Should School term extend into holidays ?

Recently there have been discussions of extending the school term to catch up on missed work, as in the last two academic years, pupils will have lost two terms of in school teaching. So should school terms be extended into the holidays to make up this lost time?

Firstly, there would be some great benefits such as in person and in school teaching which would greatly help catch up for the work missed during online school. You would also be able to see your friends if schools were extended into the holidays. One option could be to have a longer February half term so that when we are out of lockdown, we could return to school and extend the term into the Easter holidays. If school was to be extended into the holidays then being able to do sport at school would become an option again.

However lockdown could continue so this would just lead to even more online school. Teachers will also want a holiday, and no one really wants to spend their holiday doing more schoolwork. Pupils, parents and teachers will need relaxing holidays without the additional pressure of more school. Teachers have already worked through a lot the holidays through the pandemic as well as returning to school with the new rules so it would be unfair to put more pressure on them by extending the term.

I was lucky enough to interview Munira Wilson MP, who is the local Member of Parliament for Twickenham. I asked her ‘ Do you think that school terms should be extended into the school holidays?’ She replied with ‘I think that given the huge amount of time that schools have been closed in the first lockdown as this lockdown, we have to look at a whole range of creative options to make sure that children and young people catch up not just with their learning, but also their social development.’ She continued by saying, ‘I think we need to come up with a plan that involves schools, head teachers, and the teachers unions as well as parents groups, as well as education and development professionals to work out the best way forward.’

Boris Johnson has been quoted in the press saying ‘We recognise these extended school closures have had a huge impact on children’s learning, which will take more than a year to make up’ which shows that there is a possibility of school terms being extended. We will need to wait and see what happens in the future.