The summer 6 week holiday has been a bone of contention for a number of years now amongst parents, teachers and the education authority. Some people say that a solid 6 week period of little to no education sets students back massively and can cause big problems when it come’s to those children that are less academically gifted. The 6 week period over the summer was originally derived from farming families who needed the help of their children during harvest to get all the produce harvested and dried ready for September. This is obviously very outdated now and can actually make childcare for working parents a bit of a nightmare! Children can of course go to summer clubs or activity days however these are not cheap and can be a bit of a hassle to arrange.  

So what would be the alternative? Some schools have trialled using a different split and taking 2 of the weeks of holidays at different times of the year such as at half term instead. Which can make vacations much more affordable however if you have children at different schools this could be very tricky. There’s no easy solution but by the end of those 6 weeks most parent are more than ready for school to start up again!