To think education is a privilege and removing a child from that without damn good reason is shocking?

[MBT1987]

So, in the latest episode of "Why am I being fined for breaking the law?" AKA "Yet Another Unauthorised Absence", we've had:

"I'm going to tell my kids to lie"
"I'd vote Labour if they abolished compulsory education" (Fun fact - the Education Act 2006 was passed under Labour)
"My children with both parents are disadvantaged as opposed to single-parent families!"
"What are they really going to do if I break the law and don't accept the fine?" (Hint - prosecute)
"My school are lovely, so they won't mind" (Then ask in advance?)

I could go on.

There are some absolute howlers coming from this place, and it's sickening. Parents are encouraging kids to play truant and lie about it.

I don't care if I become Social Pariah of the Week as a result of this. I'll just have to be lonely on my little patch of moral high ground. Anyone is welcome to join me.

@ claraschu

Its just the poor that will suffer creating bigger gap than ever before between rich and poor in the UK.

Its just the poor that will suffer creating bigger gap than ever before between rich and poor in the UK.

It wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if the one and only point of the new policy was to stop us paupers from having access to cheaper holidays- and therefore a better quality of life- purely out of spite.

We've been forgetting our place in recent times.

Yes, I liked that post of Clara's too

Yes, MaryZ, and there's another one too ..... "One vote only" or something, to take a straw poll

Just saw your classic comment about DC never, ever, ever being able to catch up if they miss a week (or not !)
LOL

Yes, let's punish the working and middle classes (yes, we are all in the same boat under the Tory leadership) who are too stupid to decide whether a term time holiday will benefit their children. while the super rich can swan off to their villas and their expensive holidays in summer and skiing in winter.

' am going to deregister my chilkd for 2 weeks then reregister them when we come back.Simples!
Fill in the forms to 'move' schools. where to I wonder? Home school? Lots of forms and interview for that.
When you try to re-join the original school,a whole two weeks later imagine your surprise when you discover that your child's place has been taken by another/ magically no longer exists.

No forms or interview to home school.You just write a letter.The end.i know I have done it before (not for holiday, genuine homeschooling then)
No problem with reregistering as the school is so far in teh sticks they advertise for pupils (despite having been OFSTED outstanding for the last 3 inspections

Are people so stupid they truly believe the guff that a few days out of school at the end of the school year are going to have any effect on their education.
whatever happened to common sense?

Any kind of holiday is an educational experience for a child, but more importantly than that , it is bonding as a family , creating memories that will last a lifetime.
Finally many families struggle for one parent to get holidays in school holidays , let alone both parents the same week.

I think parents taking kids out of school for fucking holidays is a scandal. We were never ever taken out of school for anything so trivial, and we had great holidays (camping and in the caravan). It's shameful that lying on a beach is considered more important than education.

Sinister we were extremely poor growing up and were never taken out of school for term-time holidays. We still had great holidays. Going abroad is not a necessity for a fun and educational holiday.

Also - I don't think homeschooling is necessarily wrong but it needs stringent supervising. Too many child abuse cases used homeschooling as a coverup. Of course I don't think that homeschooling = child abuse, but there is the possibility and it needs to be really well-supervised. Google quiverfull and Christian fundamentalist homeschooling to see why a lack of homeschooling regulations is harmful for kids.

How about cutting summer holidays to 4 weeks and then not worrying as much about kids taking holiday?

OP, I agree. Besides, we have had many supposedly child-free term-time holidays ruined by 'orrible kids whose parents think this sort of thing is okay.
Foreign holidays, whilst great, are not one of life's essentials. Like Sky TV. Or iPhones. Or 4x4s. Cut back on some other non-essentials to get the holiday if you wish, but don't take your kids out of school.

So those who have the will and the money for 'educational holidays' like Altinkums tour of the middle east are good parents wanting the best for their DCs and anyone wanting a week in Majorca is bad and if money doesn't stretch to the educational Kenya Safari/ Roman ruins in the Med/ climbing Machu Pichu the can't go and have bad parents not extending their DCs education.

Sorry but I am laughing at the person who said a holiday was beneficial to their childs education as they learnt about structural engineering when building sandcastles.

Come on..you wanted a holiday and felt it unaffordable in term time. .just say that. People trump up such reasons for taking term time holidays. "Little johnny learned to swim in a foreign pool" etc.

Are we talking about taking a week off school to go on a once in a lifetime holiday or homeschooling? Aren't they very different things?

I don't take my children out of school to go on holiday, I think it gives them the wrong message about how important education is, but I understand why other people might want to do it.

With regards to homeschooling, I think that unless the reasons for school avoidance are extreme then it is unfair to deny a child the experience of school. A lady that sometimes looks after my children homeschools her two primary aged children, she is South African (Afrikaans is her first language) sometimes I really cringe at the grammar she uses in her spoken English, it makes me wonder what her poor kids are learning.

It's none of my business whether parents take the kids out or school on holiday and it's none of my business if they get fined for it.

Education doesn't only take place in the classroom.