WILL SUMMER HOLS CHANGE?
SCHOOLS across Wales are preparing to break up for summer, with pupils and teachers alike awaiting a well-earned six weeks of respite.
But the traditional summer break, which sees holiday prices controversially hiked, could be set for a change.
Head teachers and governors in Cardiff recently backed council plans to shave a week off the summer break – though the local authority cannot go ahead with plans to cut the holiday to five weeks without Welsh Government approval.
But would a shorter summer holiday leave children here feeling short-changed in comparison to their international counterparts?
In some countries the midyear break can last as long as three months.
We’ve run the rule over nations around the world to see how long their summer holidays are and how that compares to the six weeks on offer in Wales. The school year ends in early or mid December and starts in late February or early March, with students in primary education enjoying two months off and students in secondary school enjoying a three-month break. Summer holidays last from December to February and include the Christmas and New Year festivities, with the break typically lasting six weeks.
The dates of Australian school holidays are decided by each individual state’s Department of Education. The first day of the summer holiday for most schools is the last Saturday of June, while the last day of holiday is Labour Day in September.
Students can get a holiday of two to three months, depending on the province, which may vary in Quebec. Summer holidays start in early July and often end in early September, lasting two months. The holidays normally last from the end of June to early or mid August, coming to six weeks. High school pupils tend to return to school earlier than younger students. Holidays tend to last for six and a half weeks. Dates vary by state, as well as from year to year, but the earliest begin in mid June and the latest finish around the end of September. Summer holidays in India tend to vary in duration, as different parts of the country face different climatic conditions at the same time. In northern India, school ends in mid May and begins in the first week of July, except in the Kashmir valley, where the summer holiday lasts 10 days (though they get a winter break from the middle of December until the end of February).
In central India the holiday begins in mid April and ends in mid June.
In southern India school ends in the last week of March and begins again at the start of June. In the Republic of Ireland most pupils get a three-month break, finishing in the last week of May and returning in the first week of September. Summer holidays for primary and secondary pupils start in the first week of July and end in the first week of September, lasting around eight weeks. Since 2000, the summer holiday starts in early June and finishes in the middle of August. High school and college students have about three months of holiday from late May to early August. Primary and secondary schools usually start their summer break in mid July and resume in early September. Holidays generally last two to three months, depending on whether the school is public or private. A typical summer holiday lasts from the end of May to mid August. The holidays start on the first Saturday after June 20 and end on the first weekday of September. For primary and secondary school pupils holidays last from mid November to early January – but most students are released in mid or late October due to national examinations. Summer holidays usually begin in December and end in the middle of January. The summer vacation lasts from mid June to late August, with a minimum of nine to 10 weeks. Holidays tend to last two or three months in the United States. The dates depend on the location of the school district.
It either tends to be late June to early September (mostly in northern states) or late May to mid August (in most southern and western states). Summer holidays usually begin in early December and finish in early March, lasting three months.
Source: Wikipedia