School holidays

There's lot of talk about replacing the long summer school holidays with shorter holidays. More terms and more shorter gaps between the terms. One reason given is the drop off in children's abilities between the end of the summer term and the beginning of the autumn term apparently caused by the length of the break.

OK. What about the knock on effects?

Things that come to mind include:

• when will the holiday break in July/August be?
• will schools co-ordinate so parents will children and primary and secondary schools can go on holiday as a family?
• what happens at work when all the parents want the same two weeks off because that's the only time they can holiday as a family?
• will there be enough holiday accommodation to cope with a demand in two weeks that used to be spread over six to eight weeks?
• how expensive will the holiday accommodation be if the peek period is only two weeks long?
• when will school buildings be refurbished when refurbishment takes longer than two weeks. If the holidays are co-ordinated between schools then all the refurbishment will need to take place at the same time. Are there enough staff to do this.

Yes, this was sparked off by a conversation with an office refurbishment company that said they could not take on any work in July/August as they were flat out doing schools.