#24 July!
strap in because this one is unhinged!!
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Jeez Louise, July!! Amirite!! I can’t believe how long it lasted, how much overly-hot weather we endured, how much happened??? Do you feel the same? How are we feeling about it officially being summer break? I know US readers started a month ago, and most of the UK have been on break for a couple of weeks already, but spare a thought for those of us in Derbyshire who finished less than a week ago. Who designed the calendar that saw an almost-8-week half term to finish off the academic year? They need the sack! It makes no sense! I hear rumours of parts of the UK that have moved to four weeks off in the summer, and two weeks in October and February instead of just one, because otherwise the stretch from summer to Christmas and then Christmas to Easter is just too long. I’m all for it! All for re-thinking of the school calendar!!
I know I’ve said it before, but working in a school has totally re-evaluated how I think about what we put our kids through. It’s too much, is the bottom line, and just because we did it and survived it doesn’t mean that’s how it should be forever and forever. Is there somebody out there cleverer than me who can defend what we expect from students and staff alike? Or tell me how to help shape what it becomes next? It’s a loaded subject, and there’s always someone who says, schools are never bloody on, it’s a break every six weeks, shut yer pie hole and stop complaining. But what schools do to the nervous system of everyone involved, the relentlessness of them… you just can’t compare it. Obviously hospitals and public sector work must feel the same, but those of us in education who have previously been in traditional industry all note that normally work has ebbs and flows, peaks and troughs, has small moments of respite at least, and education just… doesn’t. Not to mention that in industry you can take a holiday whenever you want, or aren’t directly affecting the education or wellbeing of scores of children if you’re sick. It’s different, ok!! Schools are wild beasts!