School holidays and start times
School life
Parents want a shorter summer holiday and a longer break at Christmas.
Most parents told us that a month is enough for summer and want the extra two weeks redistributed around the school year. The long summer holiday is hard on parents who struggle with the cost of finding childcare for a six-week stretch. It isn’ t the amount of school holiday that bothers parents, it’ s redistributing it more evenly around the year that matters.
There has been some debate in recent years about a later start to the school day for teenagers, but this isn’ t popular with parents who think teenagers should get to school for 9am or even earlier.
Possible changes to the school holidays
To what extent would you support or oppose any of the following changes in the redistribution of the school holidays?
52 % |
34 % |
49 % |
28 % |
48 % |
35 % |
30 % |
49 % |
The summer holiday reduced from approx. six weeks to four weeks |
All half terms being two weeks( instead of one or sometimes two weeks) |
The Christmas holiday extended to three weeks( instead of approx. two) |
The Easter holiday extended to three weeks( instead of approx. two) |
Sample: 5,866 parents in England( 3,391), Scotland( 1,309), Wales( 865), and Northern Ireland( 301) who have at least one child aged 4 to 18 in school. Base: All respondents whose child attends a state school( 4,814)
A majority( 52 %) of parents want the summer holidays reduced from 6 weeks to 4 weeks, just 1 in 3( 34 %) oppose this
Almost half( 49 %) of parents want half term breaks to be 2 weeks as standard compared with 28 % who oppose this
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