was in school I always liked the idea of the summer holidays being reduced to 3 weeks and having a longer Christmas holiday. With slightly longer half terms.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Education is getting tougher and tougher on kids! Speaking as a 15 year old doing his GCSE corsework!
We are now the last year to do certain corseworks in the UK! This makes exams even more stressful, less holiday would just stress us more! We need a nice long break!
And speakinf from experience, I don't forget anything over the summer holidays!
Just the Government's way of cracking down on the idiots in our schools that put the rest of the normal and clever ones down!
Less holidays really will stress us more!
Lukee

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

i have 4 months summer holiday which is great! i love it
should be kept just the way it is.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

...yet in several countries around the world kids have 3 months+ off in the summer and it doesn't seem to be doing them any harm :)

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

That's okay this supply teacher won't mind...I never get paid for the summer holidays anyway..I do suggest however if you take away the summer holidays you will have less teachers overall.

Because let's face it teaching teenagers is no holiday...and I wonder how many of the folk suggesting this are parents who regard teachers as childminders anyway?Well this child minder wants paying much better wages in that case.;)

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Teaching is a vocation, if you can gumble about teaching teenagers and pay then why are you doing it for one.

As for parents thinking teachers are child minders then I think it one of those things that go hand in hand, kids go to school end of, does it matter what the teacher thinks the parents are thinking at the end of the day.

It's the same with nurses, they know what they sign up for yet when they qualify they then want more money. I think teachers get paid more than enough at the moment. (I think I better put my flack jacket on now).

I have great memories of my summer holidays. But today I must admit times have moved on, kids don't (or can't) do the things others did years ago.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

The reason why so many parents grumble about the holidays now is that more often than not both parents work, unlike my childhood when my mother was a housewife and didn't work.This means that during school holidays they have to make arrangements for childcare and even pay for it..Well as I already stated I don't get paid for holidays but if you want your children occupied during the summer then you will have to pay for it..

Teaching is no longer a vocation ever since SATs and league tables were introduced and Mrs T demanded it became a paying concern.If education is a commodity then it has to be paid for.:erm:

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

You certainly get my vote coggy, how many people here would trade places with you? let alone pay packets. It seems to me that nowadays that a fair few children and their parents have little respect for teachers, I remember a few years back a neighbour of mine going to the school his son attended to "have it out" with the teacher, because he had the temerity to put his little angel on detention for having a packet of cigarettes in his bag!! I mean if teachers can't rely on parents to back them up in cases like this, we are in a sorry state. As you say coggy a number of parents look upon schooling as mere child minding, where upon the "parent" can totally abrogate all responsibility, in my view you and your fellow teachers deserve every penny you earn, and then some, for what at times must seem a very thankless task.:clap:

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Who do you think prepares for the next year? Who do you think will have just done their day job and school reports in the evening?

If you dont think the 6 week holiday is a well earned rest for teachers then your observation skills are seriously lacking

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

:clap::clap:

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Every evening for the full 6 weeks?

A well earned rest? Then why not let all workers in all professions have a well earned rest for a solid 5 or 6 weeks of the year?

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

errm no not a full 6 weeks, its every week they're teching they work evenings and also a good chunck on a Sunday.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Strange, because none of the teachers I know do that much.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Her indoors does and so do her colleagues, but i guess thats how Beacon schools are created

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

So you're saying all teachers do the same?

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

I didnt say that???

And i didnt say that those who dont arent doing a good job and therefore are failing there children

---------- Post added at 00:11 ---------- Previous post was at 00:09 ----------

You asked a question in your original post, if you know many teachers then why did you ask??

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Is working evenings and some Sundays in their job description?

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

im not gettting into this pointless argument.


My last point on the subject

"Most" professional people do a "professional job", if you have to refer to a job description your doing a job you dont care about.

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

Declaring an interest 'Mrs Gaz' is the deputy head teacher at a primary school, who still does have teaching responsibilities on top of the management tasks.

The summer term is a killer, they have just finished SATS & can now move on to writing reports, as well as the normal marking & planning.

Later is the summer camp - 24/7 responsibility for the children, before getting back to cope with the ones who have 'got' their secondary schools & are marking time before they finish at primary..

Given those circumstances, 6 weeks off can be very welcome, from what I've seen ??

However, if the school year could be planned more efficiently, I could see how shorter, more regular breaks might work - ???

Re: Long school holidays 'should end'
 

OK
Are you sure? ;)

So a job description shouldn't matter as long as you care about the job you do?
I'd say even people who have a passion for the work they do, know when enough is enough. And if the teachers who work the hours you say, do it out of love for their profession? Then no wonder their salary is a low one, why pay them extra, when they're willing to work for nothing!

Didn't a quarter of a million of them go on strike a few weeks back?. :scratch: