To think that closing schools for x weeks shows that a week of term time holiday was never that damaging?

[Hollyhead]

So many teachers seem to now be saying ‘don’t stress about the work set, spend time together, learn skills’ etc. Yet it’s not so long ago that it was being touted that taking a week off was consigning children to educational destruction. AIBU to think the argument is now lost and that actually for children who otherwise have good attendance a week off at a non key point of the year makes not one jot of difference to their overall education?

All children are in the same boat here, nobody is getting behind.
Kids taking random weeks off here and there throughout a normal working term does mean they miss out on the teaching and have to catch up.

The main difference here is that every child is off together at the same time. With a term time holiday your child misses learning that others have been there for. Teachers have to re teach for your child.

The other difference is that this current situation is unavoidable. Term time holidays generally are avoidable and usually down to cost.

We'll see when they all get back shall we? The poor kids, never will such a cohort be so disrupted. The teachers say that because they have to say that, or they're control freaks who can't face you doing things different to them, they really really do want you to teach your kids not least because it's going to be a nightmare when they return if you dont. They also know it's for your kids own good, sitting watching tv for months isn't.

YABU

One of the most ridiculous things I've ever read. Thousands of people have died. This situation cannot be compared to a week off to go to Benidorm.

Because there are no new skills being taught- government is quite clear about this, the NC is suspended!

Difference is all the kids are in the same boat.
When it is one child, it is more problematic.
For example, in my class, we might do telling the time. Week one, we do o’clock and half past. Week two, quarter past and quarter 2. But Sally didn’t get back from holiday until week 2 so she doesn’t understand o’clock. So we are now trying to teach her one thing and the rest of the class another.
And not just in one subject, but in everything.

At the moment, all the kids are off together. So no-one is missing anything. We are well aware that children who don’t do the home learning sent might miss out, and we are trying to work out ways to combat that, but in some ways that has parallels with children who go on holiday and miss chunks of work.

Absolutely agree. It’s fine when it suits them to take time off.

The statistics only ever showed a correlation between children who take a lot of time off school and poor outcomes. There’s no casual effect in my view. I’m of a non Christian religion and can take quite a bit of time off for those festivals. Apparently though that time off is not linked to poorer outcomes. There’s no reason for them to be so draconian re holidays in my view.

Yes, you are very obviously being unreasonable.

There's a difference between 1 child taking random weeks off and getting behind the rest of the class, and the entire country being off school

Everyone knows that missing a week of school doesn't make much difference really. Schools are militant about absence because they have to be, as they are judged on their attendance figures. But yes, also individual pupils being off for lengthy periods is different from everyone being off at the same time.

It's not really comparable.

Education is more important that term time holidays when they're are plentiful school holidays.

A pandemic killing thousands trumps education.

There is a direct correlation between attendance and attainment. The government has lots of data and graphs to back this up

What @MrsTWH said.
When we are at school (primary teacher here) the curriculum moves at a pace. One week of missed learning is significant at any age. Trust me, all us teachers are scratching our heads about how we make up for lost time, once we get back and considering the implications it has for the schemes of work for the next year to make up for the missed learning.

While we're all off and little control about the situation, you're best not to mither about the exact learning your child's doing week to week. You are not home schooling, you are home learning. Once we get back, we'll hit the ground running.

You do know that it was the government who decided that parents should be fined if their kids miss school?

And that it was the government that have now closed the schools.

Please don’t blame teachers or schools for either of these things.

How can you say that this proves it makes not a jot of difference? What proof do you have that the current situation isn't affecting progress for some children?

The teachers in my children’s school have never said that a week off was damaging.

Lol, I do understand your take on this! Tbf I’ve worked in schools for ages and was never convinced that a week off was that bad for MOST students, however it was usually the ones who genuinely couldn’t afford to take time off who would go away for two weeks at a crucial time. And schools have to go hard on attendance else it becomes a free for all. But... one week off a year for a good student has never struck me as a real problem.

Also children learn different things at different levels. I don’t believe a week off in term time makes any difference in and of itself. Seems to me the concern is teachers convenience.

Seems to me the concern is teachers convenience.

What do you mean by this?

I think everyone agrees that schools being closed down will be very damaging for kids' education - especially those from disadvantaged homes. It's just in this case it's been done to avoid something even more damaging. It's also easier for the teacher to plan when everyone has missed school rather than one here, another there.

And even this break is going to cause some children more problems than others. Pretty certain my able year 10 child with a school who are running lessons / setting work well, who has full time access to a PC and crucially 2 parents at home who aren’t working (DH retired, I’ve been SAHP) will be in a much better position next summer at GCSEs than someone who is trying to look after younger siblings while their parents work, may not have computer access or just may struggle with school work even when in school and need more support.

Zsazsajuju - it was the government who set this policy. Head teachers used to have discretion, which has by and large been taken away from them. Policy is really, really not set for teachers convenience.

1. Every child is off, so the teacher is not going to have to spend time updating special little Johnny after his ‘educational’ week in Disneyland at the expense of the rest of the kids teaching time.
2. Lessons are still continuing - during term time my kids are getting on and offline teaching that’s taking most of a full day.

Seems like a strange point to be making while everything is going on! And others have said, when everyone is off at the same time nobody falls behind or missed out. When only child is off and everyone else is still learning, that one child is at a disadvantage.

OP your lack of logic suggests you'd benefit from going back to school yourself for a few months.

The difference between what you suggest and the schools being closed now is indeed that by taking term time holidays your child falls behind as everyone else continues learning. Lockdown they’re all off.

Get it? 🙄