Extending the School Day and Changing Summer Holidays
In the News
I've read in The Sun this morning that ministers are considering extending the school day and changing the summer holidays. Apparently, MPs want volunteers to teach after school classes for children. What do you all think of this?
Poor teachers will have to supervise the volunteers. Teachers are expected to do so much with not a great salary so extending their working hours is unreasonable. Yes I know you said volunteers but I’m sure all headmasters will insist on a teacher being present.
If primary children are working hard they will be exhausted by 3.30 so I’m not sure the extra lessons will achieve a lot!
I can't see how it would work. As mentioned earlier, the children would be tired and well past the window of learning capability. Unless they brought retired staff in, with up-to-date CRBs it would be very costly. It could be carried out by HLTAs but it would still need some supervision.
This is unfair on the teachers and pupils. My kids are doing a full day school now. Obviously I'm not doing as good a job helping as a teacher would be we doing our best. As I said elsewhere out of 59 reception children 5 read the books school gave them on the internet. Too many children are not being homeschooled. I don't know what every school is like but the teachers at my kids schools are doing all they can to help parents so the kids are still learning
Maybe a good idea for the ones who are going on to do A levels etc as they will have missed a lot of the GCSE syllabus.
I don't know that this is the answer, but they are going to have to do something to help children catch up with their education. It's sad how so many parents are neglecting their child's/children's education during this time, with many not bothering with homeschooling at all. And some schools really aren't doing enough to help either.
angelik according to the government's website it's a requirements for schools to offer at least 3 hours of remote learning a day, depending on your child's age. if the school isn't offering this, maybe you could try the oak national academy website? they've got loads of lessons which follow the national curriculum.
"The amount of remote education should be a minimum of:
key stage 1 – 3 hours a day, on average across the cohort, with fewer hours for younger children
key stage 2 – 4 hours a day
key stages 3 and 4 – 5 hours a day"
iamleo I'm talking about schools in general, not a specific school or my personal experience. You only have to look at discussions online to see there are many unhappy parents in terms of what their child's school is doing during this time. Some schools have responded extremely well, doing all they can to help children and parents- but some have not. Some parents are doing all they can to help their child continue their education- but some are not. It's a sad situation, as some children are going to get so far behind with their education, it's going to be difficult to catch back up.
My kids schools are being very helpful we interact daily on internet and via email Leeann
Imnotcheap its good to hear that I honestly can't say anything about my daughters school they really have tried hard to make sure all the kids are doing good
Just shorten the summer holidays to something like 3 or 4 weeks. There is no need to have a whole 6 weeks off.
RegularComper90 most children have been working hard and doing their work at home though. is it fair to take away their summer holidays when they've done everything they were supposed to? most children have been working hard this year and they've had the fear of going to school during a pandemic - some of them have even lost loved ones. i feel like their 6 weeks off would be well deserved.
teachers have also been working extremely hard and it's unfair to shorten their time off by 2-3 weeks.
iamleo I understand what you are saying, and I do fully appreciate all the hard work that both teachers and children have done throughout this whole thing. But on the other hand, teachers are no more special than many other essential workers; such as NHS staff, retail workers, bus/train drivers, post men/women, food delivery drivers and many others. Would they not deserve a 6 week break also?
RegularComper90 a teacher of ours in family have said she would like this to happen because at moment they working more hours then were in school. Preparing work every evening for next day, chasing parents with kids not engaging not getting time to them self. When were in class room is easier so she happy to lose 2 weeks summer and move 1 week Easter and another at Xmas
RegularComper90 yeah, I get what you're saying - they all deserve a break.
i doubt many children would be happy with losing 2-3 weeks of their summer holidays, but if it means they could get better opportunities in life, maybe it would be worth it.
I would certainly extend the school times, I think as well each year should have there school lives extended by 1year at the very minimum so with the maybe altering the holidays this would really give them as good a chance as possible and sack Gavin Williamson for being the worse education minister in living memory .
stuartsmith544 I disagree these kids have worked hard in or out of school they have put up with it all so no i think they should go back to school like normal and have holidays this is none of there faults people moaned that the schools was kept open and they closed them now there moaning that kids need to be back in because they have missed out on so much these kids can't win so I know make it just that bit worst for them
Leeann i agree. my son does nearly 6 hours a day of home learning 5 days a week. he has worked so hard this year and even with the fear of catching covid he has continued to try his best. it's unfair to take away their summer holidays because the government failed to control the pandemic properly.
stuartsmith544 i only agree with the sacking gavin williamson bit. he failed to get any proper online education to children during the first lockdown and some children are still going without adequate remote learning. he has also continued to say that schools are safe and he still wanted them to stay open when we had 50000 cases and 1000 deaths a day. he doesn't care about children or education. one of the main reason schools have remained open is so that parents can go to work. the government even admitted that on a page somewhere on their website. they don't care about the health of our children, teachers, etc.
Before all of this I used to home school my children. Maybe I was lucky that I could do that.
eyeballkerry ill be home schooling when my daughter goes into high school and its not because of covid this was planned when I was pregnant
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