To be confused re school holidays as children at our school seem to be still taking them in term time

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which I don't have a problem with as such.

However I've just paid premium price booking a holiday in the summer holiday with the understanding we 'd get a huge fine if it was taken in the term time.

I'd have booked it in the term if I'd known it was ok to do this.

Confused.

The issue doesn't lie with the school, it lies with the holiday companies. They shouldn't be allowed to double and in some cases triple the price of a holiday just because schools are on break.

Kids should be in school for the 39 weeks that are scheduled, there are 13 weeks a year when they are on holiday so find a way people! It is not a god given right to remove them from education just so you can have a few days sat on a beach in a hot country!

Teachers are not allowed to take time off in term time and many have to work during your little darlings holidays too for training, classroom decorating, planning, marking etc and most only get 2-3 weeks a year with their families.

It is no longer up to head teachers etc to grant holidays, there are very strict criteria governing what is and isn't allowed to be authorised and they cannot deviate. Deal with it or home educate

fluffyraggies the problem is that the people making the decisions have not got your experience. 0.1/0.3% of absences due to school holidays. tiny tiny amount. dirty great gove sledgehammer to crack it. but then wont he look marvellous at the end of the year when this 0.1% goes down even further. dealing with inconsistent parents takes real time, effort and money. it takes intelligent strategies. so of course the govt cant be bothered.

Blaming holiday companies is ludicrous as the demand is always going to be higher in school holidays so prices will go up. Only way out is to allow every state educated child a two week absence anytime of the school year, so that then the demand would be more evenly spread. However teachers wouldn't be happy so it will never happen.

If it was your kids teacher taking 2 weeks off to sit on a beach during term time you would all be up in arms. Hypocritical much?!

Term time holidays aren't authorised in Wales either, not in Comp anyway, my daughter got refused a for o be filled in for one day, so I phoned her n sick and she went on her weekend aay!

After Sats ended last year our school practically gave up teaching anything much at all for the remainder of year 6. If I'd known, I think we'd have booked a holiday.

mymiraclebubba-it's totally different for a teacher to take time off. As an adult you choose the career path you want to take, one of the pro's of teaching is the holidays, one of the negatives is that you can't take time off in term time. For children education is compulsory, they don't actually choose to be there. It would also cost the school a fortune to employ cover, taking your own child out doesn't cost the school a penny.

And all the parents bitching about their jobs not allowing time off in school holidays also made the same choice so you just blew your own arguments out of the water really!!

mymiraclebubba. if you are a teacher and also a parent then you are able to be off at the same time as your children. I do have sympathy with teachers who aren't parents who want time off in term time and would not be against 5 days leave being allocated to them to do this. teachers by and large have more days out of school than I or many other working people have as statutory holiday. we have 4 weeks teachers have 12 weeks. and yes, I get the argument that they do stuff during the school holidays but still 12 is more than 4. Still no comment from you about the 0.1/0.3% being what the new rules concentrate on rather than the 99.7/99.9% of other absences. this is not about being given the right to sit on a beach. it is about being given the right to be a parent and make decisions for your kids based on what you know.

Because they are other regulations in place to cover the other absences. Fines and indeed custodial sentences have long been in place for serial absenteeism

mymiraclebubba what a ridiculous statement. It is a totally different scenario for a teacher to be taking a week off to one of her/his pupils to be taking the same time off .

I have 3 children and between them they have had less than a week off in about a decades worth of schooling. One of them has only had 1 day off in the whole of his school life and he is almost 12. They never play away at sports fixtures and don't take music lessons so one week off in term time in an otherwise impeccable attendance record really isn't going to do a lot of damage.

How do the fines work when parents aren't together? Ex-dp has parental responsibility but I have our son full time, so if I decided to take him out of school, would his dad get a fine as well?

Also, do the fines kick in after one day of absence? Or is it only after a few days?

Why is it Burma? They are just as effected by the cost of holidays

mymiraclebubba

Teachers earn a far far greater amount than we do. If I was on or my DH was on a teachers salary our life would be very comfortable! We could certainly eek out a pleasant holiday in normal holiday time on that salary.

Saw a guy on tv this morning saying that people should settle for a caravan holiday to the Isle of Wight like his family did rather than miss school.
I think he is living in some sort of dream world. Just had a look at a weeks caravan holiday in the most basic caravan in last week of school holidays £693 as opposed to going the week school returns £302.

They are just as effected by the cost of holidays

Are they? .

Yes we face the same price hikes except teachers and head T face them on a far greater salary than us .

I found it personally offensive when our teacher and HT bemoaned that point to us.

Not necessaril true! Ta's are on minimum wage and also held by restrictions and do not get paid for holiday weeks as most are on 39 week contracts.

And teachers are not on mega salaries. I earn far more than a friend who is a teacher and I do a pretty shit job for shit money frankly!

annie

Yes a total dream world, I have looked at caravans, am very happy to stay in mobile homes, but the cost is prohibitive.

Really, well, its a megasalary to us.

We are on far lower.

Get in the real world love

• I do a pretty shit job for shit money frankly I think you will find most people do that!

And if you looknafter actual hours teachers work they are on far less than minimum wage so maybe you should join the real world

The fact remains, a normal teacher and HT face, school holiday costs, with a far greater salary than us, and most people.

To say they face the same costs, is true, but they face with it with a far greater salary.

It just shows how they do, some teachers and heads, live in a total bubble, un aware of what people are facing every day.

mymiraclebubba-the point is the rules have changed recently, schools are now fining parents for taking children out of school. Parents who chose a career and have been taking children out of school for the last few years, are suddenly finding they can't. Teachers on the other hand knew exactly what they were signing up for. When there was talk of moving teachers goal posts from what they'd signed up for, didn't they go on strike?!

Yes and look at the uproar that caused from people who said they didn't deserve yo be pissed off!

And it's not the schools who are fining it's the government

I wonder if everyone took their holidays during term time would the travel companies have to reduce their prices during school holiday time?

When a basic caravan holiday to the Isle of Wight in term time + the fine is cheaper than doing it in school holidays then you know there is something wrong.

Oh how I would have loved to interview that guy this morning and brought him crashing into the real world.