Just a reminder that the half term holiday for us is just the week beginning the 28th of October. School is open next week, the week beginning the 21st October!
For families new to our school or others who may have missed it at the time, consultation with stakeholders a few years back, showed an overwhelming preference to keep to the traditional one week half term and longer Summer holiday.
The most widely cited reasons for keeping to the old arrangement were:
- There is a very strong feeling amongst educators that the two week break is an unwelcome disruption to learning, particularly to settling in of our younger children. They’ve just got used to coming to school and then it stops for a fortnight. Even for older children, a two week disruption at this time of year seems to set them back a bit. Our colleagues in schools who adopted the two week half-term tend to have now realised this and many tell us that they regret the change.
- We remain part of the Carlton le Willows family of schools and the majority of our children go onto there – it makes sense to keep in step with them.
- People like and value the long Summer break
- The predicted cheaper holidays over a two week half-term never materialised; the holiday companies just hike prices for both weeks.
- Recognition that if you can’t afford to fly to the sunshine or take a lovely UK break, it’s a dark, cold, generally unappealing time; playing out is not very enticing and it can result in just being in and around the house for two weeks. Also that this can result in increased costs for families – fuel bills, seeking out entertainment etc foremost amongst these.
So, we’ll look forward to seeing everyone as usual next week!