Academic year

[100SRV]

I think I am correct in asserting that the present academic year arrangement was to allow the youths to assist in the harvest season (i.e. market gardening etc).

Given that this is no longer a major draw to the under 18's from urban areas I propose that the academic year be split into four semesters thus:
Autumn - September to mid December
Two weeks off
Winter - January to end March
One week off
Spring - April to June
Three weeks off
Summer - Late July to August
One week off

Students to have a leave allowance on the understanding that they catch up on work missed after school hours.

This would apply for everything from the first days of school all the way to University.

Is this unworkable and if so, why?

[ColinM50]

Who died and made you God?

Whilst you're about it can you also change the time zone so we're the same as Europe and you may as well have a go at putting interest rates up 'cos my investments are earning eff all and I'll soon have to start spending the capital

[21TonyK]

Because that's only 7 weeks holiday!!!

Are you mad!?

[McVities]

You could also argue the same for politicians...........after all, exactly how many of them are involved in the harvest any more? Is it not best to lead by example?



Whilst you're at it, why not abolish the changing of the clocks too

[768]

100SRV said:

Given that this is no longer a major draw to the under 18's from urban areas I propose that the academic year be split into four semesters thus:

I get that the current system is based on outdated reasoning (coughspeedlimitscough), but why your new proposal?

I'd rather just see schools pick random weeks, different from each other, for holidays, just to stop parents/newsreaders-with-nothing-better-to-talk-about moaning about inflated prices.

[Fittster]

768 said:

I'd rather just see schools pick random weeks, different from each other, for holidays, just to stop parents/newsreaders-with-nothing-better-to-talk-about moaning about inflated prices.

How would that work? If schools all had random holidays it would be a nightmare for people with kids at different schools and for teachers who pay have children who attend a school they don't work at.

[anonymous-user]

What are the pedagogical benefits of such a timetable?

[anonymous-user]

These 6 weeks are my favourite of the year, my commute is halved for 6 weeks, leave it alone!!

[Ultuous]

100SRV said:

I think I am correct in asserting that the present academic year arrangement was to allow the youths to assist in the harvest season (i.e. market gardening etc).

Even though the world's moved on, there's still plenty of seasonal summer work in various industries - for some students it's a necessary to save up some cash, and quite frankly I find the calibre of most grads I meet to be higher if they've gained some work experience in between studies (3 months makes that viable to an employer, a couple of weeks not so) - so I'm struggling to see a need to change things!

ETA: Just realised you're talking pre-university... should have read things properly!

Edited by Ultuous on Thursday 1st September 18:59

[768]

Fittster said:

768 said:

I'd rather just see schools pick random weeks, different from each other, for holidays, just to stop parents/newsreaders-with-nothing-better-to-talk-about moaning about inflated prices.

How would that work? If schools all had random holidays it would be a nightmare for people with kids at different schools and for teachers who pay have children who attend a school they don't work at.

It's not perfect, neither's the current system. Some people have kids in private, some in state, with different holidays and they cope. "Summer school" type activities could be more easily spread with schools at different times. For some it might even be easier during times when they're not having to do two or more different school runs. And of all parents trying to get a child into a school, those with one already there are front of the queue.

[Alex@POD]

You want to split the academic year into 4 periods of 6 months? That's not going to work...

[Exige46]

In NZ they have 4 terms of 10 weeks, with two weeks between other than Xmas / Summer which is longer. Seems to work well.

[iantr]

What problem are you trying to fix with this?

[Speed 3]

I agree the current system could do with ditching to spread the peak load and cost for both parents and teachers, particularly in split schools as I have for my 2 daughters (even being State schools in the same district they have surprisingly different term dates). I have thought of a similar system to the OP for some time where there are core dates that must and must not be attended with flexi-time between up the maximum attendance required. The biggest issue would be staff loading and timetabling. To enable this to happen you'd have to concentrate the core curriculum study in the compulsory periods and make the flexi-time more project / self study based. The latter would not necessarily need the specifically allocated subject teachers from the core time. You could also open longer in the core times (as many independent schools do and one of our local State schools currently does) to gain extra dowtime. I know the school admin requirements would increase but with a decent IT application its easily tracked and managed in the same way production businesses manage their load. It shouldn't be beyond the wit of man to improve what we have. Even the French spread their load by Department (region) initial letter for half terms.

[Halmyre]

Six weeks' break in the summer is the minimum to stop teachers* running naked through the high street smeared in their own st, wielding a machete and screaming "I'LL KILL YOU ALL!".

( * - well, my wife at least...)

[TwigtheWonderkid]

All you need to do is reduce the current summer hols from 6 weeks to 3, and make the three half term holidays 2 weeks instead of 1. Same amount of holiday, just spread better. And with 6 hols a year of 2 weeks minimum, would help with foreign holiday spread and reduce the prices parents have to pay to go away during school hols

[Halmyre]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

All you need to do is reduce the current summer hols from 6 weeks to 3, and make the three half term holidays 2 weeks instead of 1. Same amount of holiday, just spread better. And with 6 hols a year of 2 weeks minimum, would help with foreign holiday spread and reduce the prices parents have to pay to go away during school hols

I think the travel agents and airlines might just rumble your cunning plan.

[100SRV]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

All you need to do is reduce the current summer hols from 6 weeks to 3, and make the three half term holidays 2 weeks instead of 1. Same amount of holiday, just spread better. And with 6 hols a year of 2 weeks minimum, would help with foreign holiday spread and reduce the prices parents have to pay to go away during school hols

A nice simple solution, I like it.

[alock]

100SRV said:

I think I am correct in asserting that the present academic year arrangement was to allow the youths to assist in the harvest season (i.e. market gardening etc).

Given that this is no longer a major draw to the under 18's from urban areas...

University students have a longer summer holiday than schools, so I would just move the excess to December. This means they have the summer off for seasonal tourist work and December off for seasonal Christmas work.

It helps provide businesses with a workforce that only wants to work during the two peak seasons, and it helps students maximise their earnings to offset their debts.

[markh1973]

iantr said:

What problem are you trying to fix with this?

A problem that doesn't actually exist.

More likely to create problems than solve them. Kids - particularly the younger ones benefit from the longer summer break as they don't have to think about formal school work.