Remember When Half Term 6 Meant Freedom?
Once upon a time in education, Half Term 6 — the summer term — meant freedom for so many teachers. As Year 11 and Year 13 students finished their exams and left for the summer, teachers benefited from what we used to call gained time: those precious free lessons on their timetable where the 16- and 18-year-olds once sat.
Ah, but those days are long gone.
Now, instead of leisurely gained time, we see harried, stressed teachers and leaders deep in preparation for the new academic year. They’re poring over curriculums and schemes of learning — short, medium, and long term — ensuring everything is appropriately pitched, inclusive, pacy, and challenging for the incoming September intake.
Leadership teams turn their attention to policies: the behaviour policy — or is it the positive discipline policy? Or perhaps the reward policy of 2025 — whichever version fits the latest narrative. Improvement plans are reviewed — tweaked if it’s a three-year plan, but more often than not, discarded altogether as unfit for purpose. That’s assuming, of course, that someone can even locate the plan, likely filed away almost a year ago. If it were a hard copy, it would now be covered in a thick layer of dust and cobwebs.
I can’t help but reminisce about the early days of my career, when gained time actually meant free and fun time. On sunny Fridays like today, it often meant a trip to the local pub or, if we were feeling fancy, to the garden centre bistro for a leisurely lunch away from school. If the pub was our chosen venue, there was always a good chance we’d bump into some of our newly released Year 11s and 13s, sharing a few laughs, some crisps, and strictly non-alcoholic beverages — whiling away those golden hours of gained time.
Indeed, at the very start of my career, back in the mining village comprehensive school, as it then was half term 6 was a great term. If it was sunny, there was a balcony leading off the old library — a perfect suntrap. I didn’t have much gained time myself — being in my first year, I didn’t yet teach many Key Stage 4 classes — but some of my colleagues did. They would occasionally come and “observe” my lessons from their sunny vantage point, whilst I fought valiantly on with students who most definitely did not want to be indoors on a bright summer afternoon. Trying to maintain my commitment but longing for the final bell.
Oh, how things have changed. Nowadays- If teachers are lucky, they might preserve some of that time to prepare for the new year, but more often than not, those who’ve carried the pressure of exam groups all year find themselves picking up new classes of younger year groups as re-timetabling kicks in — covering for colleagues on long-term absence or those who have simply left the profession. Let’s not go there re staff retention and recruitment – not today anyway.
Here’s the rub: I reminisce about those glorious Fridays, long lunches with colleagues, breathing space away from the school site — and then I reflect on the profession I stepped away from this Easter. Nowadays, wellbeing is plastered all over the agenda. Yet, paradoxically, we shorten lunchtimes to better manage pupil behaviour and extend learning time, inadvertently chipping away at staff wellbeing. Once upon a time, a full hour’s lunch break gave staff the space to breathe, to reset, and simply to be.
Relationships with students seemed to be stronger back then too. Happier, less exhausted staff made for better classroom connections. The students enjoyed knowing you had a personality and life outside of their classroom. The job has always been challenging, of course — but at least when your time was your own, you had a chance to recharge. No wonder the younger generation of teachers now cling so fiercely to their PPA time and contractual entitlements — those precious few boundaries they can still control.
The Educator's Playground 