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.

DVD's party days certainly happen at my children's school and several others within the area.

When we go away we take literacy, maths work etc. when we are out learning about other countries and there cultures and way of life. We don't just sit around the pool drinking sangria.

Expense plays a massive part is choosing to do this as we have looked in to booking holidays I. The holidays and you can easily put another £1000 plus onto the prices.....

Our of interest, all those who say you should never ever take children out of school for a holiday: the people that make your holiday in the school holidays possible, centre parc staff, cabin crew, pilots, restaurant owners in Cornwall, you get the gist, when should they take their holidays? Or should they have no holidays and perhaps no children?

Not a cliche here Fitbit. Very common for school books to be sent home end of June and all of July spent on 'enrichment' i.e. sport, drama, singing and yes videos. Actually those things are important but not a big deal if they're missed.

I did it once 1st week of term with a year 1 child. It had nothing to do with it being cheaper but all to do with a special fsmily event/today with extended family. Dd learn something about her heritage and Geography of the country concerned.
Now in secondary and I top set do no harm done.
Wouldn't do it now they are older.

Family event/holiday

I'm taking my kids out for six months to go travelling (year 6 and 2). They'll miss the evil SATs and get a much more meaningful experience. They are bright, they'll catch up. Most importantly they'll get s break from the dogma of modern life and our target obsessed education system.

YABU

I'm a teacher and I can't get worked up about term time holidays. It's the choice of the parent which is more important to them. Imho time with the family when everyone can relax is a perfectly valid reason for a holiday.

Teachers should have discretion to attend weddings/funerals etc. In our school it is through request to the governors and if granted for something like a wedding it's unpaid.

I couldn't agree more with your whole post Owlina

I certainly never did it. My DCs have never done it. I’ve never seen it done at schools of volunteered or worked in

My daughter does. I didn't because I am old enough that schools didn't have videos as a matter of course but we certainly played games and had extended breaks etc in the last few days before the end of term.

If any of my class are absent on holiday, I write it in their exercise books for that week, e.g, "unit on column addition missed due to family holiday."
I may need some new pens, as I seem to write it most weeks.

I am a teacher and I have no problem with it, other than perhaps a few weeks before exams. My kids holidays didn't line up with mine last year and I took my 11 year old to India, taking him out of school. We had a fantastic time visiting temples, doing a home stay and travelling on the railway. With no internet we played chess and scrabble. He gained a huge amount more than he would have had in school. I am currently planning a sabbatical and will pull both my kids out. Kids are in school for 40 weeks a year for 13 years, a huge amount of their lives. I believe the quality of learning is as important as quality. It is more important that kids turn up on time, well fed, sparky and with plenty of sleep than turn up every day tired and unmotivated, swigging a red bull and bored with life. The kids having constant days off for alleged colds/headaches/period pain all through the year cause more issues to me as a teacher than those off for a solid 2 weeks. Life is short and if they have the opportunity, children should be out having adventures, spending quality time with family and new experiences rather than being committed to the drudgery of life in childhood.

Mumofblue I love this post!

Fitbit - we always stick the WALT in and write absent for any lesson missed by a child, regardless of reason.

Tbh we are more concerned by the child who misses the first couple of hours of lost days, or the child who has a day off every other week, than the child who has 1-2 week's family holiday a year.

If you were paying £575 per week, often for multiple children, you'd make damn sure you were there.

Not in my experience. Plenty of people at dd's school - independent primary and now secondary - miss time from school for holidays. Even despite getting 3 extra weeks holiday than the state schools. Both schools are far more flexible about it.

The kids having constant days off for alleged colds/headaches/period pain

I would love to have had “alleged” period pain when I was at school

@Buggeroff I certainly never did it. My DCs have never done it. I’ve never seen it done at schools of volunteered or worked in.

Good for you. My kids have been to three different schools and yes it has been. Even secondary

@FitBitFanClub It's such a hackneyed and lazy cliche to accuse schools of just spending the last week or two of the school term watching videos.

Does it stop being a cliche when it's true. If you can tell me the value of Transformers in any other class than Film studies, then it would it would be lazy. Otherwise, it's just fact that you don't want to acknowledge. If my DS was nearby I'd get him to list all those he remembers watching between y1 and y9.

YABU. Primary doesn't really matter if they miss a week. Secondary, if it's the last couple of years, in an ideal world the family should liaise with the teacher and get worksheets/topic info.

in an ideal world the family should liaise with the teacher and get worksheets/topic info.

Teachers on these threads repeatedly state that they don't want and shouldn't have the extra work of this and I agree with them.

I have, and will continue to take my children out as and when I see fit. Family holidays are important to us. I would never do it if there was exams, or when she hits secondary school (which is 6 years away!)

I certainly never did it. My DCs have never done it. I’ve never seen it done at schools of volunteered or worked in

When I mentioned to DS1’s teacher that we’d be missing the last 3 days of Christmas term so that we could be in my home country and give the children time to get over their jetlag a bit and enjoy family celebrations before Christmas Day, she just laughed and said there was no point trying to do anything meaningful with the kids that week anyway. I apologised profusely (as I’d already done to the headteacher) and was given the distinct impression by both of them that they felt the system they were upholding was OTT.

The holiday/term system in England is so piecemeal. All one week/two weeks except for the summer - no chance for longer breaks except at one time of the year which often isn’t a great time to travel anyway.

in an ideal world the family should liaise with the teacher and get worksheets/topic info.

I have no problem with parents taking their children out if THEY take the consequences which could mean their child misses the start of a topic and doesn’t catch up or is a bit lost when they come back, if they miss a test (or topic they are to be tested on) and don’t end up in the correct class for their abilities.

It absolutely should not be expected teachers, who already struggle with time to complete the curriculum for pupils attending school or genuinely absent, to then take precious time out several times a year to catch up or spend time providing topic info or worksheets for pupils who are taken out for an optional holiday or event.

Its not just holidays but occasional days too. Last week one of ,my pupils was off for the day to go to a football match, another was away for a pop concert.....

I wonder how the parents would like it if they came in one Monday to be told that Mrs Whistle is off for a week's cheap holiday - don't think they'd be so keen on term time holidays then

I wonder how the parents would like it if they came in one Monday to be told that Mrs Whistle is off for a week's cheap holiday - don't think they'd be so keen on term time holidays then

This always comes up. I honestly wouldn't care. We have so many sub teachers anyway it would make no difference really especially not if it was once in a year. I'd say "enjoy!" 😁

^same ^

Teachers at DC school have been off due to honeymoon & exchange programme with another school (happened to be 8 timezones away). I dare say they've had a bit of jolly in term time.

I'm not in the UK and schools here support children having term time holidays/days off in moderation. I think it's fine for primary and ok for secondary as long as it's not during their examination years.
We've taken our DS out for a few days 3 out of 4 years of primary for family related activities with the full blessing of his teacher.
I do roll my eyes at the very odd parent who take their kids to the beach for the day because it's good weather or it's their birthday though. That seems a bit over indulgent to me.