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 agree that the main way to avoid children being taken out of school is to not allow the tour operators to hike up the prices by SO much during school holidays.
I took my DD5 out of school for one and a half days last week so that we could fly to Norway to visit some friends for a few days in half term. If we had left it until the weekend the price would have been more than double. She has never been on a plane before, and was able to have such opportunities as going skiing, skating on a frozen lake and sledging. As well as getting to learn about another interesting culture. IMO she had more of an education in that day and a half than she would have missed at school!

I'm a teacher and I am not against term time holidays. I find it bizarre that we have been conditioned to see education as this thing that has to take place in school between 9 and 3:30, over a particular 39 weeks of the year from rising 5 to 16 (now 18) - and that we teachers are somehow the only gods who can deliver.

Otherwise, it's just fact that you don't want to acknowledge.

I'm sceptical as to how common it is. One DVD a year as a Christmas treat can very quickly become reported as "watching videos all the time."

But I would question how good your children's school is if it really is such a regular occurrence.

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

What? So you think that parents can choose to withdraw their children from the work that the teacher has planned already, and then seriously expect them to do that all again and adapt it just for them? No chuffing way! You take your kids out of school , then you take any consequences of them missing out.

It is important to maintain a balance between a reasonable home life and time working at school. In my opinion, schools are being unreasonable if they issue a blanket No. There can be a number of reasons why families cannot be together for holidays during school holidays, and these are not always just the extra cost involved.

I've known many people who are not allowed to take time off from work during school holidays because those are the busy times for their employers. I've even known people working in the education field who were not permitted to take time off during school holidays - because that time was busy for them completing IT projects while the premises were free.

When I've discussed it with teachers, they have always said that it has been proved that any school time missed is very damaging to a child's education.

However - it cannot purely be down to the number of weeks that a child attends school. Private schools are able to educate children very adequately with much shorter terms - in, say, 29 or 30 weeks in a school year.

In state schools, with longer school terms, a child might attend up to 42 weeks of the year!

That gives a good 10 weeks extra attendance already available for education in state schools.

It might be that in some families, the amount of time spent with their family is damaging or of negligible worth in educational terms. So, for these children, it might be better if they spent all their time at school. But it isn't fair to punish families that can offer more by restricting opportunities that they might be able to offer.

I suggest that the extra time needed in state schools is probably more down to the difficulties of teaching larger classes and lack of resources, and they COULD be solved by investing more funds in education, smaller classes, more resources such as space to do homework in evenings, etc etc. However, the government prefers to concentrate on bullying parents into giving up holidays and time together as a family.

@Buck3t Please do no mix me up with the other longer named Buggeroff blah blah blah.

I remember having movies and games at every school I went to and loved it.

My 4 children also have the same experience and also love it and would kill me if I took them out of school for the most enjoyable days at school 😂😂

I personally think it should be allowed for one week.
If parents can afford it what's better for a child than getting some cultural experience?
Id rather my dd have a bit more homework though and take it away with us.
Culture is very educational.

If you want your child to do homework when you're away on a family holiday, then that's up to you to research and set for yourself. Personally, I would write it off as a waste of time. As many have said, they apparently get more from being away from school than attending anyway.

That does annoy me, actually, when children ask for work to take away with them.

No. Piss off and have your holiday!

Dolphincrossing
Exactly!
Parents are welcome to take their children away for all the good reasons which have already been stated, but please don't expect teachers to give up time (PPA or classroom) to catch their children up. There is little enough time for everything as it is.

Can I tell you that parents ask for this work to take away because they think it's helpful and they can keep their child caught up while they're away and therefore less disruptive on return. That's what I thought anyway. It was only reading on here how much of pain it was and then asking my child's lovely teacher what she thought, who heartily agreed with MN teachers, that I realised that it was a no no. I don't ask for work but I do take her homework book and weekly homework for the time she's away and we do that.

Buck3t

If you can tell me the value of Transformers in any other class than Film studies, then it would it would be lazy.

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

I have posted this before but I think that if you want teachers to supply your child with extra classes/materials/work to catch up on, the teacher should be paid an extra rate that comes straight out of your pocket.

Ds school has informed us that they will be closing a week earlier for the summer holidays due to building works and not wanting it to disrupt their education!!!
But if a parent took their child out of school that particular week for a holiday they would be fined.
Hypocritical, piss takers with double standards. YABU

I have done it once for a week in primary (DD was year 5 and DS year 3). We expected the fine and paid it. It was a one off holiday that we'll never be doing again and I don't regret it. I won't be doing it again though as I don't really agree with taking them out and disrupting their education. We stick to cheap camping or caravan holidays in the UK so we can afford it. Every few years we do a week somewhere that costs around £3-5k. The kids don't suffer for not going away for 2 weeks and neither do we. Lots of people do it every year and I think that is bad.

I think schools should be allowed to choose their holiday dates.

Some schools could do 4 weeks in the summer, 2 weeks at may Half Term,. 2 weeks at October, 3 weeks at christmas, for example

That might help to 'water down' the volume of kids on holiday at specific times making it easier and maybe cheaper for parents to have holidays.

I think it would help workplaces and childcare too as different people would need different holiday instead of it all being crammed in at virtually the same time.

Lots of people do it every year and I think that is bad.

It isn't. It's just not what you choose to do.

I think schools should be allowed to choose their holiday dates.

Havoc for ppl with kids at multiple schools.
Or maybe good thing, heck I dunno (mine squabble a lot, you see).

I think schools should be allowed to choose their holiday dates.

As I mentioned previously my DSs school has done this, they have chosen a different week for the Autumn half term. We usually go on a self catering UK break for that week. Not this year though as my school has stuck with the same break as the rest of the LEA.

My son will spend his half term home alone during my working hours instead.

Aworldofmyown teachers are already leaving in droves but they certainly would have less incentive to stay if that was introduced - the time when the job being "family friendly" is actually true is during holidays, if my children (and dh) ended up with different holidays from me a giant incentive to stay in a job that otherwise doesn't have much going for it these days would be gone.

Primary fine, secondary probably harder. Also depends on the holiday. If they are going to be immersed in learning a new skill or experience then it can be really valuable. Also quality time with extended family who may live miles away can be really positive. If the child is made to do a project on what they learn or did when they were away it can be a positive learning experience. However lying on a beach doesn’t really hit that.

Our grandkids went on a school "Ski Experience" God forbid anyone calls it a ski holiday in January, in the middle of the term, not the half term break. They had a totally fantastic time, though close interrogation has not elicited reports of anything educational beyond ski-school.

But....DH and our adult grandson and our DSs plus three friends went skiing in the same week. Had we taken the kids out of school and included them in that "experience" we would have been in trouble, despite the party including two ex-headteachers and an OFSTED inspector.

Minds would have been equally broadened , foreign food would have been eaten, a few French words would have been spoken.

Why was one "experience" legit, the other not?

Why not? We are here on a journey. Why the issue over this? In Finland you can go on holidays and do a project on where you are. It's a completely totalitarian rule..we should be allowed to do it. People chose to homeschool and have freedom there. Back in my day and I'm in my 40's now it wasn't an issue but times are changing. It's shame really that people have this mentally. I hope my kids generation widen up to our true creative nature of exploring this world and what we do more than being stuck in a classroom and not being allowed to enjoy our short lives. Because time really does go quick and we are only passing through.

Ok, what about school areas then? Not individual schools. The siblings at different schools would be ok and teachers (most I know work in the same area) would too.

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I stand corrected. Bit of a stretch if you ask me. Hardly, a step-by-step approach in learning, but I suppose it’s application in action. Perhaps you can help with the purpose of Insidious?

If you want your child to do homework when you're away on a family holiday, then that's up to you to research and set for yourself.

I actually cannot stand this attitude, because many teachers let this roll over into genuine sickness. Still waiting for the promised work for my sick child (so these comments hit home).

Surely if you are creating (photocopying, printing) worksheets for the kids staying in school, you can provide the same to the child going away or sick.

As it is we get a list of what the kids are studying per term and try to find extra resources anyway to support. I also take extra work with us on holidays (that for clarification are taken during school holidays).

Punishing the children for things the parents do goes completely against everything I believe, but you know what, you do you.