[michael21]

http://news.sky.com/story/1079956/go...chool-holidays

England's schoolchildren should have shorter holidays and spend more time in the classroom, Michael Gove has declared.

The Education Secretary called for longer school days and term times, warning that the current system is out of date and fit for the agricultural economy of the 19th century.

Mr Gove said pupils are at a "significant handicap" compared to youngsters in East Asian nations, who benefit from extra tuition and support from teachers.

"We've noticed in Hong Kong and Singapore and other East Asian nations that expectations of mathematical knowledge or of scientific knowledge at every stage are more demanding than in this country," he told a Spectator conference in central London.

"In order to reach those levels of achievement a higher level of effort is expected on behalf of students, parents and teachers.

"School days are longer, school holidays are shorter. The expectation is that to succeed, hard work is at the heart of everything."

Mr Gove added: "If we look at the length of the school day in England, the length of the summer holiday and we compare it to the extra tuition and support children are receiving elsewhere then we are fighting, or running, in this global race in a way which ensures we already start with a significant handicap."

He later said that he wanted to see schools introduce a longer day for pupils, which he pointed out was already happening in some of the best British schools.

Mr Gove said the Government's changes to teachers' pay, terms and conditions would mean they could be paid more for taking on extra duties.

This would allow headteachers to organise their staff "in a way to get more out of young people", he claimed.

"It may be that there are one or two legislative or bureaucratic obstacles that prevent all schools from moving in this direction but I think it's consistent with the pressures of a modern society," he said.

He insisted that changes to term times and the school day would be "family friendly".

"I think it's the case that the structure of the school term and the school day were designed at a time when we had an agricultural economy," he said.

"Half-term in October, when I was at school in Aberdeen it was called 'tattie holiday' because it was the period when children went into the fields to pick potatoes.

"It was also fixed on a world where a majority of mums stayed home. That world no longer exists and we can't afford to have an education system that essentially its hours were set in the 19th century."

when will this come in mp never give fing detail

[reece(:]

What an idiot of a man, times have changed it's not the Dark Ages anymore. He's acting if he's saving many future careers because of these special pearls of wisdom he has on education when infact he's full of ****.

[Jake.]

Well Gove can suck a bollock

[Glenn.]

Can see the teachers really standing behind this

[joeysteele]

Not one of his better ideas.

[Niall]

Is there any part of the education system that this man does not wish to completely obliterate?

I mean I can understand his idea, but the I don't think the introduction of longer days and shorter holidays are going to help students. The 6 weeks at the end of the school year is a well needed break in my opinion. it allows you to have a nice breather in between the school years rather than a constant torrent of work which would inevitably just burn you out. Especially when you consider the insane amount of exam preparation lumped upon pupils in their final years during the ending of the school year. The stress that causes is more than enough cause for long breaks.

A lot of the time I feel as if Gove is making change for his own ideological sake rather than for the pupils. Everything he's tried to implement has been so archaic and idiotic. I can't stand him.

[Vicky.]

Gove is a twat. Mind I do think the 6 week holidays are too long.

And school days do seem shorter now than they used to be. When I was at school like 10 years ago..we did 9am - 3.30pm, with a 15 min break and 30 mins for lunch. The same school now does 9am - 3pm. with an hour for lunch and a 20 min break.

That said I dont think making the schoolday longer would improve peoples education anyway.

[the truth]

38 weeks a year 5 days a week plus after school clubs for parents who are at work........isnt that enough compulsory school for kids?

[King Gizzard]

Is he intent on alienating himself from absolutely everyone? Only people who would be behind this would be parents, in a way

[Benjamin]

Originally Posted by Vicky.

Gove is a twat. Mind I do think the 6 week holidays are too long.

And school days do seem shorter now than they used to be. When I was at school like 10 years ago..we did 9am - 3.30pm, with a 15 min break and 30 mins for lunch. The same school now does 9am - 3pm. with an hour for lunch and a 20 min break.

That said I dont think making the schoolday longer would improve peoples education anyway.

I was in school from 8am - 4pm.

I do agree that six weeks is too long.

[Glenn.]

The summer holidays here this year is only 28 school days. It's only a month.

The kids here have just had 2 full weeks off for Easter which I don't think is right.

[Jack_]

yeah woo let's all work some more yay for work and the stress of it let's have more of it

The man is a ****ing moron

[Joelle.]

No chance of any teachers supporting this, my school talk about him as if he's the antichrist. Mind I do think the six weeks are too long and could at least be spread out a bit more. Gove seems intent on wrecking the education system, Osbourne is running the economy into the ground, Cameron is Thatcher Mk II, and they've still got the nerve to blame Labour for our problems.

[Z]

I think he's got some good ideas, personally. As much as we love having long holidays as children, you do always end up going back having completely forgotten everything you learned the year before - if there were longer school days and shorter holidays, we'd get more work done and the stress of exams people mentioned probably wouldn't be as hard to deal with because the work would have been covered in much faster time. He makes a good point about how other countries are light years ahead of the UK in terms of education. The reason China is full of geniuses is because they put the hours in, not because they're genetically superior. British kids could be that smart too - the man's right, our education system IS based on an outdated, irrelevant way of life for most people. We're not an agricultural nation any more.

[Kazanne]

6 weeks is far too long,kids get bored and of course the teachers wont like it,we would all rather get paid for 6 weeks to do nothing! I also think 2 weeks at Easter is too much also.better kids at school than roaming the steets.

[Z]

To be entirely honest, when I was at school, having a long weekend was just as good as getting a two week holiday, and I used to get bored towards the end of the summer holiday and kind of enjoyed going back to school just for some structure to my routine, even though by October I was ready for a two week holiday - you never REALLY need as long as they give you. In fact, I think if we had shorter holidays in education, we'd probably appreciate being able to take a fortnight off work for our one holiday of the year or whatever. Maybe I'm wrong, I'll never find out because you only grow up once, but I do think, in hindsight, I would have benefited from more school and less holidays.

[MTVN]

Most people spend the majority of their lives working 9-5 (if not longer), 5 days a week, with only a couple of weeks holiday a year, I don't see the need to begrudge kids a few weeks and a decent part of the afternoon off to enjoy and make the most of their childhood

[Z]

Yeah, but if you get rid of that system, kids aren't going to know any different once it's been scrapped - if you're at school from 9-5 in line with working hours, it probably benefits parents who have to go work and prepares children for the working world a whole lot better than going to school from 8.30-3.30 and having six/seven week long summer holidays that they're never going to have again in their lives.

[Jords]

Let us live a bit ffs

[Ninastar]

Originally Posted by Zee

Yeah, but if you get rid of that system, kids aren't going to know any different once it's been scrapped - if you're at school from 9-5 in line with working hours, it probably benefits parents who have to go work and prepares children for the working world a whole lot better than going to school from 8.30-3.30 and having six/seven week long summer holidays that they're never going to have again in their lives.

i agree with everything you said

[Ammi]

..this isn't anything new and something that has been discussed for a long time..not that students will get less holiday time but for it to be split differently, with the maximum break from school being around 3/4 weeks..the possibility of two week half terms have been considered...also, a lot of schools already do the longer day thing in that they offer before and after school activities for children....

[Ninastar]

Originally Posted by Ammi

..this isn't anything new and something that has been discussed for a long time..not that students will get less holiday time but for it to be split differently, with the maximum break from school being around 3/4 weeks..the possibility of two week half terms have been considered...also, a lot of schools already do the longer day thing in that they offer before and after school activities for children....

Two week half terms every time there is a term break and then 4 weeks holiday seems fair to me. I think it's better.

I know a family in Colorado and they have six weeks of school then two weeks holiday all year round. It sounds fun.

[Ammi]

Originally Posted by Ninastar

Two week half terms every time there is a term break and then 4 weeks holiday seems fair to me. I think it's better.

I know a family in Colorado and they have six weeks of school then two weeks holiday all year round. It sounds fun.

...yeah, they've been talking about this for a long time Caitlin but it's not really about taking away holiday, just dividing the terms differently..and for me, from a working point of view, I would prefer that as 6 weeks is quite a long time to be away from your routine..but also the longer day thing..?..that's been discussed as well and also put into practice in some schools but more to fit in with parents working and children have the option to either choose activities or sometimes have help with extra one to one or small group tuition..but that's completely optional...

[Roy Mars III]

he's right.

there should be more 2 weeks holidays put throughout the year rather than a longer break in the summer

[Cherie]

England's schoolchildren should have shorter holidays and spend more time in the classroom, Michael Gove has declared.

The Education Secretary called for longer school days and term times, warning that the current system is out of date and fit for the agricultural economy of the 19th century.

Mr Gove said pupils are at a "significant handicap" compared to youngsters in East Asian nations, who benefit from extra tuition and support from teachers.


I don't think he is talking about reallocating the existing number of holidays, but actually taking some away or am I reading that wrong. Hopefully this will go the same way as his proposed re-introduction of O Levels...down the pan. I don't mind rejigging what we got, but I don't want to lose any.