By Miss Management
I had been looking forward to this week.
My school was off. My children’s wasn’t. For once, I could be a playground mum. Do the drop-off without rushing. Stay for a chat. Learn the names of people I have been nodding at for several years.
Unfortunately, the other mums appeared to be in Majorca.
There was no traffic, plenty of parking and nobody to appreciate how available I was.
I have no attendance figures to support this conclusion. Most of the local secondaries had already broken up, which would explain the roads. The quiet playground may have had several explanations.
Still, I had cleared my schedule for a social occasion that appeared to have moved to the Balearics.
At Fallowmere, we have a two-week October half-term. I support this arrangement, particularly during the first week, when my children remain somebody else’s professional responsibility.
By October, September’s optimism has encountered the timetable, three circulating viruses and the discovery that an initiative described as “embedded” still requires daily emails.
A week off is welcome. Two gives you a chance to recover before attempting anything you had planned.
There are arguments beyond my personal convenience.
In a BBC report on longer half-terms, a teacher highlighted the potential benefit of a shorter summer holiday for vulnerable children who struggle without school’s routines and support.
Unity Schools Partnership reported that 89% of staff supported its two-week autumn break. Among parents, support was 58%.
Staff and parents were answering the same question from rather different positions.
The trust also reported a 16% fall in days lost to staff sickness after introducing the change. That does not prove the longer break caused the improvement, but it is worth taking seriously.
My own recovery arrangements have generally involved insisting I am fine until the first morning of a holiday, when my body submits its objections.
The grammar down the road has taken a different view.
Following a narrow staff vote, they retained a one-week break. They are completing eight weeks this half-term and will reclaim the time at the start of the summer holidays.
Fair enough. Summer can be a long haul too.
I am told the south of France is lovely then.
By July, when they are beneath a striped awning and I am investigating a water-bottle incident during Activities Week, I may have further observations.
For now, I will enjoy my peaceful week.
The difficulty comes when a household belongs to more than one school calendar.
One blended family I know has five children at five different schools.
Five sets of term dates. Five sets of inset days. Somewhere among them, presumably, an opportunity to go away together.
Each school can make a reasonable decision about its own calendar. The parents have to make all five work at once.
I have enough trouble finding a meeting slot for three colleagues. I hesitate to prescribe how this family should organise a week in Spain.
We ask parents to arrange holidays during the school holidays.
It is a straightforward request until they ask which school.
Add work rotas, annual leave and available childcare to the calendars, and the options narrow further.
Then they look at the price.
At school, we are explaining that the last week of term contains actual teaching. At home, someone is refreshing a booking page and calculating the saving.
I understand why families do the sums. I also know that missed teaching takes time and effort to catch up, often when the class has already moved on.
I can see the appeal of the cheaper departure date and still wish the child were in the lesson.
Of course, cheaper travel is only a benefit if you can afford to go away.
For a parent who cannot travel, an October week still has to be covered. Moving a holiday from summer may suit their arrangements beautifully. It may also mean finding care when their usual provision is unavailable.
A grandparent may be free. A manager may be flexible. Neither comes with the term dates.
From my position at the gate, with a fortnight off and children still in class, the arrangement looks excellent.
I appreciate that my circumstances are doing quite a lot of the work in that assessment.
Schools have reasons for choosing their dates. Staff recovery matters. So do children’s routines, family time and parents’ ability to remain employed while arranging all of the above.
A longer autumn break may serve a school community well. The benefits are harder to share when siblings’ schools take their breaks at different times.
Before the next consultation, I would like someone to put the neighbouring schools’ calendars on the table too.
Preferably before the attendance letters go out asking families to book within the school holidays.
We should probably specify whose.
I shall be at the gate again tomorrow. Available for a chat.
Unless everyone’s still in Majorca.
Further reading
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