Students to be taken out of school for holidays

Ohh to add the only thing we took with and spent about 20 minutes to max an hour was maths. My mom bought us each a maths book that was appropriate for our year and that's all we did for 5 months.

We took my daughter out for an extra week and she is still top of the class. We are involved parents but it doesn't really make that much difference.

I own my decision - I am actually pretty sure 2 weeks in Japan she learned more than she would have in school but that is not a justification - just truth.

Also, it is not really my job to make decisions about my child's activities based on poor Tommy with terrible parents. I do what is best for my daughter - if Tommy's parent s are going to let him avoid school for no reason - it will be because they are terrible parents and I hardly think my daughter (or Arabella) going on holiday will change that.

Haha sorry I shouldn't laugh but you don't thi k mum can go over the UK rivers with them ? I mean with more time spent one on one than a teacher can with a full class. But in all seriousness my dad studies abroad while I was a teen and we were taken out for school 3 and 5 months respectively. I was year 6 and year 8. Year 8 was from September to middle Feb . Each of us got a friend in class to take an extra handout for us whenever paper or assignments were handed out. And then we borrowed those kids' books to catch up. I kid you not, I remember it specifically because we were all so astonished about how little academics went on in school. We landed on the Wednesday, got the books and papers on Thursday and by Monday back in school we were all caught up! No jokes. We didn't have to do the tests that we missed but obviously had to write end of year exams so had to catch up on everything . It took us a weekend, one flipping weekend. Insane. I wouldn't blink an eye to take my kids out of school. They learn so much more on a family holiday or time spent somewhere different.
The value of school lies in academics not.. it's to socialise to teach children how to win or lose, handle triumph and disaster etc. It most definitely is not academics.

Have to say I completely agree with the sentiment although in a totally unrelated track - I still remember how to draw the diagrams and it was actually a question in my standard grade geography exam(Scottish exams) how is an ox bow lake formed!
That said if it was an important school year most responsible parents wouldnt take out. My son is mid-primary and we are certainly considering it this year as I think he will learn more about culture, travelling and family relationships on a holiday than he will in 5 days in school.

I took mine a day earlier out once for example to see family abroad. The day they missed finished at 13.20! Saved me £600 in flight costs and I doubt my child was harmed academically by missing 4-5 hours where they mostly played party games.

If you’re worried about it, don’t take your children out of school when they reach school age. I don’t understand what the distress is about

Justifying what? Children missing school? Why on earth should I justify that.

Ok fine do what you like. Who cares if it affects school attendance (which is a measure taken into account by ofsted) and there is a poor culture of attendance in the school.

it’s selfish. Go ahead and be selfish. Just accept that’s what you’re doing.

Why is my post pretentious? I think several previous posters are being pretentious.
it’s about creating a pro attendance culture.

if you want to take your child out, nobody is stopping you. But just own the fact that you are contributing to the massive problem of absenteeism, and it’s probably not your child who is going to be negatively impacted by that. It’s selfish.

Your kids are not even in school yet, half of what you are saying is not the reality. It’s not that kids are constantly missing every month of the year. A lot of kids are sick in the winter months every year too. Not every day of learning is crucial for the rest of your life. And stuff rightly gets repeated all the time because repetition is part of learning.

taking a kid out for 2 weeks is far from the norm, I have actually never heard of it only anecdotally of children who have family abroad. Most parents do a day or two before or after holidays as it saves £££ on flights. And yes we have family abroad in 2 different countries and want our children to see them.

so save all your judgements until your kids are actually at school and if it’s actually a problem. And start paying for some half term holidays before you judge others.

What pisses me off is that it's OK for school trips abroad.

Our school has three this year. One in June to Ireland then they are only back a week and off to Germany. Sure, they will be educational, but they are bloody expensive, too. I'd like the option of taking my child somewhere during one of the three weeks of school trips abroad this year.

If missing a week or two off school has such a catastrophic effect on their learning of 13/14 total years, then there is something wrong with our school system.

My kids rarely had time off for holidays, but when they did it had no effect whatsoever. They all got the results they wanted, worked for and deserved.

Supply and demand. You would never get agreement to spread out school summer holidays, the only thing you could do to reduce the price gap would be to ban child discounts during school terms.

It isn't the job of the parents who can only afford holidays in term time to set an example to those who care less. They can't be held responsible for other people's actions.

If a parent is invested in their child's education, their attendance is otherwise exemplary and they made the effort to ensure they work with the child rather than the teachers having to repeat then the rest is not relevant. It is not a race to the bottom.

Justifying it this way will only further increase the competition for schools in wealthier areas

My DC is still in nursery so I think I'd avoid it but I could change my mind when he older and a family holiday is costing a fortune.

I missed nearly 2 months during GCSE because I was really sick. I'd manage maybe 2 days max a week and minimum homework. I still managed good GCSE's. Now of course I wouldn't reccomend taking your child out in such an important year on purpose.

Teacher friends have said as well the last few week of school v the first is always better.

My relative has a spouse from a very exotic place. They took their DC out for nearly a month to go stay with relatives over there. I think that was well worth it.

Tbh I think it sounds like you think primary school is more academically “heavy” than it actually is

Mine is KS1.. he's being taken out for 5 days in May , we're going to France and to be blunt we cannot afford to do it over the holidays.
Prepared to pay the fine if we have to, and the head has told us she'd do the same if she wasn't working in education.
Come secondary school we will not take him out, I believe their learning will change completely so will be an every other year thing for us so we can afford it during the school holidays.
No we don't ask the teacher for any work he'll miss out on but we do keep up with reading/ writing etc and his attendance is 100% or would be if we didn't take him out. Done the same last year.

Teachers were fine, but fgs don't lie to them and own your decision!
Your child will spill the beans and they aren't stupid!

@CatamaranViper yes... I think there's always an element of that deep down!.

Also people seem to assume that all children with low attendance are doing badly and all children with good attendance are doing well and whilst I'm sure there is a correlation it is not that black and white. My children have missed 2 days of school each since September yet they are still behind academically.

I also think the rise of social media hasn't helped, some parents think they absolutely need to take their kids abroad at least once or twice a year to #makememories otherwise they worry that other kids are having experiences they aren't.

My kids have to make do with a week in Cornwall 😁

@Bennettsister as a teacher that's a very pretentious and presumptuous view that your holding. I'm a single parent not MC and I've taken DS out for holidays.

The issue you have described about the vulnerable children or come from a chaotic background are completely separate issues. In fact the two comparisons are not even connected.

I used to be a stickler for attendance but saw so much time wasted in schools before the big school holidays that I wouldn’t have any problems pulling DS out for a holiday a week before Christmas, Easter or the summer holidays. Probably not at other times tho

Like you said OP you haven't reached that stage of parenthood yet! People managed in the 90s personally I think its an individual choice just like any aspect of parenting. It varies.

This is a really good post.

I don't care if other parents take their kids out of school but I do wish they would own these decisions. I see so many viral posts on social media with parents trying to justify why they're taking Freddie to Spain and how much they are supposedly learning on holiday, and often it includes a stealth boast about how well their child is doing academically too.

I take my kids out of school for an odd day every academic year but I don't make excuses for it. But my children are struggling a bit academically at the moment too so I don't think taking them out would be in their best interests.

guess it depends how much you value school! I personally don't really care what they miss while they are really young! I think travel can be educational and I don't think theres much they can't catch up on tbh

I don't think the issue is whether or not children can catch up the missed work.

I agree with the PP who referred to a culture of attendance. We know there is currently a huge problem with school absenteeism, and I think parents taking their children out of school for term-time holidays contributes to the sense of school being optional, which is really not helpful.

I've never taken my children out of school for holidays and never would.