How come there were School age kids on my flight today

[twirlywolly]

I flew to the Caribbean today and there were lots of British school age kids on my flight, can anyone explain how they could be out of school? Could it be private schools having really different half terms or what? Interested as I have a baby and am thinking ahead to being restricted to school holidays for travel.

Lots of reasons - home educated, don’t care about fines, special circumstances etc.
Be careful not to judge. My girls were on a flight a couple of weeks ago so my youngest could go to Germany for proton beam radiotherapy. The NHS also sends kids to Florida. Obviously not common but does happen.

Our Local Authority allows family holidays where parents have scheduled holidays (police, NHS, fire service, prison staff etc) which cannot be changed. They have to prove it with a letter from the employer, but it's then considered more beneficial for the kids to have a proper holiday with the family. We do try to ask if they can avoid SATS week etc.

It is exeat weekend here but the Caribbean is a bit far to go for a weekend!

My kids are at a private school which is very reasonable about taking holidays during term time as long as you don’t take the piss with the amount throughout the year, take some schoolwork with you, and it’s not near any exams etc.

'Military families whose parents are going to be deployed sometimes get special permission to take their kids away during term time'

That's operational deployments, and normally for end of tour leave.

I doubt very much that was the case here

We take our kids out every year for a holiday, we save about £2000 so if we get fined we will just suck it up, but never been fined yet. Some of our schools give permission and some don’t but we haven’t had any fines or stroppy letters. Attendance plays a large part and theirs is always good ( apart from the Holliday!) .

Enjoy your holiday OP, where in the Caribbean are you? 😫😩😫 not that I’m jealous on this grey cold morning....

Many still take their children out term time and the fines and missing education obviously don’t bother them.

Could they be British families who live in the Caribbean returning home?

There's an annual netball tournament in Barbados that a lot of schools send teams to play in - perhaps that's it (or something similar)?

Maybe families moving to the Caribbean to take up new jobs?

I think you should have asked them

then at least some must've taken their kids out of school. I am naive - I didn't realise people actually did that

Loads of people do it. Many people just ignore it as a pointless rule that doesn't actually impact on the families that it needs to. Families who can't be bothered to get their kids to school are not the ones taking them to the Caribbean for a fortnight once a year.

Their parents took them on holiday.
End of.

No big deal.

Lots of areas don't actually fine for being out of school anymore. Lots of people do it.

I take my children out of school to go on holiday, most people I know do. I'm not bothered about them missing primary school (they are 9,7 &4). Probably wont do it when they are at secondary. We went to centre parcs the other week and there were lots of school aged children.

Private schools don't fine....well not in my experience
Ps it's the local authorities that fine

I reckon there was a couple of children at most you spotted

I go to the Caribbean every year with my two children and take them out just two days before end of term and we might come across one or two Brits.

Mid term - either home educated or just one family that’s pulled them for a wedding or similar

You didn't realise OP? There have been many national newspaper and TV articles about people being fined/not paying fine/going to the High Court to try to get out of paying fine/being fined when they've gone on holiday with a sick relative etc Every flight I go on at any time of year has school age children in it.

I know a friend of mine who is a farmer. They are allowed to take their kids out of school at other times as getting a holiday in the summer is not going to happen.

If I wasn’t a teacher I would go in term and just budget the fine into the cost of the holiday. Alas we can never afford to holiday as the price hike is unreal.

I am taking my Ds out next year long haul flight , although adding onto half term it will save me over £1,000 so will happily pay the fine if necessary . It’s a one off dream location and don’t feel my ds’s education will be destroyed by missing 2 days school

what's most likely - home educated / expat / heading for medical treatment / terminally ill OR parents taking them out of school for a holiday?

Obviously they were being taken out of school for a holiday.

Prob going on holiday with their families.

Private schools don't fine for term time absences as far as I know- they're already effectively fining themselves by paying for education they aren't using.

DD went to private prep and they were completely fine regarding term-time holidays.

We did it on a couple of occasions - one a more educational experience and one not

It made not a jot of difference to her primary school “career” other than she had in addition other great experiences