Ever found yourself out of ideas for how to keep the kids occupied over the summer hols? Well, there’s a chance that the July to September break might not drag out for six weeks for much longer.
That’s because the Nuffield Foundation, an education and welfare charity, has released a new report recommending a complete revamp of the school calendar. Saying that school terms have ‘been stuck in place since Victorian times’, the Nuffield Foundation suggests making summer holidays four weeks and extending winter and autumn half terms to two weeks each.
According to the report, spreading the holidays out would benefit both students and teachers, giving them more time off during ‘the most gruelling parts of the academic year’.
It adds that switching the holidays up could be a solution to post-pandemic education inequalities, with students from lower economic backgrounds or with learning needs finding it harder to go back to learning after a month and a half off. Apparently, teachers also report more naughty behaviour and wellbeing issues straight after the summer break.
Lee Elliot Major, a professor of social mobility at Exeter University and one of experts behind the report, said that it would improve the wellbeing of pupils, the working lives of teachers, balance out childcare costs for parents, and potentially boost academic results.
But what do teachers think? Well, a recent poll by the Teacher Tapp app found that only 29 percent backed reducing the summer hols to four weeks, while 35 percent preferred the idea of a five-week break and 33 percent would rather it just stay at six weeks.
We’re yet to see whether anything will actually change. But calls for changing the school calendar have been going on for ages. Geoff Barton, the general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: ‘It’s important that the impact of any changes are properly considered and must not be rushed into.
‘The report identifies some very real issues, including the growing mental health crisis and the disparity between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. It’s possible that changes to the school calendar could ameliorate these problems to some extent. But it could also prove a huge energy-sapping distraction from the most pressing issues of recruitment and retention, special-needs provision and funding for education.’
Happy holidays with Time Out
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