Teachers or experts help? When is least distruptive to have a holiday in October

[TattyBoomBoom]

Planning a 3 week holiday using the October one-week half term. So three weeks' holiday, but only 2 weeks missed of school.

Would it be more sensible/least disruptive to have the trip in the two weeks before half term and come home on the last weekend of half term, or take one week before half term and one week after?

Children will be Year 5 and Year 8 (England), so not exam years and both comfortably achieving greater depth educationally. Can't travel in summer as too hot in destination.

2 weeks before so that they return to school after the HT break with everyone else.

Missing 2 weeks of school is absolutely ridiculous.

Before - so that they come back from half-term with all their classmates.

Neither is really great though, that's a lot of school to miss.

Christmas should give you 2 plus weeks without any need for time off

I didn't ask for an opinion on that. They have 90-99% attendance all through their school lives until now.

You might want to find out how much the fine is likely to be.

120 quid per parents now…..but very often still worth it for a good holiday….it wouldn’t stop me

Last week of term is likely to be end of term test week for the year 8 which potentially will lead to set changes, equally two weeks off afterwards will be a lot of work missed on a new topic.
A week either side is potentially your best bet, miss the assessment but not too much loss of new topic.

Last week of term is likely to be end of term test week for the year 8 which potentially will lead to set changes, equally two weeks off afterwards will be a lot of work missed on a new topic.
A week either side is potentially your best bet, miss the assessment but not too much loss of new topic.

Take the two weeks before half term. But don't expect teachers to catch your child up.

I would say the last two weeks. However taking two weeks will not be well seen at all regardless of how high achieving they are.

But parents do expect the teachers to catch their child up. They have no concept of how disruptive it is.
And the child misses a massive chunk of a topic eg fractions which then doesn't get re-taught until later in the year... and child is left behind again.
Selfish.

In Y8 I wouldn't have dreamt to take DD out for 2 weeks. October/November is high time for mid-term exams and lots of topic will be covered.

Unless it's an absolute emergency, they belong in school

Can you look at the school calendar for yr8 and find out when any assessments are? Base it on that. I'm sure that you won't expect the teachers to provide catch up support and materials.

Yes, it's very common, we get that request all the time.
One parent asked us to give Teams lessons at home for them when they returned 😂

😆

One parent asked us to give Teams lessons at home for them when they returned 😂

FFS. Honestly- presumably they don't think about what would happen if loads of parents did this. As long as they get to do it, it's fine.

The new attendance rules come in this August. The fines will be £160 per parent per child for the first chunk of unauthorised absence in three years. The second absence the same (but no discount for early payment) and the third absence is £2500.
Why would you do this to the school?
Don’t you care that you’ll make the school attendance team look shit, through no fault of theirs?

We had one ask if their kid could join live lessons over teams while away! We did facilitate that when kids had to self isolate for Covid but not when kids are on holiday. Honestly!!!

90% isn't great attendance, that's missing an average of one day every two weeks.
To answer your question though, I'd do the two weeks before half term. If you could cut the holiday slightly to 2.5 weeks so they missed a bit less, that would be better.

Parents don’t seem to care or bother when it saves them money even with the fines. I missed a fair chunk of school due to ill health. Still managed to get all my grades and become a teacher. When I was studying to become a teacher that’s when I picked up concepts I had missed. There is no time to play catch up at any other point in the year, there is far too much to learn. I don’t have the option to take my child out of school for a holiday because of my job so can’t hand on heart say I wouldn’t. However knowing how disruptive it can be to the children it’s not something I would now consider. If I didn’t work in education though I wouldn’t see the impact it has on achievement and confidence.
Edit: also children only have 194 school days a year, that leaves 171 days for holidays that won’t disrupt their learning, nearly half the year!

We've been asked that as well! Someone in Disney World! We did laugh 😂 🤣

That's exactly what it is. The cult of the individual.

Ooh this isn't going to go well. To answer the question though you could find out (from the schools' calendars) when their INSET days are. If they have the same for both schools that might reduce the absence a bit.

Wouldn’t teaching be a much better job without parents 🤣 it’s unreal the expectations they have for their one child!