Wales wants to shorten summer school holidays – but are they really too long?

Children and teachers need time to ‘recharge their batteries doing other activities’, one education expert said. Photograph: Sally Anscombe/Getty Images

Wales is making the latest attempt to detach school holidays from the agricultural needs and religious events that have influenced dates for 150 years, arguing it helps parents and disadvantaged children to have fixed breaks spread out more evenly through the year.

Citing research that parents struggle to find childcare over the long summer holiday, Wales’s minority Labour administration wants to shrink the summer holidays from six weeks to five and eventually four, and use the time to double half-term breaks in October and May to two weeks.