Britain has the shortest summer holidays in the developed world, prizing childcare over education, and this is damaging to children.

It is mid July, and Britain’s schools are reaching the end of a very long tether. Between sports days, music concerts and prize-givings, it’s hard to fit in an ounce of education, or even remember a packed lunch in the morning. With our children hot and stressed and their teachers even more bothered, most involved tend to agree that the holidays can’t come soon enough.

Where parents and teachers tend to divide, though, is on how long the summer break should be.

While parents will spend August scrabbling around for expensive childcare, or frantically rearranging their working days to look after their cherubs, teachers will be relaxing in the sun with a Piña Colada, or working very hard to prepare next year’s lessons - depending on which side of the narrative you find more credible.

In a world where most families have two working parents who can’t take the whole summer off and teachers are under unprecedented amounts of stress, it is hard to find consensus over the most advantageous length for a summer break.

But by focusing on the purpose of education, despite my own dread at organising six weeks of wholesome childcare, I’ve come to the unfashionable point of view that the school summer holiday is simply not long enough.