Government call for shorter school holidays

[espadrille]

I find it sad that people want children to spend more time at school, they spend at least from from the age of 4-16 there as it is As a kid I loved the holidays and then equally looked forward to going back to school once I got bored

 

It would be nice for teachers though, they would be able to take time off with their partners and friends as often it is hard for other people to get the time off in the summer, and be able to visit places in the world that are rubbish to visit in the summer months Teachers would also get a pay rise for all the extra hours they would be expected to work.

 

The negatives would be that I doubt you would attract as many people into the profession. I'm not quite sure who is going to pay for the extra hours and all the support staff, heating of buildings ect. How would coursework and missing work be dealt with? How would you feel your child being taught (or should this really be called baby sat?) by unqualified cover staff just before an important examination or coursework deadline? . If I was a kid or parent that wants my kid to do well it would naff me off slightly!

 

I don't think there is really a perfect answer. The answer really is a society problem that makes both parents have to work to maintain a house and live, which I find really sad It is putting me off having children as I would want to be at home for the first 7 years and I can't afford to do that

 

EDIT: wonder why public schools have not gone for a 6 week holiday taken whenever....they actually have more holidays!

 

Maybe though if teachers had more curriculum time to spend with the children that need the support there would be more kids coming out of school at 16 with the required A-C passes.

The benchmark is too low in my opinion. We should want a better standard of education and where some schools have a pass rate at A-C of below 30% that means that 70% of children fail to achieve the so called basic standard of education. Yes, I know there are many factors to look at in those statistics but which ever way it is looked at the system needs a complete overhaul.

Yes some teachers may be put off joining the profession if they didnt have so many holidays but then if you go in to teaching surely it is a vocation and you want to do the job to make a difference and dont just do it for the 12 weeks holidays.

[espadrille]

The same would apply to teachers as to pupils; take leave when wanted, and the school brings in cover.

 

This simply would not work. It costs over £120 a day to have a supply teacher and being taught by a supply teacher has its problems as any teenager will tell you.

'They teach us the same things that we know already.' 'We only see them for a day and it takes them all day to know where we are at with the subject'.

 

A supply is that , just there for emergencies like when the teacher is off sick and for kids who have a special need such as children with Asperger Syndrome it can be an absolute nightmare and can cause more problems than it solves.

[Evei]

Maybe though if teachers had more curriculum time to spend with the children that need the support there would be more kids coming out of school at 16 with the required A-C passes.

The benchmark is too low in my opinion. We should want a better standard of education and where some schools have a pass rate at A-C of below 30% that means that 70% of children fail to achieve the so called basic standard of education. Yes, I know there are many factors to look at in those statistics but which ever way it is looked at the system needs a complete overhaul.

 

Some people will never be able to get a C or higher in some subjects, they do not have the ability. This year "Teenagers have scored record GCSE results again, with nearly seven in 10 entries awarded at least a C grade" http://itn.co.uk/752d067ae38c661fcc1cd5c86fb46db5.html

 

I actually dislike the idea that everyone is equal, we are not. People are successful in different things and half the curriculums problems are that we expect everyone to fit the one system. Some people will not gain a high grade, this is called competition. However I do think students from poor backgrounds are generally disadvantaged and this shows itself in the areas that schools are that gain low A-C passes.

 

"In independent schools, 53.7% of GCSEs sat were awarded an A or A*, compared with 55% in grammars and 17.3% in comprehensives" (2009)

 

Achievement has a lot to do with pupils/ parent expectation and money. Independent studens spend less time in school that pupils who attend comprehensives so maybe time is not as important as we think? I do not think 'time' is the most important issue in acheivement, high expectations, small class sizes for intense individualised learning and support from home is a massive advantage. I suppose we could always go to the American system when students are kept back until they reach a certain level and this would allow more able students to pass through the system quickly and give the others the extra time without the excess costs of opening school nationally for an extra 6 weeks a year.

 

Yes some teachers may be put off joining the profession if they didnt have so many holidays but then if you go in to teaching surely it is a vocation and you want to do the job to make a difference and dont just do it for the 12 weeks holidays.

 

I agree, but most teachers have a degree, if they do not get 12 weeks (which is like time in Lieu) they may choose to use their degrees to get a job for more money and less hours if they are expected to get the same basic holidays. I think most people would be lying if they said they live to work, most people work to live, however much they love their job Just because someone cares does not mean they should be taken advantage of.

[birdsandbees]

Open up during holidays to help the kids who are struggling to catch up, they would get more 1-2-1 help

 

But it's unlikely that schools would be able to do this as they couldn’t afford the extra pay for teachers

[alchresearch]

Like BST and pub closing times, the 6 weeks holidays is a throw back to a time last century when this needed to be done for various reasons - I think it was for the harvest?

 

The only drawback with shorter (and possibly more frequent?) holidays is that the kids take time to settle down after a holiday and start to "wind down" the week before one is due. So we need to sort out the behaviour issue first.

[cgksheff]

....

 

The only drawback with shorter (and possibly more frequent?) holidays is that the kids teachers take time to settle down after a holiday and start to "wind down" the week before one is due. So we need to sort out the behaviour issue first.

 

It is OK. We saw the deliberate mistake.

[llamatron]

I think its important for kids to have time when school seems so far away its not worth thinking about. It gives them freedom to have adventures at the time of year when they are most likley to be able to go outside.

 

Shorter school holidays will also make teaching less tempting, and pay would have to go up as teachers would be working longer.

 

 

Also my summer holidays at the end of september would no longer be child free:rant:

 

NO NO NO

[Tomataheeed]

Open up during holidays to help the kids who are struggling to catch up, they would get more 1-2-1 help

 

But it's unlikely that schools would be able to do this as they couldn’t afford the extra pay for teachers

 

Schools already do this. A fiend of mine is a teacher at King Ecberts in Dore...he spends 2 weeks in the summer doing this.

[espadrille]

Some people will never be able to get a C or higher in some subjects, they do not have the ability. This year "Teenagers have scored record GCSE results again, with nearly seven in 10 entries awarded at least a C grade" http://itn.co.uk/752d067ae38c661fcc1cd5c86fb46db5.html

 

I actually dislike the idea that everyone is equal, we are not. People are successful in different things and half the curriculums problems are that we expect everyone to fit the one system. Some people will not gain a high grade, this is called competition. However I do think students from poor backgrounds are generally disadvantaged and this shows itself in the areas that schools are that gain low A-C passes.

 

"In independent schools, 53.7% of GCSEs sat were awarded an A or A*, compared with 55% in grammars and 17.3% in comprehensives" (2009)

 

Achievement has a lot to do with pupils/ parent expectation and money. Independent studens spend less time in school that pupils who attend comprehensives so maybe time is not as important as we think? I do not think 'time' is the most important issue in acheivement, high expectations, small class sizes for intense individualised learning and support from home is a massive advantage. I suppose we could always go to the American system when students are kept back until they reach a certain level and this would allow more able students to pass through the system quickly and give the others the extra time without the excess costs of opening school nationally for an extra 6 weeks a year.

 

 

 

I agree, but most teachers have a degree, if they do not get 12 weeks (which is like time in Lieu) they may choose to use their degrees to get a job for more money and less hours if they are expected to get the same basic holidays. I think most people would be lying if they said they live to work, most people work to live, however much they love their job Just because someone cares does not mean they should be taken advantage of.

 

Of course we are not equal. We are all very different. That is the whole point and a one size fits all teaching strategy does not work.As you said many schools struggle to get more than 30 % of their children through a pass at A to C , but I dont believe it is because the child cannot achieve more, it is because the curriculum does not address the individual need.There are many children who have statements and often this is due to the fact that they learn in a different way to other kids. I am a visual learner. I dont learn by listening to someone stand at the front of the classroom and talk. I have to do and see what i am doing and then have what I have done checked to reinforce that it is right. After that I am ok to get on with any task.

 

Until we change the actual way that we teach, I cant see things improving. As the link says education isnt just about passing exams it is about initiative, common sense and emotional intelligence, social skills etc and this is not really measured in a pupil is it?

[Evei]

I actually dislike the idea that everyone is equal, we are not. People are successful in different things and half the curriculums problems are that we expect everyone to fit the one system.

 

Of course we are not equal. We are all very different. That is the whole point and a one size fits all teaching strategy does not work.As you said many schools struggle to get more than 30 % of their children through a pass at A to C , but I dont believe it is because the child cannot achieve more, it is because the curriculum does not address the individual need.

 

I think all already said that the curriculum is not good for everyone

 

As for alternative learning techniques, teachers already implement them, the problem is physically having the time to implement all the different learning techniques for each learner. For example in one class you could have:

-one child that has visual disability; so everything has to be enlarged and read out, one has AS so you have to have written instructions as well as verbal and check on them at the start of every task, one has ADHD so short 'moving and doing' tasks are better, another will have dyslexia so the board has to be coloured a specific colour and any written work coloured and adapted. Then there is the other 26 to sort out, two of which speak a different language

 

I bet most classes have approximately 3 children in with SEN with one support assistant and one teacher. I don't agree that it is the way we teach that needs changing radically as most teachers are taught strategies to help with SEN and good teachers follow the student’s IEP advice so they use the techniques advised to help them learn. It is a very old fashioned view to think a teacher stands at the front and talks all lesson, they use loads of different ways to teach and vary it across a topic in the hope of hitting as many preferred learning styles as possible.

 

However smaller class sizes and time to prepare and liaise with support staff to further the learning would be great, but that costs money as it means time and more teachers and support staff.

 

EDIT: I did work it out one day and if I taught 120 children in one day and divided the time I could only physically spend a tiny amount of time individually with each student, it was something like 2 minutes per student each week!