Private schools and holidays

[Joysmum]

AIBU. To find it ironic that those who can afford to send their children to private school are better able to benefit from cheaper family holidays because private schools have longer holidays and they can take theirs before the masses break up and the prices get hiked!

btw it's just an observation as I'm not anti private school nor anti market forces re pricing

Yes, you're right, rookie, it wasn't you, it was the poster after you. I still think it's a naff term.

I would never come on AIBU expecting posts to be polite! Hence the use of the popular phrase WTF

It's catch 22 for us. We have to take holidays during the 'extra' private school holidays as there is no childcare in those periods. All the organised play schemes and holiday clubs only operate in the state school holidays.

Suburban- am I allowed to have a 'sob story' then as my dses only go private through scholarships, bursaries and add on from the inlaws?

Clairemum- our children have different needs. We've tried several schools (state) and ended up with private being more suitable for a couple of them as state was quite frankly failing them.

Hmm, not sure jayne, I'll talk to my people and get back to you, if that's ok

the problem isn't private schools. it's the draconian state school absence policy.

Ds goes private and in a way you are right, but it's that way with everything. Say for instance person X can afford to buy things cheaper in bulk, whereas person Y cannot and pays more and buys less. That's kind of the breaks, though.

The prices go up a week or two before the holidays so cover private school holidays too. ds breaks up 2 weeks (for some ridiculous reason) before other schools in July the holidays and air fares are no cheaper

plus side is the attractions tend to be less busy the first few days of his holidays

What is the point of this thread? As it happens the private schools in Edinburgh took much the same holidays as the Edinburgh state schools. In Scotland each local authority sets its term dates which are not exactly the same for the whole country although the vast majority of Scottish schools state or private break-up 2/3 weeks before the English schools in the summer.

Ironically for the purpose of this post the few who don't follow the Scottish system are certain private schools who go with the English dates are also caught up in the high season prices.

Add me to the list of non-rich parents that send dc's to independent schools!! I'd have so much more to spend on hols if I didn't have to pay for tuition. We went local over spring holiday and consider ourselves lucky to have been able to rent a local flat for a few days.

Lots of ds mates travel abroad every holiday - two went to China over the holiday! Yet I'm happy with the choice we've made and ds is at an age that he understands and knows we sacrifice for what we do.

Also if people didn't go private just think how crowded everything would be then. We are keeping class sizes lower and not directly benefitting from it.

I have 1 at private and 1 at state so can't take advantage of the holidays anyway, plus I sacrificed expensive foreign holidays and my social life, nice clothes and any luxuries for me to pay for school and all the extra-curricular activities the kids do. On the plus side having different school holidays means that I can have a few days where I do stuff with DD that DS is too old to enjoy or take DS places that DD's too young for.

Travel companies buy seats and hotel rooms and sell them to the likes of us.

The price rises during holidays for reasons which are obvious to anyone who understands the law of supply and demand. If some foolish law were passed to stop them increasing the prices here the hoteliers and airlines would sell them to buyers from countries which were more realistic.

mmmm, from my talk name U can tell how I feel about the new fines regime.

Maybe the reason the Westminster Toffs don't care is because almost all of them come from wealthy families who CAN afford more expensive holidays, just like more expensive schooling (cars homes etc) So how would they sympathise with people pinching the pennies?

So no irony to be seen, makes perfect sense, really.

The issue should be the amount of holidays not whether it allows for cheaper trips away.

Why is the issue the amount of holidays?

I can well understand why private schools have less holidays. Typically a lot of time in your average state school is 'wasted' for lots of reasons - crowd control, supporting children who need a lot more help if they are not up to the work - dealing with parents who couldn't give a shit, or are bringing up the next round of asbo kids.

A lot of those factors are removed in private, where many of them are selective, class sizes are tiny etc. I've no doubt they can plough through much more work in less time.

Hmm, not sure on ForFcuksSake's evaluation of state schools there but DD's school have longer days and shorter breaks, adding up the actual teaching hours reception age private school DD spends more time in lessons than year 5 state school DS, she also has a lot more homework and has covered far more topics than friends in the same year at state schools have. She doesn't get more leisure time than DS, she just gets it all in a big block at the end of term rather than little bits everyday.

Really?

You don't think that having a class of 30, which includes some children that are struggling academically and need extra support, would slow down overall progress/work rate?

Ds1 is in state school, in Year 1. At the end of January, he was selected as one of three Year 1 pupils showing high ability, to receive additional support/harder work. He's gone from being in a class of 25 to a focus group of 6 (3 Year 1 and 3 Year 2 pupils) for at least half of the day. The work he has ploughed through and his progress over the past 9 weeks is unbelievable. We had a parents meeting last week and were told that as he's hitting the high level-6's in English and Maths, he'll now be moved onto Year 2/3 work after the holidays.

I do understand that not all private schools are selective, but many are from my experience. If you remove the need for crowd-control, and have a group made of entirely high achieving/academic children of course you'll complete work at a faster rate. Meaning more holidays are completely understandable.

Sorry to derail! OP, but ForFcuksSake, are you sure you heard that right? Your child is in Year 1 (so aged 5 or 6) and he's scoring a high level 6 in English and Maths?

Just to put it into perspective, in 2013 76%of state school children achieved a level 4 at KS2 (year 6) in all of reading, writing and maths, 21% level 5. A tiny percentage got a level 6.

So actually, your DS should be aiming to be tackling GCSE work next not year 2/3 work

Sorry Suburban...i'm in Wales. So it's the national Literacy and Numeracy Framework, not the 'standard' KS Levels.

Oh, what a shame ForFcuksSake.

I was hoping for a "AIBU to think my child is a prodigy" follow-up thread

Oh I agree on the class sizes, and that differences in ability slows the class down. It was dealing with parents who couldn't give a shit, or are bringing up the next round of asbo kids. that I'm not sure about and that it generally seemed like a bit of a sweeping statement.

Plus not all state schools are non-selective. I live in an area where a lot of the state secondary schools are (50% in my town) and the primaries teach in ability groups from year 1, with a teacher per group so the top 2 sets in most primaries, the grammar stream in the non-selective secondary and the Grammar schools are just as full of high achievers as selective private schools. The super-selective state grammars my brother and sister attend are actually a lot more selective than a lot of the local private schools.

My children who are in private start the day before the local state schools and finish it later too. They also go to school on Saturdays. Not sure how the longer holidays thing balances out as hours in school but I'm sure there's probably not much in it.

Portofino - my dd had 11 weeks summer holiday in Italy last year!