by The news that the Nuffield Foundation will soon publish a report recommending a switch to a four-week school summer holiday in the UK – with longer half-term breaks instead – made me wonder how different the French approach was. and British family holidays.
When I moved to France in 2009 with my husband and two children aged four and six, one thing I didn’t really think about – despite being a meticulous planner – was how we would fit in adapted to a very different school holiday pattern after I left the office. SAY. A six week summer always seemed long with two children at home and childcare and children’s activities costing a fortune in London – how did we manage a two month summer holiday in a country where we had no family and do we know anyone there?
As it turned out, all of France was at hand. When the schools are closed, the local leisure centers – essentially supervised holiday and after-school clubs – open to entertain children during working hours, heavily subsidized and with further reductions available for those on low incomes.
There is no doubt about nationwide provision but the system is usually accessible and cheap. Our local center has huge grounds, a fenced swimming pool and lifeguard, large light rooms for all age groups and a canteen serving organic food.
The children are looked after by trained people animation and is regular close temps trips to the beach, theme parks, bowling and the cinema are available, as well as activities such as white water rafting and go-karting for the older ones. All for around £15 a day.
The IS center of leisure it covered the time when we wanted to work, but the long vacation also allowed us to reconnect as a family and spend proper time together and travel at a leisurely pace.
We usually like, as many French families do, to load up the car and go to a self-catering apartment on the beach or in the mountains for a few weeks. Holidays don’t have to be expensive if you drive and bring everything like the French do, as you can see from the lines of cars on the motorways with bikes attached to the back, maybe a paddle board on the roof and bumper. a pack of loo rolls in the back window.
Admittedly, some people will be going to stay with Grandma for a few weeks or cramming into the family’s tiny beach apartment that they’ve owned for generations – instead we’d Airbnb the house to help the to cover the cost.
As well as giving us the time to bond as a family, I feel the children have really benefited from having time to explore and travel, get out of their routine and be somewhere else.
In France, apart from summer, all other holidays are usually two weeks long – which is ideal for a number of reasons. The children have enough time to decompress properly and if families want to take advantage of the holidays available more cheaply than the summer, they have the time to do so and don’t have to that they would all have to leave on the same day, airports beyond measure. as you often see in the UK. For February/March and spring break, the country is divided into three zones and the holidays are staggered, meaning that resorts (especially ski resorts) are less crowded than when everyone is on vacation at the time same, this will surely help too. keep prices down. Friends who work in tourism say this is also an advantage for them because their clients come in over several weeks rather than all at once.
And as for Britain’s proposed four-week summer holiday – could this be long enough? A recent Teacher Tapp poll found that teachers were evenly divided as to whether they would like it to remain at six weeks, cut to five or shortened to four. A teacher friend told me that she felt that as well as four weeks not being enough downtime for children, it certainly wasn’t enough for teachers, as many of them spend the first few weeks mainly sleeping.
Holiday accommodation and transport in the UK is already running out of steam over the summer holidays – wouldn’t cutting back on that holiday make it even worse? And probably more children were taken out of school during the holiday term. Another friend in France said that the long summer holiday worked well for her as a divorcee because the children had a lot of time to spend with both parents – and with only four weeks, they would hardly have time to -take a breath.
It’s an old cliché that people in France work to live rather than live to work, but when it comes to holidays and free time, it’s certainly true, and a decent holiday almost seems right. Low-income French families receive vouchers that can be used at campsites and holiday villages across France to help take their families on holiday, and many companies also subsidize holidays for low-earning employees, or they provide them. chèques-vacancy, where the employer makes an addition to money contributed by the employee. A factory near where I live has its own campsite on the beach for employees to use.
French schools admittedly have longer days partly to compensate for the extended holidays, and although some feel they are too long for younger children, they also fit in much more easily with working hours, and they have Wednesday afternoon off (all day Wednesday at some point. primary schools), and usually a lunch break of up to two hours – when they both get to eat a good meal and have plenty of time to play.
I believe people in the UK could benefit greatly from a French-style holiday pattern, but of course the infrastructure would be needed to support it – accessible childcare for working parents, as well as affordable holidays for all. In France, proper holidays are part of the culture, regardless of your income. The UK could learn a lot from this.
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