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The Teacher Tapp Holiday Special! Leaving parties, favourite holidays and a whole lot more...

20 July 2021

1. School’s out! (For some)

The summer holidays are quickly approaching – and for some, they’re already here! Congratulations and thank you for all your work through the twists and turns of another strange year!

Not all teachers head off at the same time, though. The South West stands out as one extreme, with over 80% of schools finishing this week. Perhaps they do this to avoid the summer influx of traffic to the region? On the other hand, less than 50% of teachers in the North West are still in school. Many broke up last week!

The Midlands stand out as having a slightly different schedule to the rest of the country, with 20% of teachers having broken up even earlier than those in the North West, before the 11th July. Which parts of the Midlands follow this schedule? We’d love to know!

At the end of the last academic year, 43% of teachers didn’t have a social event to wave farewell. The relaxation of restrictions in this academic year means that 3-in-4 teachers are now able to wrap up the year with an event. Kudos to the 19% of teachers who school didn’t organise a social event, but the staff did anyway!

What are students getting up to over the summer?

Back in 2019 we asked whether students were having a leaving party, and only 1-in-4 schools didn’t. This year is understandably different. Some 30% are still having a leaving party – either at the school or elsewhere! But that leaves a much bigger group going without this time around.

What does homework look like over the summer? Last year, we also asked this question and we’ve spotted a few differences. For example, last year, we found that if students were in either a fee-paying or a school in a more deprived are, then they were more likely to be set work over the summer.

While there hasn’t been any change for fee-paying schools, there is a difference in state schools. In particular, we found that last year 22% of teachers in FSM Quartile 4 Secondary schools said they would set work for most or all students. This year, this has dropped to 9%. Similarly, for FSM Q4 primaries schools, this figure has dropped from 19% previously to 8% now.

2. Back to school already?

While this academic year is wrapping up, preparations for next year are already well underway. We’ve already seen “Back to school” adverts out!

Nearly 50% of you have seen a final copy of your timetable for next year, and around 80% of you have at least got an indication of what it might look like.

What’s happening in London though? London appears to be behind on the timetabling, with under 40% having seen a final draft.

3. What’s your favourite break?

For many students, the Summer holiday brings several weeks of little schoolwork and time with family and friends. But what about teachers?

The Christmas holidays lose popularity the more experienced a teacher has, seemingly going towards the Summer holidays. Is this what’s known as the summer slide?

Why should your favourite break be everyone’s favourite break? Let us know by sending us a tweet! @TeacherTapp

Call out for Primary colleagues

🚀At Teacher Tapp we are really interested in the views from primary teachers and we’d love to grow the number of you who use the app. If you know a primary colleague who you think would enjoy the daily insights that give an accurate picture of how thousands of colleagues are thinking please share Teacher Tapp with them! teachertapp.co.uk/get-the-app.

❓ If you’ve got any question suggestions then you can Contact Us via the menu in the app or send us a tweet @TeacherTapp.

📰 We love sharing daily reads with you all on and we’re always on the look out for ones we’ve not featured. It’s really easy if you’d like to make a suggestion to do so here.

📣 And if you’d like a pack of posters/coasters to display in your school, to tell people about Teacher Tapp, then please fill in the form here!

Finally, we know you love the daily read, so here are the ones from last week

The most read tip this week was: What gives educational research a bad name?

And here are the rest for your reference: