Gli orari delle vacanze scolastiche “Bizzare” dovrebbero essere modificati, afferma il capo dell’Ofsted

‘Why are students only in school 190 days of the year?’ Well mate, let me tell you about ‘weekends,’ which make up 104 of those days off. Other than that, his argument is pretty moot, because yes, we sometimes get hot weather in May, June, and July, but we also get hot weather in August, September, and it can even be hot into October. 

And while you’re at it.
How about
– adjusting the school day so that it doesn’t clash with rush hour
– extend the school day with extra curricular activity to better dovetail with working families

I was educated abroad. We started before 8. The school day finished in time for lunch, and the afternoon was filled with sport and other activities. Our evenings accommodated 2 hours of prep.

I honestly believe the long days did us (me) no harm. Condensing education into ever shorter schedules seems to suggest that the powers-that-be believe education can be ‘done’ more efficiently.

That is at odds with my view that good education requires time and broad, not highly focused, learning.

The question that lingers in my mind is this. After our kids leave school for the (short) day what do they do?

Children should work 9-5 with 6 weeks annual leave to prepare them for the real world, they should spend their evenings at part-time jobs to help pay for commuting and other essentials, I will allow them to rest and play on Sundays only

Ofsted’s job is to monitor the progress of the government’s policies within schools to ensure they operate according to the rules laid down.

They are not elected representatives and are not responsible for policy. The head of Ofsted can have his own opinion, they could even be consulted during government policy review but they should not be making announcements about policy as “The Head of Ofsted”.

The tired argument that children should be treated as if they were adult workers and given 28 days holiday is ridiculous. Are they expecting all families to holiday in the same single week in August? Are they denying families time together because school is the only thing that matters.

It really just guarantees that family holidays will occur any time between June and October such that teachers will have no idea who will be in each class on any given day and no topic requiring the building of ideas over several weeks can occur.

It’s a stupid idea from someone who is talking outside their remit, has no understanding or care about family life or bafflingly children’s development beyond the classroom.

Note that private schools have even longer holidays and they remain popular and successful.