End of long school holidays? Half of parents want summer slashed to FOUR weeks and longer winter breaks

Daily Mail​

4 days ago

Half of frazzled parents want summer holidays to be slashed to four weeks and half terms extended, a new survey shows.
Research by the charity Parentkind found many families think the up-coming six-week break is too long, often citing childcare as an issue.
Most teachers also support a four-week break, as long as they do not lose the total amount of holiday they get throughout the year.
Pupils in state schools start their break from this weekend, and will be off until early September.
Previous studies have shown pupils regress during the holidays because they get out of practice with their reading and writing.
The charity's research is based on its own poll of 3,000 parents and a separate poll of 9,000 teachers by Teacher Tapp.
It found that 53 per cent of parents would back plans to reduce the school summer break to four weeks from six and only 33 per cent would oppose this.
Many parents would prefer two-week half-term breaks and a longer Christmas holiday.
Most half-term holidays last a week, although increasing numbers of schools are offering a two-week October half term.
A shorter summer break was seen as a financial positive by 32 per cent of parents, compared with 17 per cent who saw it as a negative.
The proportion in favour on these grounds increased to 47 per cent among parents of children entitled to free school meals.
Thirty-seven per cent of parents overall and 43 per cent of those whose children were entitled to free school meals said a shorter break would be beneficial for childcare, compared with 14 per cent overall who said it would be detrimental.
The Teacher Tapp polling found that 62 per cent of teachers would accept a shorter summer holiday, 38 per cent would support it being reduced from six weeks to five and 24 per cent were in favour of it being cut to four weeks.
However, 35 per cent wanted to stick with the traditional six weeks, while the remainder gave other answers.
Jason Elsom, the chief executive of Parentkind, told the Times: 'While children will no doubt be looking forward to extended time away from school, the long summer break is a challenge for some parents.
'Our large parent poll shows that most parents want to knock two weeks off the six-week summer break to give teachers and children a month off instead.
'Parents tell us that a shorter summer holiday would help with costs and childcare, which would be particularly welcome at a time when some families are struggling to keep their heads above water.
'We need to make sure the long summer break doesn't add further stress and hardship for parents, particularly those on low incomes.'
A recent survey by Coram found summer holiday childcare costs in Britain have increased by 4 per cent in the past year, to an average of £179 per child per week. It is almost three times the price of after-school club in term time.