Education matters

‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy’ or so the saying goes and at the beginning of the Winter Holiday, never a truer phrase could be used.

A vacation from school is a cherished time for children. Anyone who works in schools will know the feeling of the last day of term and the build up to it. It is holiday feeling, a feeling of release and rest, a time of promise for what the holiday could bring and when the last day of the holiday rolls around and the work begins again, it is a time honoured tradition of wondering why the time during holidays goes so quickly when the time in school seems to drag.

The point is, we need vacations, children most of all but teachers too. It’s easy for teachers to see the holidays as a time to ‘catch up’ with paperwork but this is defeating the object. I have always advised my staff no matter where I am to take some time for themselves during the valuable vacations. We are lucky to have the holidays at all so rather than filling them with more work, I insist that staff take time to completely decompress from the pressures of work, mainly because they are better teachers as a result when they return.

We all know that sleep is as important as a healthy diet and exercise for growing children, but I would like to add rest to that list as well. Rest doesn’t just mean sleep, it also means time to unwind and be children. The pressures of school and the continuous cycle of testing can rob children of their God-given right to play, to look at the world with awe and wonder, to make mistakes and learn from them. Rest from school work often fills parents with fear as they believe that all the study of the previous term will be lost.  This is sometimes the case but not always and if students do forget what they have learnt, then the chances are they didn’t fully understand it in the first place which highlights areas of learning to address in the new term.

When children rest, they learn in different ways. They learn to entertain themselves, they learn by spending time on the things that they enjoy doing and they learn from other family members. Some children are lucky enough to travel during vacations which gives them the opportunity to learn about different cultures or from family that they haven’t seen for a long time, but no matter where they are or what they are doing, a break from school will enable them to relax and that will make it easier for them to learn when they return to school.

So, as the winter holiday starts, I encourage parents to let their children learn from what is around them and to give the books a miss until they return to school, it might be hard but your children will benefit in many ways as a result. 

Happy holidays!