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Friday 16 December 2011

School Holidays

Today, I was freed from school for two weeks. Excellent! Two entire weeks! And then, I shall have six/seven weeks of school, followed by a week of holiday, and then another six/seven weeks of school, and then two weeks holiday. Six/seven weeks of school, followed by a week of holiday, followed by six/seven weeks of school, and then six weeks of holiday. Then I begin Yr 11, my final year of secondary school, and continue on with more of the same.
 
However recently, a little birdy (in the form of BBC Breakfast. The Beeb has taken my soul. No more.) told me that the government are thinking of changing the holidays. Instead of six weeks in the summer, we'd have four. And for two of the three one-week holidays, we'd have two weeks. The idea is that many people fall out of synch with school life over the six weeks, and forget much of what they learnt. By making the long holiday not as long, and spreading it out over the year, pupils engage in school when coming into the new year and much less time is given to revising of the past year.
 
I'm not happy about this. First, because my parents are divorced, I have to split my holiday time between the two families. When I'm at home, I can get stuff (i.e. extensive amounts of art homework) done, however when I'm away at my dad's, I can't do as much. I class my time spent up there as lost holiday. The six weeks holiday gives me three weeks of holiday, something I don't get any other time. If it was reduced to two weeks, it'd just be like any other holiday, when I occasionally spend the two weeks of Easter at home.
 
Secondly, living in South East England, it can get pretty hot in the summertime. Not insane levels of hot, but fairly toasty. Concentrating during July is near impossible, and that's only the first two weeks before they end the year. Having to attend through all of July would just destroy us, as we wouldn't be able to listen or try in the final critical weeks before the holiday.
 
Thirdly, it'll take away the sheer joy of six weeks of wearing whatever the hell you want, eating when you want, and swearing until you go blue in the face. Holidays are full of freedom (family commitments permitting), relaxtion and sleep. The six weeks (sometimes seven, sometimes five) are long awaited from the moment we begin the new year in September. Although the change to four weeks would mean no lost holiday, it'd feel like much less.

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