Standardisation of the school year – an exercise in futility!
Comments(10)
For years, schools (both primary and secondary), did their own thing when it came to arranging their respective school year calendars.
There was little or no co-operation between neighbouring schools. I have to acknowledge that some schools, in fairness, did liaise with each other.
Others had to because of the school bus service or other factors that needed a local area approach.
For the most part we all laid out our own closures/openings for the year.
The only requirement was that we didn’t work in July or August and that we didn’t work certain Holy Days (Immaculate Conception – Dec. 8th and Corpus Christi).
Primary schools have to operate for 183 school days in any school year, while secondary schools have to operate for 167 days.
As part of the ‘Benchmarking/Sustaining Progress Agreement’, agreement was reached in early 2004 on the standardisation of the school year for the following 4 years.
This covered the 2004/2005, 2005/2006, 2006/2007 and the 2007/2008 school years.
A new agreement was reached in November/December 2007 for the next three school years.
- The original agreement allowed for flexibility at the beginning and end of the school year. The new agreement allows this also.
- The primary sector was allowed to use discretionary days to close at times that suited them during the school year e.g. closure in celebration of a local saint’s feast day
- We had to do the minimum number of days (167 or 183 depending on the sector involved)
- We all closed at and for the same time at Halloween (mid-term), Christmas and Easter
- February mid-term – we had a choice to take 2 days (Thursday and Friday) or take the full week
- We couldn’t use our discretionary days to extend any of the above
- Schools could opt to go back two or three days prior to September 1st if they wished e.g. if Friday was the 1st of September …. a school could go back on Wednesday the 30th of August
Although an attempt was made at standardisation is still too flexible in my opinion.
We should all go back at the same time in September. The old start date was the first Monday of the month. That should never have changed. I don’t agree with schools going back in August. We should keep July and August school free zones for many reasons. One reason would be to give pupils, teachers etc. a chance to recharge the mental batteries. Another reason is that schools have a chance to do maintenace and renovation on the school without pupils being present.
I could envisage a system of six weeks on and two weeks off being mooted and July/August holidays becoming a thing of the past. It has its merits … pupils haven’t had a two month break to forget stuff etc. The biggest disadvantage would be that neither pupil nor teacher would get a decent amount of time to mentally recharge and we’d be going back to school as stressed out as ever after our two weeks off.
Keep July and August school free me thinks! Leaving teachers aside …. for children the summer holidays can be an education unto themselves.
We still finish at different times at the end of the school year (once we have our 183 days fulfilled) …. so chaos (as opposed to standardisation) still reigns here.
February midterm now has there options:
- Take a week or
- Take Thurday and Friday (2 days) or
- Take Monday and Tuesday (2 days)
Regarding the 183 pupil contact days …. these can be eroded if:
- A school is hosting an election (the day counts as one of the 183 days and doesn’t have to be made up)
- Exceptional closing e.g. electricity outage (doesn’t have to be made up if days have been allocated etc.)
Half days are another bone of contention.
Most schools take half days for Halloween, Christmas, Mid-term, Easter and Summer holidays. Add up all the half days and that a lot of teaching time lost to pupils!
Noel Dempsey, when he was Minister for Education and Science, tried to curtail the taking of half days …. he failed to do so ….. he was moved before he could really stick the boot in!
Personally, I think half days shouldn’t be allowed. The pupils are entitled to a full day’s education. Half days further erode the 183 contact days.
Our Easter break shouldn’t depend on any moon!
This year Easter was early, leaving us with a short second term and a very long third term.
My proposal would be that Easter break be taken the first two weeks of April each year. This would allow us to plan our year better. Easter ceremonies would still take place when they should but schools wouldn’t be held to ransom calendar/time wise.
The standardised school year is far from standardised. It just added further complications to our already complicated workload!
For those who may be interested, the new agreement for the 2008/2009, 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 school years is as follows:
School Year 2008/2009
October 2008 mid-term break
All schools will close from 27th to 31st October 2008 inclusive.
Christmas 2008
All schools will close on 23rd December 2008 which will be the final day of the school term.
All schools will re-open on 7th January 2009.
February 2009 mid-term break
Post-Primary schools will close from 16th to 20th February 2009 inclusive.
Primary schools will close from 16th to 17th February 2009 inclusive or 19th to 20th inclusive.
(Primary schools may use 3 discretionary days to extend this break to an alternative option of a 5 day break).
Easter 2009
All schools will close on 3rd April 2009 which will be the final day of the school term. All schools will re-open on 20th April 2009.
School Year 2009/2010
October 2009 mid-term break
All schools will close from 26th to 30th October 2009 inclusive
Christmas 2009
All schools will close on 22nd December 2009 which will be the final day of the school term.
All schools will re-open on 7th January 2010
February 2010 mid-term break
Post-Primary schools will close from 15th to 19th February 2010 inclusive.
Primary schools will close from 15th to 16th February 2010 inclusive or 18tth to 19th inclusive.
(Primary schools may use 3 discretionary days to extend this break to an alternative option of a 5 day break).
Easter 2010
All schools will close on 26th March 2010 which will be the final day of the school term. All schools will re-open on 12th April 2010.
School Year 2010/2011
October 2010 mid-term break
All schools will close from 25th to 29th October 2010 inclusive
Christmas 2010
All schools will close on 23rd December 2010 which will be the final day of the school term.
All schools will re-open on 10th January 2011
February 2011 mid-term break
Post-Primary schools will close from 21st to 25th February 2011 inclusive.
Primary schools will close from 21st to 22nd February 2011 inclusive or 24th to 25th inclusive.
(Primary schools may use 3 discretionary days to extend this break to an alternative option of a 5 day break).
Easter 2011
All schools will close on 15th April 2011 which will be the final day of the school term.
All schools will re-open on 3rd May 2011.
Sorry – IE 8 – never...
Grandad? never f”!i** mind...
Hmm, as a parent I like the idea of not having all the schools standardised. It mitigates slightly against profiteering on the part of the holiday merchants. Only slightly mind.
I agree that the holiday merchants have seized on the standardised holidays and upped their prices accordingly.
My point here is that ’standardisation’ was brought in so that ‘local’ schools would be some way co-ordinated and that a family with children in different schools could in some way plan for school closures.
The effort is only half working. The whole system should have been fully standardised or left alone.
As it stands …. it’s neither here nor there. I don’t think the word ’standardisation’ can be fully applied to the initiative.
The Easter holidays moving about like the statue in Ballinspittle causes upset to school and teacher planning. Each year is different with regard to planning because of Easter. It should definitely be at a set time each year.
The issue of holidays will always be there …. pupils missing school for holidays will always happen …. it depends on the pupil how much they’ll lose out on while missing from school.
Invariably I find that it’s the pupils who can’t afford to miss even one day of school are the ones who miss the most number of days be it for holidays or other reasons.
It’s very hard to make up for missed information.
Very true, and my point is a bit invalid really. It’s more that I now suffer from the profiteering now my kids are in school.
Where profit can be made there will always be someone to make it and always someone who loses it!
The fat cats keep making it while the poor pleb in the street does the paying!
Paddy – I agree – all or nothing as regards standardisation. “Ah, sure it’ll do!” won’t do!
I wave goodbye to the school calendar for ever this June (youngest doing L.C.) after 21 years of planning our lives around it.
Yabba, Dabba, Do!
Steph ~ Buy that camper …. do the European Tour for starters!
How would you fit the required number of days for secondary if you started no earlier than Ist. September and wanted to finish no later than the Friday before the June public holiday (and the leaving cert. starting 2 days later)
Paddy – How did you know that BK (before kids), I had a blast touring around Europe in a much loved camper van? It once found it’s way into a naturist camp (S. France) and stayed for 3 days!
But you’re right – time to start planning again AK!
Liz ~ The standardisation agreement covers both primary and secondary schools.
When referring to the September 1st opening for all I was thinking of primary schools and the ‘old system’ where all primary schools started on the first, third or whatever date the school day first fell on in September.
Twas my mistake ….. I wasn’t thinking of secondary schools and the implications for them. I was thinking of how it has affected my patch of the education system.
Secondary schools (in my area) always started one or two days prior to the start of September … twas usually on a phased basis …. new first years day one etc. They seemed to start with a full attendance on the first school day of September.
My knowledge of the secondary school calendar is limited (thankfully – secondary schools can look after their own problems).
My whole point with commenting on ’standardisation’ is that there still isn’t. I’d go so far as to say that it went the other direction in relation to the August/September start in primary schools.
I see the rift there already … the large town/city schools seem to be going back in August, whilst the rural schools on the whole seem to be holding off until September.
We all have to do our 183 days …. I can’t see why we have to be in such a rush to break the August holidays.
Only comment I’ll make about the Leaving Cert …. I personally think that it should be continuous assessment not lumped into one final make or break performance.
Steph ~ tis knowlegeable that I am!
Nah …. tis just something that I’ve thought of doing myself.
’tis just something that I’ve thought of doing myself’
A naturist camp?