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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To want to know when Autumn term 2015 starts

18 replies

Allegrogirl · 02/02/2015 16:40

So I can book our holiday? Officially it's 1st September but more likely to be 2nd or 3rd but school refuse to confirm until 'after Easter sometime'. We knew by this time last year as I had already booked the ferry.

I know it's not life and death and we're only doing French camping but I'd like to save a few hundred quid and have those last couple of quieter days. Lots of sites were we want to be are close to being fully booked for end of August already.

OP posts:

hellyd · 02/02/2015 16:44

Our school told me they were not allowed to open the week of the august bank holiday so the first day back wouldn't be until at least the 8th September as 7th would be a teacher only day and there may be another training day that week but they wouldn't make the full announcement until April!
This makes our summer holidays 7 weeks.

Theas18 · 02/02/2015 16:44

ask the school!

Official term dates are on the LA website her but they may have 1 or 2 inset days planned

Theas18 · 02/02/2015 16:46

don't bank on hellyds nice holidays. Our LA says term starts 3/9/15 ( thurs) so we migt have 2 insets ....but can't bank on it

AugustRose · 02/02/2015 16:46

It should be listed on your school or local authority website, I can't understand why they won't tell you.

Ours in Cumbria starts on 7th September but we are usually later than other areas.

Original poster

Allegrogirl · 02/02/2015 16:47

I've asked the school. They say they can't tell me until after Easter. LEA site recommends 2nd and 3rd as 'occasional days' (I think that's what they called them).

OP posts:

mrsmootoo · 02/02/2015 16:56

YANBU. They are. Several schools I know have announced their autumn INSET days. I would write to the governors and ask them to chivvy the Head.

ICantFindAFreeNickName · 02/02/2015 17:04

I would take a look at other local school websites and see if they have published their dates yet. If so I would assume your school will be similar and book your holiday. This does run the unlikely risk that your children could miss the 1st day or two of school (the worst days to miss imho).

I would be tempted to write to the governors regardless to explain to them that parents need to know dates much earlier if they don't want children to take time off school. I think the problem is most heads, have never worked in an industry where you have to book your holiday months in advance. They have never had to fight to get the school holidays off either.

JennieR60 · 02/02/2015 17:17

We have all our dates for 2015 and 2016! We always get them 2 years worth I'm soon expecting to get 2017!

Ours go back on 2/9/15 xx

JennyBlueWren · 02/02/2015 17:21

Wow! Our council just released the term dates to 2020!

BikeRunSki · 02/02/2015 17:25

Our school has inset days 1 and 2 Sept, lessons start on 3 Sept.

CrazyTights · 02/02/2015 17:29

YANBU. We are told the dates for the next two or three years.

wobblyweebles · 02/02/2015 17:46

YANBU. I've known when our 2015 school year will start for months now.

TheLastThneed · 02/02/2015 17:49

YANBU. Ours are up on the school website for 2015/16.

julietbat · 02/02/2015 18:00

That exact question was brought up at our last gov meeting (I'm a parent gov) and we released the full year's dates immediately afterwards. I'd def suggest raising it through the govs if you're not getting any joy with the head.

Lifesalemon · 02/02/2015 18:01

Ours is on school website too, including staff training dates.

RaspberryLemonPavlova · 02/02/2015 18:17

My DC go back on the 8th, a day later than locally, but they finish a day later at Christmas on Friday 19th. So they will have 7 weeks and a day. School has had 15/16 dates on the website for ages and I expect 16/17 dates to go on shortly.

Annoyingly though, my own school is thinking about insets on the 3rd and 4th.

isittheweekendyet · 02/02/2015 18:20

7th Sept here too. A 7 week summer holiday

Topseyt · 02/02/2015 18:27

The school could easily tell you if they wanted to. The basic dates are set by the local authorities well in advance and don't change.

Our local authority lists the basic term and holiday dates on its website. Individual schools may vary them by a small amount, perhaps with a few non-student days etc., but that is as far as it goes.

Some years ago now when I still had primary aged children their school published the wrong week for its October half term. We booked and paid a non-refundable deposit for a holiday for the week they published. A couple of weeks later they published a correction, saying it would now be the following week. I went to the reception desk and happened to see the headmistress as she was going through. I mentioned the mistake and our holiday booking and she said it would be no problem, it was their mistake originally so she would authorise it.

As soon as she had disappeared into her office the dragon of a school secretary turned on me and said "You do realise that the dates do change at short notice, don't you?". Having grown up in a teaching family, I knew that was not true, and told her so. The holiday was agreed, and never mentioned again.

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