School year takes its toll on pupils' learning

This caused me to reflect on some of the most enduring features of the education system. For example, the school year was designed to meet the needs of the agricultural practices of the 1870s, allowing children to work on the harvest, stacking sheaves and so on. In some parts of the country there were industrial closure weeks. And the Easter holiday wanders about the diary in a way that very few people understand. The 1928 Easter Act, fixing the date of Easter, is still on the statute book, but it has never been commenced.

I think all this matters. Varied term lengths are not conducive to good planning, and a period of six weeks without formal learning can't help. Some parents make an effort to plug the gap. My own used to give us word and memory games and mental arithmetic puzzles on lengthy holiday drives. We did the same for our children. The middle-classes don't just play the admissions system to improve outcomes, they also tend to provide an environment for their children that promotes and values learning.