4 day week for schools?

Fleurpepper it was the mention of most French holidays being 2 weeks apart from the summer. I literally cut and pasted the item from information on the French school holiday website. My sister’s UK school has 2week half terms, but they finish later than us e.g. not until the end of July, so their summer break is less than 6 weeks.
I wholeheartedly agree with the idea of more free/subsidised childcare in the UK.

Australian schools have four terms with two weeks break in between each apart from Christmas when they have about 8 weeks holiday.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62496728
Nursery closures: Parents left without childcare as providers shut

Just throwing this into the conversation! Makes sad/interesting reading.

Yes I listened to an article yesterday when they quoted exhaustion, lack of respect, lack of protection supplies during lockdown as some of the reasons why so many had left the job-causing a shortage of staff to run the nurseries.

I very much doubt this will happen and if it did I would think the teachers would still be teaching on day 5 but just online as in lockdown. One of the issues is school budgets are set a whole year in advance, so no account taken of rising costs, heating, food for lunches and teachers salaries. Schools are all now all funded from different sources, eg some are academies, some are still LA schools, free schools etc It’s a nightmare for school staff. My own daughter is a primary school teacher and I’m shocked at the amount of things she buys out of her own pocket and how much “unpaid” hours she works. She’s been in school three times during these holidays in addition to three training days. They are paid for the training days but not paid for holidays, their salaries are based on term term and then split across 12 months for both teachers and payroll convenience

PS I do not think it’s helpful though to talk about schools and childcare in the same thread. Schools are NOT unpaid childcare. They are there to educate our DC This government along with many others haven’t really helped working parents at all, nor teachers nor school budgets. Also please remember many teachers also are parents

In an ideal world maybe they could incorporate some online learning for the fifth day - zoom classes etc which a lot got to grips with through covid.
… But this country is not set up for such a big change - parents/carers working hours, not everyone can work from home, etc
There is always a trade off somewhere whatever goes on … and it’s usually the kids education that suffers.
The whole education system needs an overhaul- too many ‘education ministers’ passing through and too many ‘new initiatives’ - our kids deserve better.

What a good French practice, Wednesdays off. To my children school was always a battlefield and they were continually absent. At 16 they went to Futher Education College, got good exam results, chose their degree courses, graduated well, have good jobs and paid up mortgages. Their own children now steaming ahead, 2 into medicine, 1 into music and one off travelling as she decides what to do. Don't children have too much 'Education' rammed down their throats in their early years?

Might be economic sense but what about kids who have parents working five days? I work in childcare and know how they struggle when children are young. We’ve actually seen a increase in parents hours not decrease. ( birth to four year olds)

gn38

What a good French practice, Wednesdays off. To my children school was always a battlefield and they were continually absent. At 16 they went to Futher Education College, got good exam results, chose their degree courses, graduated well, have good jobs and paid up mortgages. Their own children now steaming ahead, 2 into medicine, 1 into music and one off travelling as she decides what to do. Don't children have too much 'Education' rammed down their throats in their early years?

In response to your last comment, my daughter has taught in both early years and a private nursery, you’d be shocked at the number of rising 5’s who cannot even dress themselves, (PE), toilet themselves adequately, socialise, due to what I sadly can only call “lazy parenting” some of her classes of 30+ children struggle with basic stuff yet she has targets to meet which state ALL her children have to have basic reading & writing skills before they start in year 1! It’s not all play nor Education rammed down their throats! The sooner parents understand they should be playing a massive part in their DC upbringings and not leave it to schools to do so and stop treating schools as some form of daycare facility the better! I’m amazed anyone wants to go into education as a profession

There is a school here that has closed half day Friday for as long as I can remember. It was started because they didn’t have the moment to pay staff for working the extra time, don’t know if that is still the reason though.
My children weren’t happy when they got sent to a different school that did the whole school week.

Whether a four day school week will benefit anyone finacially depends entirely on what expenses can be saved.

I can only really see that less heating, electricity for lighting, running computers etc and perhaps a day's cleaning can be saved.

The last is doubtful, I should think, as I very much doubt that the cleaning staff, office staff or teaching staff will except not being paid for m "the extra day off"

As far as what we all thought was the main purpose of schools - in other words teaching, there is no real hope of teaching a five day a week syllabus well in the course of a four day week!

To me this sounds like a plan that struck some politician who has never taught in a school, made a school time-table or dealt with any of the many aspects that in addition to the above go into the running of a successful school.

Presumably, whoever came up with the idea either never had children, or left the arranging of who looked after them before or after school hours and during holidays entirely to his wife!

Teenagers who are tired of school might just benefit from a shorter school week, but it is doubtful that they will. Most of them will spend the day they are not at school larking about or staying up late.

Primary school children will assuredly not benefit from fewer hours attending school.

This is already happening at my GD's primary with a half day introduced and earlier start times and finishing times. This has thrown child care arrangements into chaos. From an already exhausted grandparent's point of view I am dreading September and the new arrangements which will involve dark, cold mornings to drag little ones out. To ease our situation we will have to fund after school clubs as will many parents who cannot suddenly change their working arrangements.

This will mean parental costs to look after a child on a day off, possibly affecting ability to go to work.

Surely our children’s and young people’s education has suffered quite enough under the too stringent and ill thought out Covid rules? How on earth are we going to catch up and provide a skilled and educated work force to compete in the world if this ridiculous idea is implemented? Private education will no doubt be unaffected, thus widening the social divides even more! Not to mention the cost of childcare, already so much higher than in other countries and which is itself suffering from recruitment problems due to their poorly paid staff. Whoever has mooted this idea needs their backsides kicked into touch! We have already let our children (and our country) quite enough toying with their futures. It cannot and must not continue.

Unfortunately, the government we have now doesn't care at all about the children that attend state schools, whatever they say.

Lucca

rosie1959

I don't suppose school staff will be too happy about loosing a fifth of their salary can hardly be paid full time rates for a four day week.

What ? You can’t just reduce someone’s salary. You can bet your life they would be fully employed 5 days a week.

Surely each of the four days will be longer, to fit in what would have happened on the fifth? Many schools already finish earlier on Friday. If so, the staff will be working the same hours as before.

Maybe day five would be designated a pupil-less day, with staff meetings, career development courses and time to prepare lessons on the school premises. Caretakers and cleaners could use the time on maintenance and deep cleaning.

Surely each of the four days will be longer, to fit in what would have happened on the fifth?
Reception and Y1 children are already tired out at the end of the day without making it longer.

School day.

The govt has warned schools not to cut back the teaching week. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62565665

SueDonim

The govt has warned schools not to cut back the teaching week. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-62565665

People seem fixated on the idea that it is a government plan.

It was a petition that has been rejected by the government.

That's good, SueDonim, thank you for the link.

The government needs to do something to help schools stay open if the costs of energy are going to rise so much.

Will staff accept a cut in pay for the reduced hours worked?

Elegran Are yoh proposing schools would be staffed on the "fifth" day but no pupils. Can't imagine teachers etc being happy to be in a cold building for 8 hours seeing as heating will be reduced if not totally off. No kitchens operating either.

Callistemon21

That's good, SueDonim, thank you for the link.

The government needs to do something to help schools stay open if the costs of energy are going to rise so much.

Quite! There is no other solution.