SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
SIR,—In your issue of October 28 the Rev.; Mr. Pendril Bentall declares that Mr. Vatigins" Wilkes's statement about school hours iss
parish like the writer's' leads to the 'inescap- able' conclusion that school holidays should be much shorter. Surely this is a very slender basis for so comprehensive a conclusion.
Mr. Bentall mentions primary schools, but nowhere in his letter suggests that he confines his argument to them. He seems to be com- pletely unaware of the nature of school activities in general.
In the London maintained grammar school with which I am most familiar, all the boys have homework which ranges from a minimum of forty minutes a night for the youngest to two hours or more for the sixth form. All are expected to do more at the weekends. Over the past year the following activities have gone on out of school hours during term-time, under the supervision of members of the staff: football or cricket training, boxing, rowing, swimming, choir, dramatics and a senior dis- cussion group. During the holidays members of the staff took parties to France, Switzerland, Italy and the Norfolk Broads; there was also a geographical expedition and a school camp of a month's duration in Devonshire. I be- lieve that most grammar schools could pro- duce a record at least as impressive as this, which is not exhaustive.
Mr. Bentall urges teachers to press for shorter holidays. Why should they? In the boarding schools the hours he mentions simply do not apply; in the grammar schools these hours refer only to formal teaching; it is only perhaps in the secondary modern and primary schools that work is limited to the official hours. Yet 'parity of esteem' demands that all LEA day schools shall have approximately similar hours and holidays, and Mr. Bentall's umbrella covers the lot.
No doubt it would surprise Mr. Bentall to know how many teachers, in grammar schools at any rate, find it necessary to supplement their salaries by taking on extra work; what a large proportion of a teacher's time out of school hours is taken up with activities re- lated to teaching; and what a contrast there is between the demands made on a teacher and those made on a shop assistant—to take an example of which I have had personal ex- perience. The welfare of the children cannot be separated from the welfare of the teacher. If the hours of formal teaching are extended, in many schools valuable out-of-school acti- vities will be abandoned or curtailed, and it is doubtful if either children or staff will benefit.
I believe that behind the demand for shorter school holidays there are two factors. The first is a widespread envy of the apparently easy conditions in which teachers work. The second is one of the unwritten dogmas of the Welfare State, to which Mr. Bentall subscribes when he writes of 'the poor parents'—that parents are the last people who should be expected to look after their children.—Yours faithfully,
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