Why do kids have 6 weeks holiday?

dane-katie

I dont have any children myself yet, but i have often wondered why kids have such a large amount of time off in summer? wouldnt it be better for them to have 2 or 3 weeks off and spend more time in school or distribute the holidays more over the year?

Surely it must be hard for parents who work having to find child care for there children during these holidays?

Any ideas?

zorber

As a parent it may be better to have 4 weeks and then the other 2 weeks could be distributed around other holidays. It would take pressure off easter and summer being the main two holidays when we can book a long holiday. Though i still think they will be just as pricey

Brighton_belle

I believe it goes back to when schools first started and kids were needed to help with harvest time.

KiKi

It's a historic reason, based on the fact that when most of the country was still agricultural, many children helped out with farming and bringing in the harvest. They had an eight week period off to do that, and worked with their families to earn money on their land. Children in the cities, on the other hand, had something like only 2 weeks off in the whole year, and over time a compromise was made, and a six week holiday built in for all school children over the harvest time, whether they lived in the country or not.

This period has moved to where it is now to allow for the better weather and holidays - and the fact that we're not an agricultural country in the same way anymore!

I think that's pretty accurate (give or take a week or so!), but I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong.

KiKi

balletshoes

dane-katie wrote: »

I dont have any children myself yet, but i have often wondered why kids have such a large amount of time off in summer? wouldnt it be better for them to have 2 or 3 weeks off and spend more time in school or distribute the holidays more over the year?

Surely it must be hard for parents who work having to find child care for there children during these holidays?

Any ideas?

to be honest, the UK has amongst the shortest summer break of all - some countries have schools closed for up to 3 months in the summer!!

Mrs.W_2

Why six weeks?

I'm sure it just the right amount of time needed for teachers to forget the last school year and become optimistic about the new one.

make_me_wise

It gives us teachers a reason to live and keeps us going

tessie_bear

iv been asking this question all day

Spendless

balletshoes wrote: »

to be honest, the UK has amongst the shortest summer break of all - some countries have schools closed for up to 3 months in the summer!!

That's true, but what we do and they don't (afaik) is break up as frequently (for at least 1 week every 6-8 weeks). They don't have the half term breaks (feb/may/oct) that we do. We have relatives in canada and their main hols were 2 weeks at Xmas and 1 week spring break, and 1 or 2 long weekends but the bulk of hols were in the summer. I believe Scottish hols are slightly different too and N. Ireland.

abby1234519

And then there are us university students who break for practically 4 months...I'd rather keep going and have a 2 year degree. I get insanely bored over the holidays. Apart from this one as I am pregnant ^^

lolseh

I remember being told in primary school that here in Scotland one of the holidays we get is because children used to go out in the fields and help harvest potatos. Who knows if it is true