MP's to debate school holiday rules/fines on 24th February

[mummymeister]

Please can I ask anyone who feels as strongly as I do to write to their MP and ask for the changes in the rules regarding school holidays to be reversed. there is a back bench debate at 4.30pm on the 24th February and it is really important to bring this issue to the fore. There have been so many stories on MN of people wanting a day for funeral, to attend a family event, to visit family abroad that I know if all of us affected or who feel strongly write in at least we will have tried.

Agree totally with 'faceless factories'. I feel for teachers as well as parents. We suffered a family bereavement just before half term & I will be contacting DC's schools about the funeral as both will be attending. It irks me that I am having to ask permission to take my children to a close family members funeral. Why should a HT get to decide that?!

As it happens I already know that DS1' secondary school will be completely fine & not even question it, but that DS2' primary will make it difficult. The mainstream part of the school is in special measures (DS goes to the SN unit attached) & the assemblies on attendance are now beyond a joke. I am sick of hearing how from him how you should always be at school even if you are poorly. Particularly stings as a good number of children in the SN unit are physically unwell including my son.

I am a secondary school teacher and I do not agree with this legislation. Had this been the case when I was at school I don't think I would have ever been able to have a holiday. My parents business is seasonal, and busiest during the school holidays and weekends. There was no opportunity for my parents to leave their business to take a family holiday. As you can imagine, there wasn't a whole lot quality family time during school holidays. Our holidays were so important to us as a family, and opened my eyes to the world.

Next year me and dh are adopting our second child. My husband now runs the family business and I would love to take my little boy out if school for a week whilst I'm on adoption leave, to give us some good quality family bonding time, but sadly I don't think this will count as exceptional circumstances :(

Wow so mps debating this when countless real, actual problems go undebated. Brilliant just what we need.

draughts

Why are you asking ? Just write a letter to inform them your children will be off school on x day to attend a funeral. How many MP's would have to ask permission to go to a funeral, or teachers for that matter.

Tish I agree with you there. I think many people assume that term time absence is about families getting cheap package deals alone.

Many people, as you say, work seasonally or work in industries where their peak is during the holidays. There are people who have their holidays set by the company they work for. There are people who couldn't get time off work because everyone on their company or department has children too. Then the folk who have to keep their holiday entitlement until the last minute incase their company has an enforced shut down and they need to use their holiday for that or face not being paid.

I entirely agree as well that asking for permission to take your children to a funeral makes everyone almost at the mercy of one professional who essentially now has very little room for maneuver .

I appreciate this is going to sound like it's out in left field but, how does this not contravene your rights to a family life? I appreciate this would only apply to a small proportion of families but if both parents work, maybe alternate shifts, weekends too, one or both has a set holiday pattern, they might never even get to spend a few days together out of a whole year if they could not take a week during term time.

If the right to a family life can keep a random criminal in this country* because his auntie lives here so can't be deported, why can't it also support families in spending quality time together as a whole unit assuming that a child has a good attendance record generally?

*I appreciate that is a crass over simplification and all very daily fail but hey ho - smuggled immigrant yoghurt stole my pension twice.

Notanother teachers do have to ask permission to go to funerals if during school time and I have known time refused on more than one occasion.

Besides it isn't the teachers that are creating these rules.

Can I add another reason to the mix as to why a term time break maybe required. A terminally ill family member who you are the full time carer for. You get a chance of a weeks respite and you grab it because you are on your knees with stress and tiredness and you would like a weeks rest with your family. You book a last minute deal in the sun and you go and enjoy every second, apart from also dreading the phone call to say something has happened.

I and my family classed that as exceptional circumstances and I did not care and still don't if anyone disagreed.

The thing that pisses parents off are the weeks in which there is no education. The last 2 weeks before the summer term at my school had not educational value whatsoever- the penultimate week was "activities week" which was just pissing about, and the final week was just playing games or watching films. So what would be the problem with taking kids out 1-2 weeks before summer term started?

Oh I will just be writing to inform rather than beg / plead permission to take my child to a funeral, it doesn't mean that the HT can't refer us a fine though. Gosh it makes me so mad!

Agree about other exceptional circumstances too. The charity that supports my sons genetic condition has just been awarded a luxury holiday home to donate to a few families in need in May. The week is term time. I haven't put us forward as despite DS's care needs DH has been able to continue his career & we can therefore afford holidays anyway. However I know there are families who simply can't, for whom both parents are the carers or that they are minimum wage etc. So many parents have had to decline the offer due to the new rules. You would have to be very hard hearted to disagree that these families shouldn't have a holiday.

Some families situations are permanently exceptional eg having a profoundly disabled child yet there is no allowance given for this.

Agree there painty. Also because schools can't really do a great deal about sickness absence they can control other absences. While fines and absence being unauthorised will not stop some families, it will stop the majority.

It just makes sense if the lea and/or ofsted are going to come down on you like a ton of bricks to use the small amount of control you have a deny any request. That way, short of a mass sickness epidemic, you won't fall below target and if you do you can shown that you are being proactive by issuing fines.

I am booking a holiday for June. Due to the nature of my work I won't even see my children in the 6 week holiday let alone cut my cloth accordingly by camping for a week as is a favourite suggestion
Like downstairs a caravan in term time was the only option for us but what happy memories.
I tried to book the spring half term but was 500 more expensive. So june it is.

500 more expensive was not doable at all I am not trying to 'save '

Education is much more then just school. I really don't like the direction things are going recently. This and the care.data motion make me feel like my ability to make independent choices is being stolen. The state does not always know best.

Education is much more then just school. I really don't like the direction things are going recently. This and the care.data motion make me feel like my ability to make independent choices is being stolen. The state does not always know best.

I enrolled my children into a school where we were able to take up to two weeks a year. I expected these terms to continue throughout my children's education but its been stolen away from under our feet. I didn't agree to that

Is holidaying with a family member who has a terminal illness an exceptional circumstance? Does anyone know ? This is the case.
I understand that a holiday is not a right. It makes life a darn sight more pleasant.

"It is this attitude - that parents had a right to 2 weeks off a year, every single year regardless of the reason. Regardless of other attendance. Regardless of whether the timing is difficult for the school or not that led to the changes everyone is unhappy about."

No it isn't. What has lead to this change is a new attitude that the state has a right, a duty even, to micromanage parents, dictate the way most children are brought up and use criminal sanctions to try to enforce priorities and values that are not shared by a huge swathe of the population.