How are schools allowed to take pupils on holiday in term time?

[Cab65]

Last year my DD was fined for taking her DS out of school on holiday for three days during term time. This year the school is taking him and his class on holiday to the Isle of Wight for a week during term time. How can this be allowed. I have never seen a better example of don't do as I do do as I tell you. Why aren't more parents fighting this injustice.

We'd all like the Friday off before half term to fly off on holiday. What is wrong with skiing in Europe? Not sure as a parent I would really appreciate knackered teachers after half term because a few rich kids can afford a U.S. Skiing trip. It isn't necessary.

Learning to ski is educational. Many schools overseas do it as part of their Pe lessons, I've relatives who do.
Learning anything is,educational by definition.
Skiing is as valid as any other sport.

A lot of high schools have to offer trips in half term so there are no cover costs required for the staff going. Primaries may be different because a whole class trip will mean no cover needed for the teacher.

Oh great. So if teachers give up their half term to manage trips they're failing the pupils now?

Going on 'holiday' with the school to Disneyland Paris or Skiing or the Isle of Wight or wherever is a COMPLETELY different experience for children than going with their parents.
It fosters independence, social skills, coping strategies, time management, budgeting skills etc etc.

Bollocks,we all managed before the fashion for frivolous Disney and U.S. Skiing trips. Plenty of ways to teach all that in a way that is inclusive and doesn't cost a fortune.

You can learn to ski in the UK and Europe.

You can learn all that using public transport to get to school.

Are you saying the maj who can't afford school Disney and skiing trips have kids without any of those skills?

I can't afford holidays (I'm not scrimping for a cheap camping trip ffs) but I do pay for the dc's school trips. And it means I have a couple of nights a year with just one dc and some rare quality time together.

Teachers are saints for taking kids away. I always take chocs when they get back.

Bollocks,we all managed before the fashion for frivolous Disney and U.S. Skiing trips. Plenty of ways to teach all that in a way that is inclusive and doesn't cost a fortune.
You can learn to ski in the UK and Europe.

But European ski tripa are not cheap. Our DGD's state school ski trip to France is costing sbout £900, but that includes everything, flights, transfers, full board, ski hire , lessons, insurance, an evening entertainment programme; but no more expensive than an equivalent family trip.

My husband runs a ski trip at the secondary school he teaches at. The trip runs for 8 days, it runs during term time and is definitely not 'educational'.

My comp offered Disney trips in 1981, not exactly a new fashion. At least skiing is excercise and a skill.

I was part of a skiing trip to the States, as a teacher. It wasn't during term time, it was the first week of the Easter holiday, so no time in school was missed. We also had a visit to Harvard, which surely must be regarded as educational.

If you think that being responsible for thirty teenagers, one of whom tells you five minutes before you leave, that she has a phobia of planes and screams the whole way there and back, ensuring that medication is taken, the Epipen for the one who has a peanut allergy, ensuring their well being and enjoyment is a holiday, then I'm here to say it's not. It was enjoyable, but the level of responsibility is enormous.

I've been on a trip to the Normandy beaches too and that was with a group of sixteen year olds who had just finished their GCSE exams, so not in school any more. If you had seen those young people at the American, British and German cemeteries, looking at the graves and realising that the people buried there were only a little older than themselves, if you had seen them read the letters in the museum at Caen, seen them on Omaha and Gold beach, you would realise the impact the trip had on them. Far more powerful than any TV programme or interactive lesson. And they had to speak French too.

Oh and what about the child that no one collects at the end of the trip. So when you've arrived back at midnight and you're still there at 1am because someone hasn't been collected, that's real fun. Especially when the child's parents aren't answering the phone.

If we couldnt get a decent number to go on the trip we wouldnt run it. We are a comp in a very deprived area - one of the most in Wales, but every year there are trips and we have never had to cancel one due to lack of numbers. I have also paid for the odd pupil to go on some activities [obv not a skiing one] when they have been unable to so they don`t miss out.
PS I can be a knackered teacher if I had gone on holiday myself during half term, not just tired from a school trip.

Been there many times Foxy....

I suspect that most people see the enormous value of school trips and acknowledge the teachers' commitment in taking kids, often during the school holidays. I think the frustration is that a similar trip, with similar activities where kids are accompanied by parents not teachers, is now considered criminal. I can even see the argument that going without parents builds independence etc. But again, it would be criminal for kids to be taken out of school to do a cubs / scouts activity residential which would also develop similar independence / resilience etc. It's the inconsistencies that make it frustrating.

Don't blame schools for that. Blame Gove.

I can see the difference but I can also see that 'educational' trips are nothing of the fecking sort unless something has changed in the past few years?

Every school trip abroad I went on was basically a jolly for the teachers after 8pm and we never came home wiser or enlightened. I mostly remember my teacher wearing an FCUK tshirt and our 'Head of year' telling her that her shorts were too short.

The high and mighty on this thread are fucking hilarious. Every other country encourages travel and learning outside of the classroom, especially if the child is stressed or needs a break, this is the only shitfest you get fined in for wanting to take your kids away. The assumption is that it's always for a beach holiday or villa trip by a pool.

And as for missing out and having to struggle to catch up? Maybe if the majority of teachers were more organised and had their lessons planned in advance the child would be able to do the work prior to the time away from class.

The system here is why we are 100% home educating.

My mil was a teacher and "jolly " was the last thing educational trips were for her and her colleagues.

When my husband took his pupils on a ski trip he would send me photos of himself on the ski lifts with a beer in his hands. He said during the days the Ski instructors had control over the children so he and the other teachers basically got the days to themselves to just ski and have fun. He also said that once the pupils had been sent to bed he and the other teachers would just head down to the hotel bar.

He says it's tiring and hard work dealing with the pupils at times (which I completely believe) but at the same time he knows that he and the other teachers are lucky to be there seeing as they haven't had to pay for it.

He's also taken kids to Paris and Barcelona for school trips which sound more stressful than the ski trips and they do include educational visits to places so I can accept not all school trips are jollies

FWIW - even bring a teacher my DH thinks parents should be allowed to take children out of school at term time if their attendance/performance is otherwise good.

Any teacher willing to take 20 plus children away for more than 24 hours deserves a medal or physiatric treatment. Op if you genuinely can't see the difference, it's probably why the legislation exists in the first place.

Maybe if the majority of teachers were more organised and had their lessons planned in advance the child would be able to do the work prior to the time away from class.

I really have heard it all now. What was that maxim about it being prudent to listen rather than talk when you know little about a subject?

When we go, all teachers ski. Only time a teacher didnt was when one was pregnant and she didnt tell anyone and she said she was just unable to manage it. So no one on our trip has a 'jolly'. They ski with the kids and are expected to be up patrolling so all pupils are in bed when we say.
I am a rubbish skier but I still ski all day everyday. - I am just no good at it.