to think that School (trip) type holidays are unjustifiable if parents can't take their own kids out of School.

[morchoxplz]

Firstly no sour grapes here. My DH is a teacher so we can never go away in term time anyway.
I can't believe School ski trips/sight seeing tours/outward bound trips are still happening in term time.
It's mostly only the wealthier families who can afford to send their kids anyway. In addition to that the kids left behnat School have cover supervisor teachers as 'sir' is on the ski trip.
I have no problem with these trips happening in the holidays but they are mostly in term time.

We are immensely lucky that DD1's school owns its own holiday accommodation (former farm) in a very beautiful part of the country.

All children in Year 8 are given the opportunity to go for 4 days during the summer term - it takes a few weeks for them all to go, so 1 bus load of children is absent at any one time throughout the term.

It is also used by other groups during term time for e.g. geography and science field trips, plus other curriculum linked activities.

As far as I am aware all overseas trips are during school holidays, and as we're in a low wage area, they tend to be of the 3 nights in France type trip. I'm not aware of anything like ski trips, but that could be because a) DD1 wouldn't enjoy it and b) she knows we wouldn't be able to afford it.

There is however a big trip in Year 12/13 to somewhere absolutely amazing which she would love to do - it's to a school in a developing country which is effectively twinned with our high school. It would require a lot of saving/ fundraising though. And it is definitely in holiday time.

Calloh, my DCs are all teens so we have been through this all too many times. I am grown cynical. Why is a skiing trip in any way a necessity? A nice to have maybe but nothing more than that.

School trips are designed to be educational. Every time we organise a trip, from half day to a week away we have be clear which curricular or wider achievement box it ticks. Moreover, they are organised in such a way as to cause minimal disruption.

When a teacher goes for a week, why should it be outwith term time?? School trips can certainly be enjoyable for staff but also a huge responsibility to care for other people's children. Nothing like sitting in A&E with a fourteen year old whose parents are a thousand miles away to make you realise that! And every school will have staff who choose to go and staff who choose not to- but that doesn't mean a class should lose out teacher may family commitments etc.- I assume that your child's teacher kindly stepped in dayshiftdoris.

Also- this is perhaps the only chance some of these children may get to experience such a trip. Families who may not be able to afford to take adults and 2/3 kids on a trip like this may opt to let child go with school, knowing next kid can do it when they are at that stage.

So, yes, I think YABU.

Bit irrelevant the reasons my sons teacher went - the point was the trip as a whole was very disruptive and only open to a selection of the year group.

It's wrong

Ours (secondary) are almost invariably in holidays, with teachers giving up their time.

I'm running one at Easter which involves us leaving two days before end of term - it's the only time I've ever known this happen, & it's because of logistics to do with the destination we're going to.

It's a bit of a ball-ache actually; I've spent the night doing my KS4 planning & I've had to factor in two days of work that a cover supervisor can reasonably deliver. I've got three classes heading into exams who could do with me teaching them for those lessons.

Also, we do do the occasional Friday-Saturday in the UK for theatre trips & the like. They usually run once year 11 have left so that we can deploy staff to teach those left in school with minimal disruption.

The argument about paying for school jollies & students from less well off homes being unable to go is a bugger.

All I can say is that we have a system whereby Pupil Premium money heavily subsidises places, & there's always a flexible payment system in place. It's by no means a perfect set up, but the only time I can recall someone actually being refused a place is when they'd already had several trips subsidised & the parents had invariably failed to make the payments they'd agreed to.

One argument in favour would be: say one of my own dc is desperate to go skiing. I certainly won't be booking a family skiing holiday - can't afford it, & don't fancy it anyway. I'd much rather save up for the dc in question to experience it via a school trip.

Or alternatively just tell him/her no chance, better things to spend my hard-earned on. IME teenagers are quite stoical about that sort of thing.

...& finally, the 'no authorised holidays' thing certainly isn't something teachers asked for! But I'd agree with you that it doesn't sit well with extended jaunts out of school in term-time that take out a substantial proportion of a year group plus their teachers.

Atmy dc's school, ski trips and other recreational trips are always in school holidays. Educational trips are sometimes in term time.

I don't agree with family holidays being taken in term time but can see why families would be pissed off if refused a holiday in term time and then school runs a leisure trip in term time. If that was my dcs school I would be writing to the governors.

But it's a government policy, not a school decision, that leads to the pissed-offness over being told a family holiday is unauthorised. HTs are following rules they've had imposed on them; I don't think many teachers could give a chuff either way, tbh, beyond the fact that pissed-off parents is something we'd sooner avoid.

I'm struggling to think of a trip that I've heard of that's both in term time & purely a jolly, though. Closest we get is year 11's Alton Towers jaunt in July, & that's after they've left on study leave & sat their exams, so hardly disrupting their Gradgrinding.

DH is a teacher and it drives me mad that ALL of the trips are in holiday time.

Yes, I acknowledge it's disruptive to the rest of the school but if it's an educational trip then why not in term tine? For the past four years DH has been on trips during the Easter and May holidays, some of the only time we're able to go away together. Probably more annoying as I have family in a part of the world which is deeply unpleasant to visit in August so Easter is the time we're trying to visit!

Also, at his school the trips are planned and then they find the teachers to go, if they ask and you refuse they get incredibly shitty and so DH who is looking for promotion sort of has his hands tied!

Slight tangent to OP but another perspective.

At DGS's school, the ski trip was in school time. Infuriating as under new regime we cannot take DGCs skiing ourselves, which we would much prefer to do.

"In addition to that the kids left behnat School have cover supervisor teachers as 'sir' is on the ski trip."

I have only known that happen if it is a trip for the year group.

My daughter is off to Barcelona in a couple of months for a week with school. It's the only holiday she will be going on this year because we can't afford to go anywhere in the holidays and I refuse to pull the kids out at term time. My son will do PGL this year for a long weekend so he's not missing out either. I don't really mind not going away as my dh books 2 weeks off and we do all the London touristy stuff and go to beach as we live down south. Much cheaper and I don't have to put the animals in kennels or get a house sitter.
I think my daughter will be going skiing next year with school and my son will go to Barcelona so they still get to go abroad.

All our school trips are in the holidays with teachers giving up their holiday.

We're in Germany & it's only all class trips here, in term time and always in Germany.

YANBU.My DS1's A level class went on a trip to CERN, which they could only arrange at the last minute as another school pulled out.We had 4 days to pay £500 2 weeks before xmas and I just couldn't afford it.Poor DS was the only one who didn't go

YABU.

School is about more than academic classroom learning, and any trips schools offer have an educational aspect that is either linked to the curriculum or is providing a learning opportunity that they wouldn't otherwise have.

Parents choosing to take their children out of school not only disrupts the classroom deliberately, but it quiet often have no educational value whatsoever. I know parents like to trot out the argument that being in an airport and being exposed to different currency and language is educational, but that only works if parents put the effort in to engage their children with those things. Not all parents do, and so no at all holidays have educational value in the same way that school trips do.

All this crap about teachers strikes and school trips being unfair because of parents not being authorised to take their dc out of school is a very weak argument IMO.

Round here school trips tend to have a definite educational value and usually (at secondary school) only be taken by the children who have a specific interest in the topic or need it for their GCSE's. Both my dc went on the history trip to the Belgian trenches because both are interested in modern history, and it also added an extra layer of understanding to the work they were doing in English literature.

Dd went on the drama trip (theatrical performance in London) but ds didn't.

Because the trips were known and planned in advance and involved large groups of children the teachers were able to plan their teaching around them and make sure nobody missed out on learning they should be doing.

That is different from one child being absent here and one there.

All residential and holidays with the school happen in term time here.
I have never known them during school holidays, nobody would go.
Surely its better for school activities to happen during school time.
Holidays are for spending with your parents.

I know parents like to trot out the argument that being in an airport and being exposed to different currency and language is educational, but that only works if parents put the effort in to engage their children with those things

Exactly, and while some parents undoubtably do this, the reality - as any teacher will tell you - is that the majority simply don't

They'll agree to anything in pursuit of authorised absence, but then the "homework" they've asked for gets returned creased from being left in the bottom of a case, with perhaps a few sentences scrawled on it for appearances' sake. Then the excuses start: "She was ill" "He didn't understand the work needed" "He was in the kids club and that was just as educational" "Well it is a holiday and he didn't want to work" and so on without end ...