To ask teachers if you just accept the inflated holiday prices?

I’ve done it. I don’t think my head was impressed but I work part time which may have softened the blow.

It probably won’t go down particularly well in most schools but it’s always an option.

As others have said it's the same for all working parents - admittedly we can stagger over holidays and take a few days either side to get a slightly cheaper deal but it doesn't make much difference.

I only get 5 weeks holidays to cover 13 weeks of school hols so if I use a week on a term time holiday it's even harder to cover the holidays.
Childcare for my 2 is £100 a day so any savings are soon swallowed up.

And to top it off my one and only chance of a decent term time holiday when my eldest was 3 was scuppered by covid lockdowns.

The further you go, the cheaper it is.

I'm a teacher..

Went to Sorrento in May half term, 5 days half board.. £987 for myself and DH (his birthday treat).

I've got a caravan booked in Northumberland for £199 for 4 nights (2 adults. 2 kids)

Easter I've 7 days in a lodge in Scotland for £500 including hot tub. (2 adults, 2 kids).

Need august ive booked a week all inclusive in Tunisia for £1600 for myself and both children, (DH can't get the time off).

If you research properly you can get affordable holidays!

We some times have disaggregated PD days meaning the end of half term/term is a day early than most and I try and fly out on those. It means it’s manic getting ready to go but can save a few hundred quid.

I'm an ex teacher and I'd def take DD out of school, unfortunately DH is still a teacher so I silently simmer with rage at the ridiculous price differences and accept it by acknowledging that his pension is amazing and no childcare costs for the school hols. Tho we have paid £35k nursery fees the past four years and had zero hols asides staying with family in the uk.
The amount of people that tell me to try going on an inset to get the costs down when DH fucking works the inset!
We have now starting going abroad now nursery costs behind us and I spend a lot of time scanning for cheapest flight's possible.
We met working abroad both teaching and there was no huge school holiday premium like on the uk, it was quite the shock when we came back.

I've never known anyone working in a school to do this.

I think support staff should be allowed 2 weeks during term time each year covered by a rota system so classes aren't left short but because there are never enough TAs/support staff (thanks 13 years of cuts) it wouldn't work at present.
They get paid so little for what they do and many cannot afford school holiday prices. As a teacher I just accept the inflated costs but couldn't do that on the pittance they pay support staff.

I'm in Scotland so earlier summer hols, have sometimes found cheaper deals flying from Newcastle/Manchester at the start of July. Same applies to holiday cottages in England before schools there break up. Obviously depends where you are based, but you could look at flights from Glasgow/Edinburgh mid August?

Unpaid parental leave. You can still go on holiday in term time (as long as you’ve got kids).

No, you're not.

It isn't only the cost. Everywhere is so busy in August. Yet if I wait until October half term it isn't warm enough without a 4 hour flight.

June half term can be extortionate too and no chance of two weeks away because the holiday is only one.

I am on holiday now and the next hot holiday will be the same time next year. I'd like freedom to travel at other times.

My friend who is a teacher says that she ignores term time prices because they're irrelevant. She couldn't go then if it was free!

I'm a teacher and yes, the higher holiday costs are just part of the job! Means we don't go abroad much but we still have lovely UK holidays

We don't 'buy holidays'. We usually drive somewhere and rent an Airbnb for part of the time and camp for part. We're in an Airbnb in Germany at the moment, heading to a campsite in Switzerland for five nights then four nights in a cabin in France. Eurotunnel each way at ungodly hours.

Yes. Nothing else to do. A few years to retirement and then I will never holiday outside term time again...

I've only skim read the thread, so maybe this has been mentioned already.
But, my sister lives in Scotland and is a teacher. It's cheaper for her to fly from an English airport in early July for a holiday.

Similarly, I live in England, and we generally fly from Glasgow or Edinburgh in the middle of August.

Spare a thought for us poor school support staff, we still have to slog it out during most of the holidays (often working harder than TT) but get paid annually a fraction of what teachers earn 😂 (despite teachers’ holidays being ‘unpaid’)

Cue the back to school chat.. ‘oh, did you even have a break?!’ No Mr X, I took a week off as annual leave and couldn’t bloody afford to go anywhere!

@justoneofthoseyearsagain

Not with the ages of the children though … I mean, when they are 5 and 7 it might be quite a fun thing to do but right now it would be a nightmare!

We took ours at 6 months onwards to a tent in Brittany May half term. Also camping in UK when they were babies & toddlers.

No, you're not right.

Camping in france is quite expensive, the price of mobile accommodation has really increased over the last few years and food cost there are quite high too.

One of the reasons I left teaching too! I’m also quite relaxed about term time holidays (within reason and I’m aware of caveats when there are safe guarding issues etc). Realistically most children can have a week off school ( up until about year 9 I reckon) with minimal ill effects, especially if it’s the end of term. I found most of the teachers I ever asked about this were also not that bothered, as long as they weren’t being asked to set work.

Yeah, in 18 years time....and then you're paying for university so still can't afford it!

I don't go on holiday every year.

you can get good deals if you go away when other countries are back at school eg end of august in Netherlands was a popular choice for us when ds was at school.

It's the same for parents too, I just don't look at out of season prices so I don't see the increase! Youngest is 14 so a few more years of this yet!