Around the world, schools differ in terms of how much time off they give their students for different holidays. Some give very long holidays and others give much shorter ones. This essay will compare the respective merits of these approaches. In many countries, holidays used to coincide with the harvest, when children were expected to work alongside their families and so work was considered more important than education, but nowadays this is no longer the case even if those same approximate holiday periods . This why children are given so much time off school as it may seem like a luxury. In fact, now that children do not have to work, these long holidays can be viewed as rest periods, and given how stressful education can be—particularly in the teenage years—. Holidays also allow children to spend more time with their families and friends. During the school year, they are in class throughout most of each weekday so these opportunities can be , but in the holidays children can bond with their parents more, and they also have time to pursue their hobbies with friends in the neighbourhood. there are arguments in favour of shorter holiday periods. Although most parents love spending time with their children, this can become a challenge . If a parent has to work, then they must find someone to look after their children, and this often . Even when they can take time off, can prove exhausting and many parents are relieved at the end of the holidays when they can send their children back to school, where teachers are paid to take care of them. It is also true that schools give students structure a constant , stopping them from getting bored or , so keeping holidays to a minimum has some benefits from that perspective, too. In conclusion, there are clear benefits to both long and short holiday periods for schoolchildren.
Long Summer Holidays vs Shorter School Holidays
In many countries, primary and secondary schools close for two months or more in the summer holidays. What is the value of long school holidays? What are the arguments in favour of shorter school holidays?
Annotated response
12 correction notes
Overall assessment
Why this response received Band 8.0
The response is the strongest aspect of the essay: it addresses both parts of the question with well-developed, relevantly supported ideas and a natural academic tone. Its main limitation is a somewhat formulaic conclusion that summarises rather than synthesises the arguments, along with occasional over-long sentences.
IELTS criteria
How each score was decided
Task Response
7.5Both questions are fully addressed with a clear, relevantly developed position on the value of long holidays and the case for shorter ones, though the conclusion only summarises without weighing the arguments.
Coherence and Cohesion
7.5Ideas progress logically across well-structured paragraphs with varied cohesive devices, although some passages rely on long chains of linkers and the conclusion is loosely tied to the discussion.
Lexical Resource
8.0Vocabulary is flexible and precise, with natural collocations such as 'coincide with the harvest', 'constant flow of education', and 'destructive activities', showing only rare imprecision.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
8.0A wide range of complex structures is handled with flexibility and accuracy, including conditionals, relative clauses, and parenthetical dashes, with only occasional overly dense sentence construction.