Why we need 5 terms in the school year

An excellent suggestion from the new School Gate blog: scrap the old system whereby kids get six weeks off over summer for a more manageable system that includes four weeks off over summer. Check out the very convincing arguments.

Comments

[Helen]

Sorry I meant exams would have to be done before the middle of May - didn't mean the poor dears should spend their hols revising!

[Helen]

The thing is, other countries get better weather so it makes sense to have a long break - but August can be very hit and miss in the UK. As we tend to get nice weather in May and September how about scrapping the summer hols entirely and having 3 weeks off in May and 3 weeks off in September with a week's half term break in August? Exams would need to be done before the end of May which might help hay fever sufferers. Of course it would be a big upheaval but any change would.
And can we stop the "working parent" bashing - unless you have a private income you have to work to eat and keep a roof over your head. Does that mean only the upper classes should have kids?

[Nicky]

I'd like a shorter summer holiday - I'm always counting the days by the end. Say, 4 weeks would be a good 'long' break, and a bit longer in the half terms, particularly the autumn one, as that term's so long everyone's struggling by the end.

I don't really mind how they do it, but I think there shouldn't be more than about 6 weeks of school without a break. They just need to even it all up a bit really.

[Lazy Mummy]

Agreed Hayley but the three-plus months that American children have for summer break really is too long. Especially when you realise that they don't have much of a break at all for Christmas or Easter/Spring (a week, maybe). Dividing it up in a way similar to what the UK does would work for me.

(I do think though that children deserve long school holidays - they need time to be children, do nothing, etc. So going to the 5-term model with shorter holidays also wouldn't be my preference).

[Hayley]

arrgghhh! Noooooo!!! Teachers NEED a long break, seriously.

[emily]

I think many parents across the pond in the US would be quite happy if their children had only six weeks off during the summer. Summer breaks of 10 to 12 weeks are quite common here -- which causes chaos for working parents. (A few schools have adopted a more year-round system, but they are few and far between.)

What's more, the dates of summer vacation vary from district to district, and public and private schools have different timetables. So, my children may finish school for the summer on May 23 (when several districts here finished). If they remain in their current school district next year, they will return to school in early August. But if we move to another state, school would not begin until after Labor Day -- September 2. That's more than three months of summer break, of camps and babysitters and scrambling for childcare.

Be grateful for your current system. Six weeks seems, at least to me, to be relatively manageable.