I was just having a look at the next academic year's dates to do my yearly payment plan and noticed that London Borough of Southwark's Autumn term is 15 weeks long, 8 + 7 weeks. I am used to this term being 7 + 7 weeks. Can this be right? Seems an incredibly long term! Is this the same for other schools?

School term and holiday dates - September 2012 to July 2013

Autumn term
Tuesday 4 September - Friday 26
October Half term Monday 29 October - Friday 2 November
Monday 5 November - Friday 21 December

Ours is just about the same

September 3rd to October 26th
November 5th to December 21st

As you say it's very long.

Thanks for confirming that. 2 months without a break - OOF!!

Yes, ours is the same too - we finish much closer to Christmas than I think we've ever done before.

Sussex is the same too. Last year the last day of school before Christmas was the 16th!

Everyone is going to be exhausted by the end of the year.

Same for West Berkshire. The good news is that the Spring Term is only 11 weeks (6+5)!

The London borough I work for officially starts on Monday 3rd September and finishes on Thursday 20th December with half term 29th October. That's 8 weeks + 7 (minus a day!). There will probably be INSET days on 3rd/4th. It's usually an 11 lesson term for instrumental lessons in school.

For private lessons, I'll probably be looking at doing 13/14 lessons over the term but I'll see what the real school start/end dates are nearer the time.

South Gloucestershire is 7.5+8, spring term is only 10 weeks (5+5). My sister will be happy as the spring term ends 5 days before her birthday.

Yep it's pretty much the same in Bag Land but, cunningly, I don't start until the 8th September (my schools don't like the peris in the first week) and the majority of my schools get 2 weeks for half term so I'll take the "middle" weekend off too.

Long gone are the days of Bag working herself into the (Greensleeves-to-a) ground.

Bags x

The Summer term ends with another 8 weeker. Woe is me!

I had a check and ours are:

Autumn: 8 + 7
Spring: 6 + 5
Summer: 6 + 8

Ewwwww. Eight weeks on the trot is Just Too Much (especially when I teach on courses in many of the holidays).

I am SO going to give myself four weeks off this summer (as opposed to last year's four days ).

The 8 week Summer term will be useful for the 6 weeks of no pay that follows!

Must check in with you soon, Cyrilla, about the Saturday visit

No probs - just get in touch as and when .

You will be unsurprised to learn it's the same here...

The present summer term here for my school is 10 weeks all but one day. However we do have three Bank holiday weekends in May. Also our head teacher has decided not to do the last two week days as we are working the Saturday and Sunday for the school f?te. I haven't looked at next year's dates yet. From the middle of June onwards if the weather of previous years is anything to go by work will be very difficult - it becomes very hot and I start to wish we were a siesta society!