Year 6 of primary school & family holidays

[ScottyTeapot]

Hi all,

Having looked at peak holiday prices for summer this year, I'm probably going to take my child out of school in October for a week to ten days. (And build any financial penalty into the cost of the holiday.)

However, is this an OK time to whip her out? I'm aware that its SATs year, but I believe this prep fully ramps up during the spring so the preceding October should be OK, shouldn't it?

WWYD?

The U.K. can be just as expensive as overseas! Take the kid out, pay the fine. Job done.

Teachers sign up to no term time holidays. I haven’t signed up to that.

You have actually - by sending your kid to school you have.

Camping in the UK is never going to be as expensive as holidaying here! And even hiring a caravan or a cottage isn’t. And lots of these posters talk about going to Disney Land - that’s 5 times the price of a UK holiday!

I’m not saying don’t do it - I couldn’t care less if you do or not - it’s all the ridiculous justification that does my head in. Do it because you want to not because your children will somehow suffer if you don’t. That’s patently crap.

What Stitchinmoss said.
If you want a holiday for your child's mental wellbeing, then go in half term to somewhere that fits the budget. It really isn't about where you go! I totally agree that family time is important, but at least be honest with yourself. You want to go in term time because you want to go somewhere that you can't afford in school holidays. For some children, taking them out of school during term time can be very stressful. They don't want to miss out, both with learning and with their friends. Why do you think LAs now fine for this? Because it's detrimental to the child. Spend the half term doing lovely day trips from home, they'll get just as much family time from that as jetting off to Barbados for a week.

We went to California in August it wasn’t too hot didn’t get above 26 degrees very pleasant.

How so the dc feel about this? I am abit of a swot and rule follower I would have hated to be taken out against the rules age 10/11 both dds similar. Plus friends and school activities start to be more important to them than family at this age they are not toddlers. Not all kids will have the “yay missing school” ferris bueller outlook

I wouid choose a holiday I could afford and go during half term.

Then again, I was still looking for secondary schools and did not want to miss all the autumn open evenings

Most open evenings for secondary schools are in early October, so you might like to rethink about when you go away.

SATS really aren’t the be all and end all. It’s really your choice. I’m taking mine out for a day just before SATS.
However, the curriculum is crammed in to such a tight time frame that any time out may mean your DD may mIss out. Maybe liaise with the school to ensure she covers what she missed?

Absolutely DO NOT liaise with the school to cover what she misses!!! Your choice to take kids out, you don’t get to create more work for her teachers too FFS.

I'm surprised that so few posters have mentioned the secondary school application form which needs to be in at the end of October of Year 6 and all the school open evenings which take place that month. Unless you already have a very firm idea of where DD is headed (eg an older sibling or a rural area where there is no real choice), I think it's important for her to look at all the schools and get used to the idea that she'll be moving on to one of them. October is the busiest month in that respect.

All of the secondary schools near us use sats for setting and sats for grade predictions.

My own children would have varying responses to missing time in early year 6. Dd and ds1 would have found it very stressful because they are very rule observant. They would have been aware that the holiday was frowned upon and that would have defeated the object of a “mental health” holiday (which somehow can only be met by going abroad rather than somewhere cheaper in school holidays)? Ds2 would be less concerned if when I was in year 6 we took him out, but that is because he is more of a risk taker and less inclined to fret.

Nb - all are clever. Older 2 have taken sats. Did very well. But that doesn’t mean that it’s ok to take them out of school. Is it only clever children who need family time out during term time? And they were still learning in year 6. Despite being clever.

All the local comprehensives set from first thing in year 7. Some also have CAT testing in the June before they start, some as soon as they arrive, but CAT testing seems to me mor about aptitude than learned knowledge, and it’s the SATS that are the baseline for progress and predictions, whether you like it or not.

If you go a few days before half term surely flights are cheaper at least. As a teacher l never mind children taking a week out. Its not that big a deal towards the end of the year. But in Oct teacher will still be in full flight since Sept and she may miss a lot. By the end of the year things do start to wind down. But at the end of the day its your own decision as long as you are not expecting teacher to help catch up. We get a lot of dc missing around now because of skiing holidays. I just continue as normal but make no fuss good or bad. Its up to their own families.

Tag onto May half term right after SATS. Don't miss out on anything then and still get to do all end of year stuff such as production/prom etc. My DD did sweet FA after SATS. I really wish I had done this.

Parents: I'm taking my child out of school for a family holiday.

Also parents: schools have too many holidays.

I have taken dd out of school every school year. The week before they break up for Christmas is generally winding down time, we usually go 12th/13th of December.

We can't go over the summer because we have our own business and it's our busiest time. We can't afford half terms or easter.

Dd is in year 10 now and we won't be going until her exams are over next June.

And we took her out in June in year 6 as well. She didn't miss much.

Family holidays aren't essential. Education is. But if they are doing well at school and attendance is good the rest of the time I personally feel the benefit of a family holidat outweighs the week they miss at school. Have only ever done a week though, I think 2 weeks would be too long, as much for social reasons as much as education reasons.

Here you'd miss the residential trip and half the secondary school open evenings/days in early October. Sats are in early May so you could consider before May half term as most of the visits etc will be in that last half term of the year. That's also when our year 6's put on their final production.

@totallyliterally I’m afraid you’re wrong. The progress 8 measure is for all schools and measures the progress of ALL children from end of primary to end if secondary-clearly SATS is the baseline measure for that.

Never took my kids out of school - they have plenty of holidays! We just chose places we could afford and drove rather than flew.

I think stitchingmoss is right on the justification point. The chances of them gaining or losing a single extra mark as a result of attending vs missing a week in Oct are frankly quite small, but it's still not the greatest thing to do. That said, doing it once over their whole school career doesn't seem too heinous to me.

I do dislike how polarising it is. At the moment there are quite a few children out of our schools (Y5 &7 now) on skiing holidays. The same children go every year, and some of them will come out of school to go to Florida later in the year too. It seems to be mainly the better off families who take their children out now.

Anecdotallly Seems to be done by those on higher incomes (skiing out of half term) and lower (cheaper packages) and not by majority in the middle.

I remember post says for dd they did loads of fun things and she had a great time, she’s in Y9 now and says that that was her favourite time at school and she’s still got memories from then. Plus there are transition days etc to Secondary
I’m not opposed in principle to missing an odd day for holidays ( DS will miss the last week of y5 as his sister breaks up earlier and we will have over £1000) but I don’t think Y6 is the right time for it

Post SATS I mean, and we will SAVE £1000!

My DC school does it’s residential in October.
Year 6 is such a full on year, SATs, high school applications (which are done in October), plays, trips etc etc. I really wouldn’t take any time off in term time.
You have 13 weeks off school to book a holiday.
And those who say high school don’t use sats results are wrong, they are used to calculate progress 8 scores.

If you take kids out post SATS, they will miss all the fun stuff. Our school does loads of good things with year 6 post SATS, and it always feel like a terribel shame to miss it