Maybe it is just that I'm wearying of the end-of-year battle to keep my five children at school when they're the only kid there, when the teachers don't want them there, when they're only watching movies, when everyone else is at the beach! But it does seem that the high school year has been finishing a little earlier every year. This year the year 10 School Certificate exams finished four weeks after the start of term four and four weeks before the official end of the Year 10 year, which is why there are so many middle teenagers out and about. My son's year eight exams finished last week, four weeks before the end of term four, and already we've had every one of the above pleadings and a few more. Even if the young people see the term out, it does seem that there are weeks of wasted opportunity. The problem seems to be the timing of the exams, because it must be difficult for both students and teachers to see end-of-year exams as other than the end of the year. The Department of Education says the exams need to be weeks before the end of term to allow for marking and the preparation of reports, and that it strives to offer programs that will keep the students at school. I'm not convinced that the exams need to be so far from the end of year.

Does it appear to you, too, to be a school year shortened for the benefit of other than students? Would it be feasible to have students finish school after exams in the second last week of the full term, leaving teachers the last week to mark uninterrupted?