To take DS out of school for 4 days next year?

[The3Bears]

We came back from our family summer holiday last Sunday, 2 weeks in Cyprus at the Holiday village and we absolutely loved it so want to book again asap while we can benefit from the free child place as ds2 is 2 next year so we will have to pay for him too. We went on the 24th May this year and our holiday cost a fortune, no free child place and £1600pp aswell as our wedding in Cyprus on top of this
So we had a look and it's over £1000 cheaper to leave on Thurs the 28th May next year and a free child space but ds1 whose 7 and will start Juniors next year will miss 4-5 days off school and I'm unsure wether to book. We've never had a holiday in term time before and his attendance is great, he's doing really well with all his work and with how much everything cost this year we'd be unable to pay extra to go on the 24th this year so would have to miss out
IABU if i book this holiday as I'm feeling really unsure about it all and would like some advice as to what you would all do?
TIA

Or hire a private tutor for your six year old to keep them up to speed?

Keep telling yourself that, Rose! I'd love to put a wager on it.

I'm afraid there is an awful lot more to academic success than showing up to school every day (even if we took that to be the measure by which to judge our lives, which I certainly don't.)

But the sort of attitude you've expressed - education is primarily about future employment and competition with others - is one of the fundamental problems in the UK education system, and part of why it is so woefully inadequate.

What makes you think your children will have better results Rose?

I said "our" children and I was referring to the children of those people who think education and attendance are more important than cheap holidays.

Yes, I am a teacher and I know a fair bit about achievement and attainment. I also know that references include information about absences which might affect someone's chances of success. I also believe that "the odd day here and there" or "it is just a few days" suggest an attitude to education which will affect many children and will make them value their opportunities far less and make less of them.

Thing is Rose they are going after people with over 97% attendance who do take 1 or 2 days off and not the feckers who are refusers have mental health certificates etc who have massive amounts of LA money spent on them in taxi's learning centre, and tailored education packages and in my experience not all of these are genuine.

They are the people we need to be coming down on.

What about kids whose parents are in the forces or whose parents cannot take leave during school holidays?

God, the irony of the HT being fine with you taking your kids out of school for a week, IloveCorey, because they had 100% attendance...
Is that how it works at your school? A sort of time off for good behaviour?

Sorry I missed a few commas!!

Hmm well I'm a former teacher and know plenty of teachers on job shares who have taken their kids it.Took my kids out a few years ago too.Funny thing is they're all doing very well with an amazing attitude.

I also know that the odd holiday for children with good attendance has far less impact than those taken out continuously for music lessons and sporting fixtures and negligible impact in comparison to the persistent truanters which these ridiculous methods are aimed at.

Well, glad you're bracing yourself, Rose. I have a doctorate (just one, sorry), work as a university lecturer, and have been raising two teens who are getting excellent results at grammar school and university. And yes, our holidays are educational. I'm really, really, not worried that missing a week of school is going to set our children back.

Not to mention the absolute pain it is when pupils miss vital work and you have to take up other time (lunch, after school, time needed for other pupils ) in order to help them to catch up. It is tough on pupil and teacher when they miss a vital bit of the course, something they need for an exam or in order to make sense of the next thing they are learning.

I admit I am coming at this from a secondary perspective, in an area where term time holidays are common (no fines, Scotland) and so they are a source on constant irritation. My workload is immense and I sometimes feel that I care a great deal more than parents do about result so I can't just let pupils miss out, I have to work to help them catch up (something we are told by the Head not to do).

Yabu I hate these threads. It is the same rules for everyone. Not sure why you're asking as you are going to do it anyway.

Taking a child out of school, even for a week, can have consequences for OTHER children.
An example is that a child in my class had a 1 week holiday and missed his KS1 tasks and tests. When he returned, my TA, who normally deals with groups of children responding to marking (they are Y2), reading and maths interventions as well as supporting groups with their class work, had to be taken out of class for three days to supervise the 'holiday child' with his tasks and tests in isolation - so he could get on without being disrupted. This meant that those children who are ENTITLED to the 1:1 or small group work had to miss it because 'holiday child's parents took him away for a week.
Granted, not a lot of parents would know that this happens, but please think how your actions can affect, not just your child, but other children too.
And yes, absence and attainment ARE linked. Teachers are having to deal with statistics everyday forced upon us and we see the correlation between the two, everyday!

What pisses me off is the sheer inconsistency of it all. Here we have all these parents terrified of getting fined, and quoting people they know who have been fined, yet in my school people are taking as many term-time holidays as they ever did, and the HT hasn't reported anyone.

What Rose says. I always tried to catch children up too but it's a pain for both pupils and teachers. In my experience many children are taken out who can ill afford to lose three or four days let alone two weeks of education.(They need continuity and repartition) They are obviously not the children of people on this thread as it seems without any exceptions their children are all quite brilliant and missing school is no problem to them. I do value family holidays and understand there are exceptions to every rule but on the whole if you sign up to state education you sign up to the rules.

So Junk what about the kids out for weekly music lessons which change,sporting fixtures,courses etc?

Retro - I don't understand the latter part of your message 'which change,sporting fixtures,courses etc?'

As for the weekly music lessons - they are, in fact, a lesson.

What do you say to your kids though? "You go to school because it is the law but also because education and socialising with your friends is important and you must go every day unless you're too ill go.......ooh but once a year, we'll take you out for a holiday because it's cheaper and because we say so."

I wouldn't use those words, or that tone candy, but yeah, pretty much.

Yeah, pretty much!

I'm not being snarky but what if your child/ren ask if they can take a random day off school to go to a theme park?

Although actually, I probably answered that too quickly. I can't really see a context where I'd have that conversation with my kids. We'd say "we're going on holiday." If they said "but what about school?", I'd say "you're going to miss a few days."
I don't really tell them that they go to school "because it's the law". I'd be more likely to tell them that they have to go to school because we say so!

Inconsistency and double standards prevail so, in my experience, it doesn't matter whether you play by the rules or not.

My ds with disabilities was illegally excluded by a school that didn't want him there. He missed over 100 sessions of school in a year - did I get fined - NO. Did it harm his education - YES. The school 'hid' the absences so they didn't show on their registers which kept their absence figures artificially low. They were also doing it to other children.

It just makes me laugh that there is such a big fuss over someone wanting their child to miss a few days for a holiday. Get real everybody - schools will do what they want anyway.

cross-post -
I'm not being snarky but what if your child/ren ask if they can take a random day off school to go to a theme park?
What, like with their friends?
I'd probably say no, but not necessarily...it is possible that there might be things going on in their life that would compel me to make a different decision.
My DSCs mum died. A few months later, DH took the kids out of school for a holiday. The school gave him grief about it. It was what he felt his kids needed. I think he was absolutely right to do so, and had I been around then, I'm afraid I'd have told the HT who gave him grief exactly where to stick it.

I would consider it.

I have just booked to take them to WB Studios in July which will be 1 day off school.