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No smoke without fire?

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 7:19 pm
by stroudydad

Re: No smoke without fire?

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 7:40 pm
by Amber
A former adviser to David Cameron has told the Sun the Tories are considering a plan to cut school holidays.
You decide. Key words highlighted to help you.

Re: No smoke without fire?

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 7:58 pm
by stroudydad
I really hope you are correct Amber, but don't trust the Gove rnment at all.

Re: No smoke without fire?

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 8:00 pm
by Amber
stroudydad wrote:I really hope you are correct Amber, but don't trust the Gove rnment at all.
Did I say I trusted him/them?

Re: No smoke without fire?

Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2014 9:48 pm
by moved
I'm back in school for a year. I'm in an inner city primary group to support maths through the curriculum change.

Most of the teachers are in work before 8am and are usually there until gone 7pm.

If you take away the holidays, they won't cope. The staff turnover in inner city schools is already hugely high as is illness. Staff are signed off with stress on a regular basis. The schools are successful and the children attain highly, but this is already at great personal cost to the teachers.

Re: No smoke without fire?

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 12:51 am
by stroudydad
I have no doubt you are right Moved, I have huge admiration for all teachers, :-)

Re: No smoke without fire?

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 4:32 am
by southbucks3
Most of the teachers are in work before 8am and are usually there until gone 7pm.

Moved...why are they working until 7pm? Our primary school is locked up by 5.30pm.

From a parent's point of view, I would like to see holidays regionally staggered more, but not reduced. As for longer days; I chose to give up work to bring up the children through the primary years, this is considered a luxury I know, but it means we struggle financially every month. We would have double our income, if not more if I had stayed in full time paid employment, rather than the little bits income I now earn through various projects. We would not change anything though, I love picking the boys up at 3.15 or 4.15 after clubs (two of which I assist with), love being available for every school and sports event, love helping out. I hate the drudge, isolation and sheer boredom of being a housewife, but that is the path I chose when I had children. If anyone had suggested they stay at school from 8am-6pm during the time I have been committed to bringing them up, I would have gone ballistic! 6 hours of good quality teaching and socialising with peers is enough for any primary school child and too long for key stage 1 as it is.

I think more should be done to create jobs for one parent to work the hours of 9-2.30pm rather than fit children in with standard working hours. This is an area which is sorely neglected, with poor pay, few opportunities and exploitation of parental need being rife.
I know several mums and two dads enjoying the "luxury" of being a stay at home parent, who are mostly hugely qualified, but delivering parcels, caring for toddlers at play school, stuffing envelopes or cleaning loos at minimum wage or less just to make ends meet whilst their children are at school. (Some of them completely dumned down their c.v. or application just to get the jobs) They then rush back to the school gate, hug at the ready at 3.15 and spend those three valuable hours with their children. All of them could get a good, well paid job 8-6 but jump through financial hoops instead, to look after their own kids.

There...I bit....Sun report / ex- advisor article or not, the mere suggestion of confining our precious children to one building and one (repressive) environment for an extra 4 hours a day just outrages me.

Re: No smoke without fire?

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 9:32 am
by Minesatea
It would also be detrimental to many after school activities and small businesses. If children were in school until 6pm they are going to be far too tired for ballet, swimming, football or brownies afterwards. Our local ballet school runs from 3.30 til 7pm 5 nights a week and a saturday morning, a proposal like this would ruin their business.

Re: No smoke without fire?

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 10:21 am
by talea51
southbucks3 wrote:
I think more should be done to create jobs for one parent to work the hours of 9-2.30pm rather than fit children in with standard working hours. This is an area which is sorely neglected, with poor pay, few opportunities and exploitation of parental need being rife.
This is an absolutely crucial point in my opinion. Instead of subjecting our children to frankly ridiculous hours of schooling, we need more flexible jobs, more homeworking opportunities and more employers who are willing to allow people to work school hours.

I am hideously fortunate. I work 28 hours a week but I do 8 of those hours at home. This means that I am home every single afternoon to collect my children from school and take them to all the after school activities that they do. In addition to this amazing opportunity that my employer has given me, my husband is allowed to work flexibly so that he is there in the morning (when I am at work) to take the children to school. He gets to work between 9:30 and 10:00 every morning depending on traffic but he's not home until 7pm each night.

We are incredibly fortunate, we work for large companies with family friendly attitudes. There aren't enough of these.

Our children go to school too young as it is, they spend more than enough time in school in any case and, as anyone who works in a school will tell you, maths and literacy are taught in the morning because the children are too tired after lunch. The summer born children especially struggle with the long day as it is.

If my children are forced to spend 9 hours a day in school, I will be forced to home school them.

However, as Amber said - this person is a former advisor and there's clearly a good reason that he's the former advisor.

Re: No smoke without fire?

Posted: Fri Jan 31, 2014 10:22 am
by mystery
There isn't the money to make compulsory school hours so much longer. It has to be rubbish, or if it isn't, something that would get turned down surely?