Who feels their own education was damaged by the holidays they had in term time?

[lljkk]

Judging by the strength of opinion on MN, there must be loads of you.
Speak up!

[EirikurNoromaour]

Really, really not. And we did it fairly often. AAB at a level and doing a masters as we speak

[JeanBodel]

Actually, I do remember in GCSEs that I was away when they did matrices in maths. When I came back they had finished the topic. We had some sort of test/mock and I clearly remember having to leave two pages blank because of this.

I'm sure I managed to catch up though because I got an A in the end.

[pollywollydoodle]

the only time my parents did it , was for a week at the start of 6th form...it felt like it took ages to catch up with all the admin and work

[Greythorne]

Me! I went on a term
Time exchange in 4th year, missed how to balance chemical equations innChemistry, NEVER got to grips with the subject after that. Nobody knew I didn't know how to do this thing and I would bluff it. Got a D in a Chemistry.

[cory]

I went on 3 short visits to an English boarding school, learnt English to a high standard, did O-levels in subjects I did not study at home and had no difficulty in keeping up with my studies back home. My db did something similar with a German school.

[Metebelis3]

I never went on holiday during term time. Most people didn't.

[Draughts]

Not in the slightest. Saying that is was only ever for 5 days at the most, but I don't feel it held me back at all. I also have a great work ethic. That particular argument really gets on my nerves!

[creamteas]

No term-time holidays ever.

To be honest, we hardly went on holidays at all, as we didn't have enough money.

Which is probably why I think the 'oh a holiday is so necessary for family time' argument pretty laughable.

[handcream]

Honestly - I think if you are taking your kids out of school you are then expecting 'others' to sort out the lessons they missed whilst they were away....

Didnt the family that have just been fined not have a great attendance record? Or have I got that wrong??

[redskyatnight]

I'm not sure how anyone could know if they were affected - unless they were able to clone themselves, put one clone in school and take one clone on holiday.

I missed a week of school when I was 12. Because I had chicken pox . I missed the teaching of a new maths topic. And although I have since gone on to get a maths degree from Oxbridge, I still have a mental block about the topic. So I would say that being absent did affect me. (though of course maybe I would have had a mental block about the topic anyway, who can say).

[dannydyerismydad]

I never took holiday in term time, but had 2 weeks off for an operation in year 9 and struggled to catch up with what I missed.

I had it drummed into me that life isn't fair and that rules are there for a reason.

[Norudeshitrequired]

I wouldn't say that my education was damaged by term time holidays because the school I went to was awful and I took responsibility for teaching myself using the local library. However, I missed the first week of senior school due to going on my first ever holiday and I struggled to settle as everybody had already met and made friends. I would have hated to be taken on holiday during term time every year.

[Ragwort]

I just can't ever remember anyone (certainly not me) having time off for holidays in term time, it just wasn't done. But I am pretty ancient, went to school in the 60s .

[MrsSippie]

I was taken out of school at the end of my third year (year 9 in modern ways) to go to Canada for two months. Ended up with 6 good O levels, 3 A levels and have been pretty ok ever since
dd1, who is now 24, spent two weeks out of school in year 5 to go to Greece, ds now 13 has been on holiday three times out of school aged 4, 7. and 9 and dd now 8 missed two weeks of nursery aged 3. They are not yet delinquents, nor do they need assistance spelling, adding up, socializing or making intelligent conversation.

[MrsSippie]

However, I had 30 plus operations as a child where I had to be out of school for many weeks, which did hold me back in Maths - the hospital school felt sorry for us and let us do the subjects we liked

[Alibabaandthe40nappies]

Not me! And we were taken out of school for at least a week nearly every year.

[sapphirestar]

Never affected me at all, although I was slightly pissed when my parents and 2 sisters went away for a 2week holiday in the middle of my gcses leaving me at home. Just one year couldn't they have waited for the holidays so I could go too?!!

[AChickenCalledKorma]

I never had a holiday in term time. And I always felt really cheesed off when other people in my class did.

[SiliconeSally]

No wonder you were pissed off, sapphirestar. There is no way I would go on hol with the other siblings and leave a GCSE age child at home to do their exams!

Did you pass?

[morethanpotatoprints]

We never had holidays abroad as my parents couldn't afford them.
Occasionally we would holiday in Britain though.
You didn't go during school time then.
The education system of the time completely failed me and I left with sweet FA
Don't think helps much but another view.
Anything you couldn't afford, you did without.
It wasn't an entitled generation tbh.

[ItsATIARA]

Oh god, yes sapphire, my parents took my DB away on holiday while I was at boarding school. I have still never been to the place in question, and for geo-political reasons the thing that was unique about it no longer applies, so I can never have that experience. 35 years later, if the location in question comes up, I point out loudly that "I wouldn't know, because I've never been there, unlike you three." I think I'll give it another 15 years to make it a nice round half-century, and then I'll let it go .

So no, I never had a term time holiday, but I was off the day they did long multiplication (I caught up).

[rabbitstew]

I am 100% certain that had I been taken out of school for a holiday at some point between the ages of 4 and 9, it would have done me no long term, or short term, harm whatsoever.

[DameDeepRedBetty]

I twice missed a week of school due to family problems, the first time probably took about a term to sort out, the second time was the beginning of the academic year and I never really caught up the missing time academically at all, as well as not settling into the new classes as I was not with my friendship group.