Should school summer holidays be shorter?

Shorter school summer holidays may sound like a child's nightmare – but they could be a relief for parents who are trying to juggle childcare with their jobs.

Some schools now have five-week breaks in the summer, but a two-week October half term. But is there an argument for shorter summers at all schools?

Could a shorter break help with learning? Or do pupils - and teachers - need the time to recharge? Would spreading out school holidays across the year help reduce the cost of family holidays, or would smaller windows create a rush to book time off?

Let's take a look at some of the issues.

Six weeks is a long time away from learning, especially for children whose parents are working or who can't afford lots of costly day trips, activities or a long family holiday.

So while all children may forget a little of what they have learnt, families with more money can enrich their understanding by giving them other experiences, and this widens the learning gap.

For many families with children, food is one of the biggest bills. During term time, more than a quarter of children across England are eligible for free school meals, and in some schools, it is closer to half of all pupils.

As food costs have risen, there has been growing awareness of what is called holiday hunger, with some families struggling to feed children without school support.

There are other factors too. While summer allows for playing outside, footy kickarounds and being in the garden, extending winter holidays may mean families need to heat their homes more in the daytime.

England, Wales and Scotland all have six-week summer breaks, though Scotland's tends to be earlier, finishing in mid-August.

In Northern Ireland, schools are closed for all of July and August.

Most of England's schools are now academies who can set their own holidays, and some have already opted for five weeks in summer and two weeks in October. In Surrey, the county council has decided to follow suit for all the schools it supports from autumn 2026.

In Wales, that model was put out to consultation, attracting more than 16,000 responses from parents and teachers. It was divisive. Only a narrow majority were in favour and in June 2024, the plans were put on hold.

Parentkind, the charity for parent-teacher organisations, has released polling suggesting 53% of parents would like a four-week summer holiday, rising to 60% in families with a child with special educational needs.

The same polling also suggests a four-week break is much less popular with teachers, with only 24% in favour of the idea. This may ultimately be a stumbling block. It is hard to recruit teachers because for the rest of the year, they have little to no flexibility in their working patterns, unusual now for many graduate roles. Summer is when teachers recharge and also pack in their planning and lesson preparation ahead of September.

However, earlier this year, the chief inspector of schools at Ofsted, Sir Martyn Oliver, said he thought shorter breaks could be beneficial. He said after the long summer holiday, some children returned "dysregulated" and struggling to adapt to routine.

The price of going away during the six-week school holidays can be eye-watering.

This is because the high demand from parents and those working in education for those dates means travel firms can hike prices up and still sell out.

So spreading some of these weeks out across the year could provide more opportunities to go away and lessen demand at any one time, thus bringing down prices.

However, if the summer holiday was only four weeks long, it could also have the opposite effect of squashing the demand into a smaller time frame and pushing up prices further.

One way to mitigate this would be for different regions to stagger their school summer holidays, suggests Which? Travel editor, Rory Boland.

Holiday prices would come down "only if travel firms can restrain themselves from massively inflating prices", he says.

Any price drops could also come at the expense of those who currently avoid going away during the school summer holidays, as they might find there are fewer bargains to be had.

There could also be an impact on traffic jams, airport queues and overcrowded trains if everyone isn't making a dash for it at the same time.

If there was a shorter summer break, employers would have to navigate a higher number of holiday requests over a smaller period of time.

For instance, three people wanting to take two weeks off each over summer could be staggered over six weeks, but over four weeks might prove more tricky.

If leave isn't possible, bosses should "carefully consider" flexible working to help balance workload with childcare, says David D'Souza, director of profession at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

It's easy for us adults to discuss things like costs and working arrangements. But what do those who are arguably most affected think? We asked pupils at a primary school in Manchester.

Sam, in year six, says he thinks we should have longer holidays "because, in countries like Ireland and Spain, they have 9-11 weeks."

"Lots of people are saying that our generation don't play out," he says, "but I think it's the complete opposite, because if we had longer, we would definitely play out more and we wouldn't be bored because we'd plan more things."

But Betsy, also in year six, says she is concerned about what that might mean for her learning. "I think we should keep the holidays the same because, say, if I was on a holiday for 12 weeks and you go back to school, then it might take a while to get settled into your friend group and remember everything you've learnt for the last year and get used to the whole school vibe."

Grace, in year five, says if holidays were longer she'd get a lot more bored as, "You won't see your friends as much".

"You'll see lots of family but you won't see as much of your friends and you could be asking when are we going back, because I'd be a little bit bored."

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