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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To take our kids on a 3 week holidays in term time?

152 replies

pinkdinosaur · 20/12/2016 21:35

Evening all

We have Totally messed up and booked our holiday of a life time in term time!!

We have just found out the october holidays have moved next year and instead of the kids missing 2 weeks of school which we checked was ok with the council education dept (we will be fined) now the third week we have booked is not in the holidays as we thought!!

Panic

So wwyd?? Take them out (all at primary) and sod it its our american holiday of a life time and vow renewal!! Or change the dates?? Costing 3k more!!

Has anyone taken there children out of school for that Long???

OP posts:
FourKidsNotCrazyYet · 20/12/2016 22:40

You're in the wrong technically but I really feel that schools nowadays are massively underestimating how educational just being with a parent can be. Even at that age. Not just the fact that are going to a new country but spending time with you, interacting and learning from you has a major impact on children. Kids learn to talk by copying us and that doesn't change just by being 'school age'. They will see you interacting in different environments, dealing with money, eating, manners, timetabling events, swimming or any activity you choose to do. I'd take them and not give it another thought.

FourKidsNotCrazyYet · 20/12/2016 22:41

And have fun btw! Smile

Chocolatecake12 · 20/12/2016 22:46

Just a thought but where I live if my child was in year 6 the secondary school open evenings all happen during October so you could potentially miss them.

NavyandWhite · 20/12/2016 22:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

crashdoll · 20/12/2016 22:50

I think 3 weeks is excessive. I'm not anti term time holidays but I think your DC will miss out. A week is my personal limit. I know that everyone is different and most people I know are chilled about term time hols but I've never known anyone take that long. On the other hand, life is short. I know I'm contradicting myself here. I'm sort of on the fence. Sorry, not much help.

ImNotDancing · 20/12/2016 22:56

its not like its three weeks in bognor regis butlins. how many times do you get the chance to go to california for three weeks including your vow renewal. not many

Crunchymum · 20/12/2016 22:56

My issue isn't with the one family missing 3 weeks but with the precedent it sets.

3 weeks in CA sounds fab, 3 weeks by a pool in Majorca, not so cool.

However if the school allows the OP's request then surely they open the flood gates?

AndNowItsSeven · 20/12/2016 23:02

Year six wouldbither me the least, they learn nothing but how to pass the sats.
I absolutely would take them. I took my eldest dd's to America for three months when the eldest was in year four. She missed seven weeks of school. Started back in year five and in September with no issues whatsoever.

AndNowItsSeven · 20/12/2016 23:02
  • would bother me the least.
BusyBeez99 · 20/12/2016 23:03

YABU. There is plenty of time to the children on a holiday of a lifetime using the school holidays. The odd day overlap is fine but even two weeks is excessive let alone three. Our half term is 24-28 October and has been showing as that for over a year.

BusyBeez99 · 20/12/2016 23:04

*take

Dilligaf81 · 20/12/2016 23:06

Id take them they there arent any exams at that time of year (thinking uear 6 sats) and they will have a fantastic time. Family time is important to. Ill get flamed but 3k more is massive and if they do fall behind get a tutor but in all honesty i doubt they will.

Ellisandra · 20/12/2016 23:08

I'm all for people deciding that a 3 week holiday is more affordable / less busy in term time and thinking "fuck it, we'll go!".

But honestly this once in a lifetime stuff is just nonsense, usually!
There's no reason you couldn't have waited an extra year and saved enough to pay to go in August.
And what even is a vows renewal? Didn't you mean them first time round? And if you have some reason why you have to renew them, you don't need 3 weeks in California to do that.

So go - because you want to and because it will be cheaper and because it will be quieter (very good reason when you have SEN to consider). But don't justify it with 'trip of a lifetime' and 'vows renewal'.

Just do it and enjoy it for the amazing trip it is!

PigletWasPoohsFriend · 20/12/2016 23:09

We know teachers are busy. But so are millions of other very hard working people who don't get months and months of holiday per year. It doesn't go down well!!!

Emben10 Please point me to teachers that get 'months and months off every year'

Those sort of ill informed comments don't go down well either!

Catsize · 20/12/2016 23:11

I'd pay the extra £3k, assuming it is in the summer holidays. Should have done that in the first place.

TwoGunslingers · 20/12/2016 23:12

How many weeks holidays do teachers actually get?

misses the point

MoreThanUs · 20/12/2016 23:15

Of course I'd take them out for a holiday like this. What on earth do you think they're going to miss?

Giselaw · 20/12/2016 23:19

October in California could mean rain. For an entire week. When it doesn't stop, proper pissing rain. And people drive like absolute assholes in the rain. And there's mudslides. Or bitter, icy fog (if you're in San Francisco)

End of August / early September in California will be sunshine. Indian summers, they call them. There's a reason it's busier with tourists ;-)

MaryBerrybeard · 20/12/2016 23:19

Teachers get 12/13 weeks paid holidays. It's bloody marvellous and a huge perk of the job Grin

TwoGunslingers · 20/12/2016 23:21

That sounds amazing! I've had 12 days this year Shock off to retrain

AndNoneForGretchenWieners · 20/12/2016 23:30

Meh, I took mine out for two weeks in year 6 over SATS week and it was fine. (I worked for the agency that regulates the tests too).

The SATS are not the be all and end all for the kids, they are primarily a way of measuring how well the school are doing rather than how a child is performing, the teacher assessments do that job. DS has not turned into a teenage delinquent who can't add up or read and write. His school were fine with it too as similar to you it was an honest mistake in the year when the SATS were moved by the DfE and we had already booked.

gluteustothemaximus · 20/12/2016 23:47

I'd go. Holiday of a lifetime sounds amazing. Best to do whilst in primary. It's not a popular opinion on here but there you go.

You made a mistake. They were happy for ten days but it will be 5 more. Nothing catastrophic. DS was off for 3 weeks with chicken pox in primary. Wish it had been for a holiday of a lifetime instead!! Grin

LadyCassandra · 20/12/2016 23:49

We live overseas in an Expat dominated town. The head teacher takes the view that if they banned holidays during school time it would be impossible to maintain as lots of people take min 3 weeks leave to return home. We took 6 weeks last year, pretty much all of term 3. Had not affect on school work really. Kids are pretty adaptable, they deal with kids leaving and starting school all the time.
I say go! Smile

RebelandaStunner · 20/12/2016 23:50

I would definitely take them.
California is amazing and very educational Wink

SuburbanRhonda · 20/12/2016 23:59

I'm puzzled as to why you checked with the LA and not the school, as school make the decision to authorise or not, not the LA.

We are very lenient in our school but we wouldn't authorise a three-week holiday just a month after the six-week break.

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