time off school hypocrisy!

[wotnochocs]

have recently been reading a fewposts about welfare officers/schools hounding parents of children with health problems about their attendance.How come they frown on or even refuse to authorise a week's holidays in term time.Government literature tells us that puplis education will be permanantly and irrevokably damaged by just a week or 2 off a year
So how come the school can shut for a week for a couple of inches of snow, or one case of swine flu (both happened at local schools)or an athlete in DS's class has had weeks and weeks off in Y10 & 11 to compete overseas with the schools/government's blessing?
Or what about independent schools who are 3 or more weeks short of state schools every year, do their pupils all lag behind?

Teachers are not allowed to be in schools during elections, I think it's something to do with security and not having people wandering around the site of an election. At least for our school where they can't close off one part of the building.

I wish we could get into school, it would be a useful time to catch up on classroom work.

elpheba, it has gone down as unauthorised, I checked the school report.
The event was at the O2, and it was wonderful, I don't know why the headteacher was so anti it.

"I think 'missing a week of school in junior school has an impact on GCSEs' is pure scare tactics."

It's total bollocks. Ask to see the study that produced the claim. Still, as Brain Gym shows, there's not a ludicrous unsupportable claim you can't find a primary head willing to advocate.

clam - yup, I did.

Our Ofsted outstanding rated primary school (inspection was last term) allows us a discretionary 5-10 days off per year for holidays.

It hasn't seemed to adversely affect the school's performance with a much much higher than average SATS attainment.

As a rule most of us request 5 days rather than the 10 though!

I am submitting a request for a Florida trip in January as it happens - and have sent a covering letter to the head explaining that we will include educational trips to the Space Centre and the Everglades, and that the dcs will be happy to undertake an educational activity at the schools behest during their holiday (like a reflective journal for instance)....

Thats not on and total hypocracy. Was it Voice in a Million?

Dd's licence states that she is authorised by the EWO to have time off school for her performances.

Yes, it was Voice in a Million. Fantastic thing for the kids to experience.

mitochondria Dream on!

clam I think that mitochondria is a teacher.

When I was a teacher, I had a new classroom and got it ready during the holidays.

Sure. Every teacher on the planet does the same every August. And rearranges rooms and renews displays and so on at half terms etc.. And spends a significant amount of their "home" time working too.
But that's different from expecting others to give up a weekend, on top of a full working week, to go and do something, unpaid, that could be done during the week.

My dd is going skiing for a week in January. She will be missing a week of school and won't be doing anything educational while she is away.
This is ok though as it is a school trip. If I asked for her to have the same week off to take her skiing myself I would be refused.

Indeed I am. And as Noah says, I don't expect a day at the start of term to sort displays out.

Dexter - you should give it a try, see what they say!

I'll tell you what really pisses me off, when the school doesn't have enough teachers, so they provide supply teachers week after week, and the teachers they do have are assigned to the GCSE year kids, and my DS comes home and tells me that he spent the entire lesson AGAIN, watching a DVD! And what doubly pisses me off is when I then find out that the DVD he watched was rated 18 and he is only 14.
And then, the school has the BAREFACED cheek to tell me that he has been away sick too often! Or that he can't have a day out for something important!

My daughter suffers terribly from every bug goingevery winter. Last year she had a month off in total. I will be taking her to my friends house in Grenada in February to get her some sun, wether the school likes it or not! IMO 1 week off is far better than one month of sickness.

I can understand the wanting them to perform/take part in outside things which they are gifted/talented at - but overseas holidays?

You think teachers don't have any family overseas?

Why should you get to get the cheaper tickets to travel to Australia/wherever to see family and they have to pay full price.

Yes it sucks having family overseas, but that's life.

Only exception I would make to the holidays in term time rule is for those who have parents in the Armed Forces or the likes - who don't have the option of choosing to book leave during Christmas/Easter/Summer Holidays etc. Oh and to ones like an MN took last(?) year as her DH had been seriously ill and they'd been given the chance to go away as a family.

And surely those that are going away for a week on a school trip are going with other children on the same trip - so no lessons will be taking place thus the trip will have been factored into the teachers timetabling.

"And surely those that are going away for a week on a school trip are going with other children on the same trip - so no lessons will be taking place thus the trip will have been factored into the teachers timetabling."

How does that work when school run holidays for 10% of the children in the year?

I have no idea - as all of the children in DS's year are allowed to go on the YR4 and YR6 trips.

And I believe at the senionr school (I hope) they'll go to all children in the year are given the opportunity to go if they wish/their parents can afford

'You think teachers don't have any family overseas?

Why should you get to get the cheaper tickets to travel to Australia/wherever to see family and they have to pay full price.'

umm because the teachers have chosen that as a career, they are service providers children/families are service users.The two things aren't comparable.

Curlymama, you say the prices rise in the holidays but that's not the teachers fault, but it's not ours either. We would MUCH prefer to go to my husband's country for our once yearly visit to my children's grandparents in the middle of the sunny summer holidays, however, we don't have £1200 spare to pay for it. Instead we go in mid-November when it is grey and miserable for less than £300. For many, many people, price is a massive issue.