Re: School Holidays.

yes Swimmy it must be very difficult for mothers with kids at different schools, I totally agree, they should standardise and don't really know why they don't

Re: School Holidays.

Teachers are contracted for 1265 hours pa. I won't go into how, in reality, this isn't really sufficient time for classroom teachers to actually do what they do to avoid the usual (misinformed) comments.

This equates to 190 contact days (38 weeks) with a further 5 training days pa.

If you wish teachers to work for a greater number of hours/days, then their pay should be increased proportionately. I doubt that this would be on offer and, coupled with the usual derisory pay offers, would be viewed with natural scepticism by teachers and their professional associations.

Someone on here also advocates 11 week terms. Nice in theory, but not realistic in reality.

However, 6 week contact blocks with either 1 or 2 weeks break and a couple of 7 week contact blocks to make the 38 provision, with an extended 4 week break in summer to allow for public examinations results to be processed and hence time for post 16 as well as university placements to be administered would work. Obviously some minor alterations would need to be in situ to account for bank holidays to ensure that 190 contact days ensue.

This could be readily set up as a fixed date and standardised way of doing things, but would mean that every so often the moon-orentated Easter holiday breaks would be omitted.