The Spectator’s Notes | 24 June 2006

As a parent of GCSE children, I now see clearly that modern education has abolished the summer term. In all the teenage years except the first, there are public exams to be done. These are spread out, beginning in May, and are pretty much finished this week. The run-up to them is dominated by the ever-growing burden of coursework and, naturally, by revision. As soon as the pupils finish their exams they are sent home, since no power on earth can make them stay. For those of us who pay boarding fees, this early departure means that the cost per child of time actually spent on the premises is now £1,000 per week. The wider point, which applies to state and independent sector alike, is that the term which used to be the best for sport, the best for pleasure and the best for friendship has slipped away, and is now half incarceration, half holiday.