Friday's Reflection - When are the Summer Holidays?

This is a question I am asked a lot right now.

Term time ends at 5.00pm on Friday 23rd July for the Homeschoolers.

If you have done everything asked of you before, then you can start you summer holidays early. If you are working slowly and steadily - then that Friday will be a welcome relief. This will include Y3 as most of you now have had to have a week off due to chickenpox and Y5 due to illness and a bad case of hay fever.

However, if you have not finished - then learning time will continue into the summer holidays. I have already spoken to your parents - they know and they will back me up! How far into the summer holidays is down to getting the work done. There are 2 weeks left and that is enough time to get it done.

Most of Y7, Y8, Y9 and Y10 are racing to the finish to get an extra week off. I can tell: I know this because every morning when I log on, I get a report telling me just how many hours and how many questions every individual has done in the last 24 hours. We are well over the 110,000 questions mark and the tally is rising fast. I won't take it personally in that you all are doing it to escape me. There is a sense of achievement to be had in earning an extra week off. There is always an extra long summer after the last exam date of those taking them. Working for that is all part of homeschooling, working harder on the cold wet days to be out and about on the lovely warm sunny days.

If you are now flagging - that is normal! The end of the summer term has always been a hard half term. However, we are homeschoolers and we don't do a day of running in straight lines and we don't have (and you have made it very clear that you don't want) a stage to put on a bit of a song and dance.

I can tell you, my friends and colleagues who are teachers in school are flagging to just now. They have worked just as hard as you have, if not harder, to keep things going. So spare a thought for them this year. If you were in school there would be sports days, residential trips, prize giving days and end of year productions to detract from the lessons. But we are not, so I am sorry, it is English and Maths to the very end! keep going you can do it!

Everyone has put in an unbelievable effort since March 2020 when the first lockdown began. We have kept the pace throughout and we have managed the changes really well. We have kept our sense of humour and copied with the frustrations with kindness and friendship. it is now only 10 days, or 40 (learning hours) hours to go, (or less if you finish early)

Well done!