Summer vacation
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Summer vacation (or summer holidays or summer break) is a vacation in the summertime between school years in which students are off for between 6 to 11 weeks, depending on the country and district.
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[edit] School administration
The time the children are out, the schools spend preparing the school for the next school year. They do this by: cleaning and waxing the floors; re-painting some of the walls and ordering new and updated text books. Sometimes administrators and sometimes the teacher or a group of teachers make a supply list. They either send it by mail or give it to the students on the first week of school. They do this to save money. Every list varies depending on the school grade level.
[edit] Students
Most students do what they do on weekends during summer vacation; and they do fun stuff. However, many participate in programs such as: organized sports; summer camps; and summer schools. They may also travel to other places and/or prepare for the next school year. High school students sometimes visit college and university campuses.
[edit] Criticisms and Support
The concept of summer vacation has been criticized because students supposedly forget large amounts of information learned in the past year[citation needed]. This can, according to critics, partially be solved by year-round school years.[citation needed]
Those supporting summer vacation note that children should be allowed to enjoy their childhood and should not be expected to work hard the whole year around. Even many adults in college need a break over the summer.
[edit] Summer vacation, country-by-country
- In the United States, summer vacation lasts for 9 to 11 weeks. Most schools take summer vacation from June to September or from May to August. These dates vary depending on the location of the school district.
- In the Southern hemisphere, notably Australia and New Zealand, the Summer season officially lasts from December to February, and therefore coincides with the Christmas and New Year holidays. The dates of Australian school holidays (the term used, rather than "vacation") are determined by each state's Department of Education, the Summer (also known as Christmas) holidays being the longest in duration. Typically Christmas or Summer holidays in Australia last approximately six weeks, usually from around December 20th (depending on school year, see below) to the last few days of January. While significantly shorter than the North American Summer vacation, Australian schools also break for two weeks at Easter, and in June and September, giving students and teachers a total of twelve weeks of annual holidays .In many public schools, years 10 through 12 will finish before December 20th, allowing time to complete exam marking and results. Year 10 commonly finishes at the end of November, Year 11 at the end of October, and year 12 also at the end of October after 3 weeks of end-of-year exams. This can bring the normal 12 weeks of vacation to 20 weeks of vacation. The intervening periods of school operation are called "School Terms", each term lasting approximately ten weeks. All Australian states have relatively similar holiday periods, but there is the ability for this to change around, such as for the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth games, when the first term in Victorian schools was shortened to 6 weeks and the other subsequently extended to 12 weeks each allowing people to attend the events. Most private schools in Australia have up to four weeks additional holidays, due to their longer teaching hours during term.
- In the Republic of Ireland, most secondary schools get off for Summer on the last week of May or first week in June and don't return until the first or second week in September. They also receive around two weeks for Easter and upwards of three weeks for Christmas and New Year, as well as another week around Halloween (called "Mid-Term") and another few days (usually 3 or 4) for St. Patrick's Day. Most schools also get every Bank Holiday off. Students doing exams (Junior Cert and Leaving Cert) have to come in some days during June to sit their exams but otherwise have the same break as those not doing exams. Primary schools in the Republic of Ireland follow the same pattern, though only get off for Summer at the end of June. All schools in Northern Ireland also follow the same pattern as primary schools in the Republic of Ireland, except students doing exams (GCSE and A-Levels), who get off at the start of May on "Study-Leave" and do the exams sometime in June, but still have the same Summer as those not doing exams.
