Michael Gove Says School Holidays Are Too Long

Michael Gove has said school holidays are too long- and on this occasion I agree with him.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10003772/Cut-length-of-school-holidays-says-Michael-Gove.html

I've always found summer and end-of-term holidays too long. For me at least they're mostly wasted, mostly full of procrastination and also when I was younger (not so much now) I always came back after the summer about six months behind where I was when I left. Of course we need some holidays, and study leave but not as long as we have. I'm not sure whether I'd like longer school hours though... but staring and finishing an hour later would be nice! Extra time in bed! :biggrin:

What do you think?

(edited 11 years ago)

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Reply 1

Skip_Snip

Weeell with all the crappy academies and free schools he's enabled, no-one will actually have to listen to him

Reply 2

techno836

Original post by SpiggyTopes

What do you think?

I agree with extra time in bed ;D .... and summer holidays are especially long!

I 've heard how some schools have 2 weeks off every term/half term and have just 3 weeks for summer, not sure how true it is though :smile:

Reply 3

Llamageddon

Maybe.

Maybe if it was 4 weeks and the 2 weeks was redistributed. Tinkering right now could be another disincentive for teaching as a profession though. Or cause breakdowns. Or pump up holiday costs during the now much reduced holiday period. Or provide better options at different times of the year.

****ed if I know tbh.

Reply 4

Dragonfly07

I'd be happy if there was about 5 hours of studying per day, starting at around noon and finishing in the afternoon, and less holidays. I find that I have more energy in the afternoon, and I think most other people do too. Somehow, waking up early in the morning doesn't seem so natural to me.

The holidays themselves don't actually serve to refresh you for the next term - in fact they do the opposite, they make you too laid back and lenient. They should be much shorter than they are if their purpose is to increase productivity.

Reply 5

arkhamz

ugh I'm starting to hate this man

Reply 6

ArtGoblin

Nah, education is the only time in your life when you get long stretches of nothing, it would unfair to rob them of that freedom. You have the rest of your life working with only a week or so off in between times, it doesn't need to start in school. And can you imagine the prices of summer holidays if there was only 3-4 weeks to take your child away? It would probably vastly increase the number of children being taken out of school for holidays.

Reply 7

Chlorophile

Gove is driven by his old-fashioned ideology of what education should be rather than evidence and research. I'm not going to take anything that comes from his seriously.

Reply 8

physicso

I think he's a ****ing idiot that needs to be ended.

Lets look at his decision to axe january exams. Let me make this clear, this decision does not affect me, but still, i think it's ****ing moronic.

Firstly, even if A levels have become easier, they have becoming universally easier, so everyone is still on the same playing field as they were when they were harder in the past, we are having no problem producing highly skilled graduates - in fact we are producing more than we ever had. All this ridiculous policy is going to do is massively increase stress on the poor people who have 20+ Alevel exams in the summer.

If thats not enough, learning via linear exams has never been proven to actually increase intelligence. ****ing idiot.

Reply 9

nicatre

Summer is far too long. I always got hideously bored.

The school day should be shifted to later and the main holiday shortened which would allow more to be taught in the year.

Reply 10

Llamageddon

just an fyi but the school day is more designed to be as convenient as possible for parents than anything else.

cos parents vote etc.

Reply 11

Morgasm19

For god's sake Gove disgusts me and I hate the direction that the education system is heading in and has been for a while. I personally think there is wayyy too much pressure as it is on young people with regards to schoolwork, we have essentially 4 consecutive years of exams, I think we deserve substantial time periods off!

I feel quite disillusioned to be honest, what is the point of education? 'we are fighting or actually running in this global race in a way that ensures that we start with a significant handicap.' Well I see myself as a more than a tool for the economy, a participant in a global race, I'm not a worker, I'm a student. Yes looking at examples from the far east they probably do get better results, but is it worth compromising on young people's mental well-being for that?

Apologies for the rant I'm just stressed from revision really, and I really dislike Gove, he has such conviction in his beliefs about education reform he'll probably be saying we need to extend the school holidays next week anyway :tongue:

Reply 12

RedBedHead

Michael Gove is a twonk who has never taught anything at all. I fail to understand what means he was the best person to dictate how education works. I think maybe move one of the weeks to easter/nearest holiday to exam period to allow for rest and dedicated revision sessions rather than dealing with full school days. Generally I was fine with the summer holidays, and teachers are too - they often work through the shorter holidays so this gives them a chance to recuperate and plan for the next school year.

Reply 13

DarkWhite

I bloody despise Michael Gove.

It's not because he comes up with suggestions like this; it's because they're never arrived at through consultation.

What research is this based on? Who has he actually asked about the idea? Has he even considered one of the many thousand other ways the school year might be adjusted?

Teachers, pupils, parents/carers are probably more than happy to engage in an effective consultation on what pupils and teachers need to get out of the school year, the possibilities for doing so, and considering a series of these to form a solid, informed, well-researched proposal.

It might be his ministerial portfolio, but they are all elected as representatives, and the more proactive he is in representing, the more effective and less despised he'll be.

Reply 14

Hopple

Summer holidays are too long. Half terms could be lengthened by a week each then the summer holiday could be shortened to avoid the mental rustiness that comes at the end of it.

Reply 15

cleveradam

the holiday this year is going to be more like 4.5/5 weeks anyway - don't know why his moaning.

Reply 16

Chlorophile

Original post by Arirang

Michael Gove says a lot of things.

"The Education Secretary said all schools should follow the example set in the Far East where pupils are expected to follow a longer day and get less time off."

Love how that doesn't say "in the Far East where pupils go to school at 6a.m, leave at 6p.m and then go to another private academy until 12a.m or later, or in boarding schools, begin at 5:30 am and finish at 10p.m"

(You can, of course, choose not to go to the extra lessons after school but a vast majority do it.)

That is what schools are like in the Far East - and they think we should be on par with that? Can you imagine suddenly changing the dynamic to this, to enable us to "catch up"? You'd go mad! The difference is, in those Asian countries, particularly China and South Korea - kids don't really have a childhood because they start studying at kindergarten through to the end of high school. With all the studying they do, there is literally no time to do any recreational stuff, so while they may be highly intelligent and very capable in the academic sense, they lack creativity, and it's in these countries in the more creative fields of work where foreigners are actually hired over local people.

There's also not a lot of essay writing and they're not taught to think for themselves (in the academic sense) - they're given all the information to learn and that's it, there's no figuring it out, no debating, none of that. Just: here is the information - go learn it.

I'm from Northern Ireland and we actually get 8 weeks of summer holidays, not 6. Our half term holidays were usually just a long weekend, though. We have the longest summer holidays in the UK, yet we also have the highest GCSE and A-Level grades...? I mean, I don't even know, I'll let Gove figure that one out.

Absolutely perfectly said, especially the part in bold. There is a ridiculous obsession over exam results at the moment, with countries comparing each other over maths and literacy tests whilst completely neglecting creativity and independent thinking, which are going to be two of the most sought after traits in the near future. The far-eastern education systems are robbing the youth of the capacity to think creatively.

Reply 17

anonymouspie227

He shouldn't take away from the youth. This is the time in their(our) lives really when they have *some* freedom and are able to do things other than work (childhood). Summer holidays are a time to have a long break after a hard year of work, for students, where you can stop facing the pressures of school, exams and peers, and just take a break. I don't think that increasing the time that you're at school in a school day will result in better results, what about the concentration of the children? tiredness? etc? Also, I just think it could be more stressful for children, putting all that emphasis on doing work, getting results etc...

Also, school should be about what's best for the children, not being a babysitter for parents... And can I just say (not that important, yes, but imma say it), it gets really dark in the winter, do we want students leaving school in the dark, with all the lurking dangers?

I don't like Mr Gove's ideas.

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 18

username1020490

Original post by Skip_Snip

Weeell with all the crappy academies and free schools he's enabled, no-one will actually have to listen to him

I'm by no means an educational expert, but am I missing something? Or is my area the exception?

The academies established in my home town have turned failing schools in outdated buildings into brand new state of the art schools, and standards have gone through the roof. There has never, in my life time, been such a huge investment in education, particularly when you place it in the economic context.

Reply 19

YMLT

Personally I'd rather they scrapped the Easter holidays, which I've always found completely pointless, and added two weeks on to summer. Then you can shift the whole school year forward, which would mean being able to take exams before Christmas.

My school is 8:00AM to 2:30PM, which is pretty much perfect. It means I can get home relatively early, do an extra 3/4 hours of work then have evenings off. Perfect in the summer. Doesn't need to be any longer- there's only so much a school can do & a lot of your success is down to how much effort you put in outside of the classroom.