Our school switched to a two week half-term – parents are outraged

Across Britain, pupils and teachers are relaxing and looking forward to holidays as half term begins this weekend. But an increasing number have already been off for a week – as more schools are opting for a two-week October half-term. Polling by Teacher Tapp, which surveyed 8,112 state-school teachers in England, found that 15 per cent – roughly one in seven – said their school had a two-week October half-term this year, up from 12 per cent in 2025 and 7 per cent in 2023. Council-run schools in Nottinghamshire, Bromley and the Isle of Wight have a two-week break this year, running from 19 to 30 October. More than 70 schools in Surrey began their break last week, but the council plans to return to a one-week half-term in 2027-28, saying this would be “better for children’s learning and attendance, as well as for the wellbeing of staff and students”. The rationale is that a two-week half-term gives pupils and staff more time to rest and recharge. But while the longer break can offer families greater flexibility and the chance for a cheaper holiday, it can also create childcare headaches. Shorts Leonie, a writer from north London, told The i Paper that her four-year-old son’s school has switched to a two-week October half-term this year. “I was annoyed at first,” she said. Although her area has good holiday provision for one week of the break, “it’s not available in this first week because most schools are not off”. She was also sceptical about the reasons for the change. “We were told it was to avoid teacher burnout, but my son has only been back in school five weeks, having had a six-week summer holiday.” However, she has now warmed to the idea. Her family decided to skip a summer holiday and instead fly to southern Italy during the first week of their October half-term, when flights were cheaper, the weather was warm and the tourist season had ended. “If you can afford to get away and make a virtue of it, it could be a more positive thing,” she added. “But I imagine it will be a lot harder for parents who are struggling financially, and can’t afford to go away or pay for childcare or ask grandparents to help.” Mary Briddle, a 49-year-old mother of two teenage boys from Nottinghamshire, was speaking from Alicante, where she was on holiday with her family. An embroidery teacher, she said her council’s move to a two-week half term – shortening the summer holidays by a week – had proved largely popular and the only people unhappy with it were those who “remember roaming free in the 80s summer holidays”. But, she argued, children today no longer have that kind of freedom during the summer break. Mary Briddle, a mother of two, has been enjoying an affordable family holiday in Alicante during their new longer half-term When they do not go away, holiday clubs operate during both weeks, or Mary and her husband work from home and take turns keeping an eye on the children. “Shorter terms with more frequent breaks are probably better for everyone, kids, teachers and parents,” she said. But for those working full-time, without annual leave to take, there are few, if any, advantages to a two-week October half term. Camilla Young, a mum to a nine and 13-year-old in Surrey, said one of her sons moved to a two-week half term this year, but the school wasn’t planning to make any of the other holidays shorter. “So in fact they’d just given us an extra week of childcare to cover!” said Camilla, who works full-time. “They’ve added ten minutes to the school day which, across a year, amounts to an additional week of holiday for them. I don’t think that should be allowed.” Camilla and her husband already find holidays difficult to manage between the two of them with no family locally to help with childcare. For some families, the benefits of a longer break are tempered by the challenge of juggling different school calendars. Emma Reed, a 43-year-old blogger in Hampshire with two children – one in Year 8 and the other in Year 4 – said this is the first year her older son, who attends secondary school, has had a two-week October half-term. “It states online that they decided to do this to improve wellbeing, attendance, learning, family time, and travel flexibility,” she told The i Paper. “As soon as I heard about it, I thought it was a great idea.” She welcomes the opportunity for her son to have a longer break to “rest and recharge”, and says last week he enjoyed lie-ins, leisurely days and time with his friends. Sylvie Frankel says a shorter summer holiday and longer October break suit her family (Photo: Ally Berry) Childcare has not been an issue as she works from home and her son is old enough to largely look after himself. But the differing holiday dates have caused some frustration. “However, it hasn’t felt very fair on my other child who is in primary school as he is still on a one-week half-term and he isn’t off until next week,” she said. “It would be nice if all schools in the area followed the same breaks so we could have made more plans as a family.” Emma would also like to see changes to the wider school holiday calendar. “I would personally like to see a week removed from the summer holidays and added to the Christmas break instead to give families more time to enjoy together, as it always feels like such a rush to see everyone and do everything between Christmas and New Year.” For Sylvie Frankel, who describes her household in Derbyshire as “neurodivergent”, the longer break offers an important opportunity for her family to recover from the demands of school. Sylvie, 41, a chartered management accountant, has four children aged between two and 19. She is a strong advocate for the two-week half-term, saying that “one week wasn’t much of recovery time at all” for her family. “I feel the kids could really relax over the two weeks where before their nervous systems were still in complete fight-or-flight mode and it never felt like much of a break, as they needed the week to just regulate back,” she told The i Paper. Sylvie also believes the six-week summer holiday is too long for her family and many others. She is happy to give up a week of the summer break in exchange for an extra week in October. Childcare has not presented an obvious challenge, either. Because the longer half-term is a council-wide arrangement in Nottinghamshire, she said, “holiday offers run just like during any other time”. Lee Parkinson, a primary school teacher in Manchester better known as Mr P, told The i Paper that two-week October half-terms are becoming more common because the need for them is growing. “If you ask teachers to describe this first half-term, they’ll probably answer with one word – brutal,” he said. “But I think the children and students need the break too. Towards the end of the half-term, they are flagging; you see more behavioural incidents. And a proper break lets children recover instead of fighting off the lurgy they will inevitably pick up.” Lee said he would “bite your hand off” for an extra week in October, provided it did not mean sacrificing a week in May. However, he recognises that longer breaks are not straightforward for all families, particularly those trying to balance childcare with work commitments. “What children really need at the minute is quality time with their parents who are present and that seems to be a struggle because of the workplace culture that doesn’t seem to accommodate for working parents,” he said. He warned that a longer break would not necessarily benefit children if their parents had to continue working and they spent much of the time at home on their phones. “If the longer two-week break just leads to kids being stuck inside scrolling on an algorithm designed to hack their attention for a significant amount of time,” he said, “it probably isn’t great.” Ultimately, Lee believes consistency between schools is key, both for families and for teachers. “What I think everyone wants is consistency. If an area is going to do it, everyone should,” he said.