To think children shouldn't be taken out of school for holidays?

[MidiMitch]

Just that really. An article today says four million school days a year are being lost by parents removing children for holidays. I am a teacher so probably rather biased on this but I think it's dreadful that children are taken out of school because of a cheap holiday. I definitely think that more needs to be done to stop the hiking up of prices in holiday time but I don't think the answer is to disrupt a child's education.

I'm also a teacher but don't have a problem with children missing school for holidays.

Holidays and travel are important too. In my experience spending time with family and having fun has a hugely positive impact on children's happiness and is a resilience factor in promoting good mental health. If financially the only time parents can do it is during term time then I think the positives far outweigh the negatives. Children are really not going to miss anything monumental that they can't catch up on in a week.

I'm taking mine out whilst their young. Our primary school positively encourages it and sees it as a learning opportunity, too.

Great mindset, no issues. Everyone is happy.

However.. if it was a year where there were tests/exams I would def think twice before doing it and consider the impacts

I think it is wrong that parents can get a criminal conviction for wanting to take their family on holiday. Sometimes families need time away together and it's not always possible in the school holidays.

It is NOT always about getting a cheap holiday. Sometimes one or more parents can't get time off work in the school holidays. Sometimes the children are in different schools so don't get the same weeks off. Both these have happened to me (plus we also have to fit round chemotherapy but that's another story).

It’s not a binary choice between those two things - how ridiculous

Actually in this circumstance it is. If a parent has no time off during school holidays or can only afford 1 week away each year during term time, prioritising government targets will mean no holiday with family until adult age. Of course that would make a child unhappy and probably the whole family too!

You are trying to make posters feel bad about a very normal thing. As I said, I don’t know of one parent who would tell their kids they are not allowed a holiday until they’re adults because of government targets. And I’m the ridiculous one?

Actually in my post I talked about setting up your own petition, but here’s no reason why you can’t link to a petition you’ve already signed?

She doesn’t have to link to anything - Look up petitions yourself, how lazy of you. Your posts are tedious and really quite pathetic.

Suburban if you click "unsubscribe" as most people do who actually do fill out petitions because they don't want to get 500 emails in their folder from "Defend jeremy Corbyn etc (and you delete you old emails) you wouldn't have them at all. Although you actually appear to be trying to catch me out which is a bit silly as I do have access to google.

But let me google it for you anyway. It was in all the papers at the time and I believe discussed on MN too, I'm surprised actually you haven't signed it.

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/reverse-the-changes-to-school-term-time-family-holiday-rules

Well you would think she has access to google, strawberry....

We are taking DD out for a week after the Easter holidays. Even if we are fined it's £120 against a £2500 saving on the holiday.

That’s great, valentine, thanks for that.

I hope people come back into this thread and see your link.

suburban seems incapable of doing a quick google search it seems. Perhaps she had parents who took her out of school for holidays, it seems to have had a detrimental impact on her intelligence....

The "article" was in the scaremongering Mail. I saw it too.

I've been arguing on these threads for years, they always go the same way. People can't or don't want to see outside their own priorities. I take my children out once a year for a fortnight and have since reception. Sometimes it's a fortnight all together, sometimes it's 2 x one week holiday. I've never been fined and will continue to do this apart from the GCSE years. I have absolutely no regrets and know it was the right thing to do for my family. We have had magical perfect times that we would never have had without getting away from the daily grind. I am a lone parent and my children both have various additional needs. Life is really hard much of the time. We need to get away from it sometimes. I've never been fined as I said but would pay it if I was purely to not add anymore stress to my life that not paying would create. I do not agree with the fines I think they're an easy way to improve attendance that doesn't tackle the truly problematic families where their children's attendance is sporadic and punctuality poor. My child has 100% punctuality since Reception - year 6 now and without holidays her attendance would be around 98% probably 100% most terms. I decide what's best for my family with regards to school attendance and would be delighted to see this ridiculous legislation abolished.

I think taking your dc out after a holiday rather than before it is particularly stupid.

I'm on the fence on this. It's unlikely we'll ever do it but I can see why some parents do (cheaper even if you include fine, unable to pick a/l dates & so on). I think ultimately it should be a last resort though.

Would be interesting to see some stats... outstanding school, holiday in term time figures v failing school holiday in term time figures.

Our outstanding school that people fight to get into has very, very few people asking for holidays in term time. (it is not a wealthy area)

But you will never get honest stats because of the volume of parents who lie to avoid any kind of fine or difficulty.

We have also had some kids who have had an authorised trip to India for example for a family wedding for a week, which then becomes 2 weeks as the child “fell ill” and so the whole family “cancelled” their flights and “rebooked” exactly a week later - situations that are impossible to regulate and check.

Those of you who think it's OK to say yes to children with good attendance/high achievement but no to the children with poor attendance/struggling academically; don't you think that's really unfair on children who have SEN/ chronic health problems? I agree that kind of policy makes sense from the school's point of view but for my child and lots like him it would be one more thing in their lives that isn't fair. Better to have a blanket ban for all imo

@elliejjtiny it’s not so much that I think the school should draw a distinction - the parents have to decide whether or not they think it is in their child’s best interests to miss school. If a child who has poor attendance has parents who feel a holiday is beneficial to them even though they miss more school then fine, they know their child best and that’s their call.

There are some parents who are bloody irresponsible when it comes to schooling but an occasional week for holidays is the least of the problems for children in that situation. I don’t agree with saying not everyone should be able to have more time off and therefore everyone has to be punished by being refused.

A child in my class has an attendance of 89%. EWO are not involved. This child regularly has a day off every week. The parents are simply neglectful - child turns up scruffy, late and is a good 2 years behind their peers.

Another child has above 97% attendance before their parents decide they need a mid week break to CP. The child is also achieving above national age related expectations across the curriculum. The child’s parents were fined.

Where is the fairness in that?

A blanket rule DOES NOT tackle the issue of absenteeism not does it help improve standards. The very people who need to be tackled about their child failing to turn up for school are being allowed to slip through the system.

I don’t see a problem with some parents choosing term time holidays IF their attendance is very good and they are achieving and making good progress at school AND should only be for no more than 10 sessions absence with the exception being in the first 3 weeks of a new academic year and school exam periods. Every case should be looked at individually. No child nor two families are alike so how can a rule that has wide spread implications for family life be implemented? Military families where a parent has returned from a tour of duty have some exceptions so the government KNOW that it doesn’t work for all.

I’m a teacher and I take my child out of school for holidays (a day or two that spans a half term) plus local agricultural shows. So far this year he is missing three days in total (October - July) His education has not been affected in the slightest. His attendance is 97% this year and he is achieving above age related expectations.

We take ours out, but in moderation.

I was never taken out of school for holidays. We only had a family holiday every other year because of dads job (always in the UK - didn’t have a foreign holiday until I went skiing with school and that was outside of term time too).

DH never missed school for holidays either and my DD missed the last day before Christmas when she was five because the term dates hadn’t been available when I’d booked a Lapland trip a year in advance so I’d guessed and got it wrong. That absence was authorised. That was the only day either of my children were ever taken out of school and as DD is now at uni and DS is in year 10 they will not be having any more.

There are 190 school days in a year, that leaves 175 days for family time as well as evenings. Family time does not have to be two weeks at once, or in the sun, or expensive.

If a teacher has to spend any amount of time helping a child who has been out of school on a holiday to catch up, then that is potentially having an impact on other children’s education, so this is everyone’s business. YANBU OP. I think the solution is for different areas of the country, different counties maybe, to have different school holidays. We don’t want to go to the Mediterranean in July/August anyway, too hot for this family of gingers!

We have taken ds out of school in term time. He has severe autism and mobility difficulties and cannot cope with holidays in school holidays. Anywhere that is accessible enough is too busy. His school have always authorised them but even if they didn't we would still take him.

I'm fed up of people trotting out the usual lines about holiday companies charging ridiculous prices in school holiday times. I've done my time of child rearing and actually love the fact that I can now book cheaper holidays when kids are supposed to be in school.
Your time will come, why should your child be taken out of school for something that is a luxury, not a necessity?

For many people, they're actually glad to be able to take a holiday without their being loads of kids there. Not a popular thing to say, but for some it's the truth.

The price difference is astronomical tho. I'm pricing up a trip to Florida in October at the minute but can't decide because it means taking DD out of school & she'll of just started reception. If we go at the beginning of October it's £1500 if we including the weekend of the half term it's £5000 to me that's absolutely outrageous.

each term, the parents receive a letter that tells them the total percentage of available learning time that their child has spent in school, discounting authorised absences. 95-100% could be the 'green zone'; 90-94% could be the 'yellow zone'; below 90% could be the red zone.

My DS's school does exactly this!