Should the school holidays be shorter? From calls to also extend the school day to pleas for children’s wellbeing, woman&home readers are split

A composite image of Ashley James, and a classroom of children voting with ticks or crosses.

Last week, we shared the news that Ashley James had spoken on This Morning with Cat Deeley about one of the many issues parents struggle with during the school holidays: the childcare gap. And the comments section on our Instagram account didn’t stop pinging, with readers sharing multiple perspectives on this thorny issue. Even Supernanny herself, Jo Frost, weighed in!

Ashley pointed out that the average child in England and Wales can be off for 13 weeks across the school year, while most parents’ annual leave is 4-5 weeks each, and argued this showed that “the school calendar seems to be stuck in the 1950s. It is designed for a world where women stay at home.”