To think allowing holidays in term time for a bit would solve a lot of problems

[Babamamananarama]

Lots more people are going to have to holiday in the UK in coming years. Holiday spots will be swamped. Campsites in Cornwall are reporting 250% rise in bookings this year.

Given that we've now accepted that kids can miss a couple of weeks of school without the sky falling in, how about we allow term-time holidays for a bit?

• less price gouging
• tourist season spread over longer, so more job stability in tourist regions
• would reduce dangerous strain on rural services (Cornwall has one small hospital which can't cope with the influx each year)
• safer/lower risk of COVID spread as not so crowded
• easier for families to manage
• better for workplaces not to have all staff who are parents trying to take holiday in the same 6 weeks as we try to get back to normal...

Obviously it would also make sense to reduce the academic target setting for a bit and concentrate on a more holistic approach to the recovery curriculum with wellbeing at the forefront for a change...

AIBU?

beela it's area specific. 5 days grace is by no means the norm.

@RainRainGoAway12

I think it’s a great idea! Can teachers get in on these term time holidays too?!

When they attend on the same basis as the kids, ie unpaid, sure! Since that's not going to happen and nor should it, they can instead benefit from not as much competition for the school holiday breaks and who knows, maybe the prices will come down for them a bit.

In reality, I think anyone wanting a term time holiday at least in the near future without fear of fining is going to have convenient symptoms at the appropriate time.

Maybe a better idea would be for each county council to move the school holidays and spread the holidays through the year.
County A has a month off in June
County B has a month off in July
County C has a month off in August
Go by county as people have kids in Juniors and high school at the same time.
All half terms would move about too and the only things the same would be Chistmas and a long weekend over Easter.

For those making comments about children having had enough family time. You really are having a laugh.

Some yes.
But for many absolutely not parents have been run ragged trying to educate and work at the same time.
Or do the juggle of Educate school children while entertaining young children.
Many children have been plonked in front of tellys for house while parents WFH.

Thinking of the families and people I know I can only think of one where both parents have been furloughed. It's been shit.
Parents do need a break.

When I’m in charge I would institute a system of holidays where each region would have them at different times. Similar to how Scotland’s are currently a few weeks before England’s now (except for Aberdeenshire? They seem to keep English time).
That would solve the problem of price gouging as high summer would run from June to late September.
I’d also centralise the curriculum while I was at it but that is a different thread.

Were planning on taking dd out of school for a week in 2022. Holiday was cancelled this year and I can see Cornwall being a bit of a nightmare next May.
Weve worked through lockdown so not spent extra time with dd, shes been doing the work school set unlike some of her friends.
Call me entitled but I feel we've earnt this one.

Teachers saying it isn't fair to give individual catch ups - you do realise that is exactly what you are going to have to do next year? Or at least the in the "Twinkl worksheets" schools? Because there is going to be the whole range from "did nothing" to " hothoused" and everything in between for a period spanning 6 months. I can't believe how many times I have seen teachers post and assume there will be a level playing field in September? Far from it.

Total Fucktard idea.

Disruption to education at the moment is on a massive scale. It is going to be a massive task to get all the students caught up.

Planning for schools has been screwed up for 6 months (will they/won't they be going back etc etc)

Once they are back it needs to settle down (as much as it can with the possibility of a second wave)

If you add into that Little Johnny and Jane fucking off for 2 weeks you then wtf!!

Teachers plan:
Topic 1, Topic 2 (needs skills learnt in Topic 1), Topic 3, Topic 4 (needs some of Topic 3 facts learnt) etc etc.

Johnny misses some of Topic 1 and some of Topic 2. When is he going to catch up?

Jane misses 5 days. It is only 5 days. But it is the end of Topic 3 and the beginning of Topic 4. When is she going to catch up?

Are you expecting teachers to do holiday packs? Prepare classroom lessons AND online lessons? Work late after school to do catch up sessions? Work weekends?

Am not a teacher btw. Just have a brain.

Get a fucking grip.

I mentioned on another thread discussing summer childcare.

I think it is time us parents wrote to our MP to ask for solutions.

Cinema are to reopen 4th July but there is no clarity on summer childcare provision. A systemic solution needs to be put in place this year due to the pandemic, not the odd school mum asked to look after the whole class over the summer because she is a SAHP for example or parents having to resign their job to cover 6 weeks of childcare.

Find your MP: members.parliament.uk/constituencies/

Holidays are a luxury, not a right

As it would appear education is at the moment

I think that one thing this pandemic has done is given people time to rethink. A lots of things that cause problems—inflexibility over time off being one of them—are imposed on schools. Heads used to have discretion over holidays, but that was taken away making it impossible to authorise holiday absence. Time off does have an impact but so does time off for illness and sometimes a holiday can be an important mental health break. I’d prefer it still to be at head’s discretion.

Perhaps we can all think on whether the target-driven culture is working. Plenty of employers are now finding it is possible to trust people to work from home. Perhaps the government might find that they can trust schools to teach children without beating them with the big stick of attendance or exam results, who knows?

kids can miss a couple of weeks of school without the sky falling in

If a child misses what everyone else is doing, that makes a difference.

If everyone is missing school together it's easier to organise catch up.

I wouldn't put my child behind at school for a week in a tent in Cornwall.

I’d prefer it still to be at head’s discretion

I worked for a head who allowed a trip to Africa because it was 'educationally beneficial' for those rich kids to go on an expensive trip. But refused an all inclusive in Spain, because that wasn't educationally beneficial.

Better not to have a head's prejudices influence who gets what.

In the middle of this pandemic my daughter’s school sent out info for new year 7 parents saying they expect 100% attendance. Downright irresponsible if you ask me, which they don’t. Luckily she is year 11 and hopefully leaving.

Children have missed so much school unless they are on track academically would it be sensible since teachers will be working hard to help them catch up.

"The problem is parents can be fined"

It happened in the first place because many who shouldn't be taking days off school were doing it.

For some children, 5 days off school won't disadvantage them. I know this as a fact because my ds has been off sick so many days in the past but still stayed ahead.

Now I wonder after this pandemic, if they can be as strict or not. And the ones that suffer are the ones whose parents won't care and take term time holiday just because it's cheaper, and the teachers who need to make sure they catch up, maybe the ones who are already behind.

I'm not a teacher but I do regularly work with kids and most of my family are teachers^^ and education specialists with expertise spanning 45 years.

I absolutely think education is of prime importance. But I also think a target driven school culture is not doing anyone much good.
I know that teachers work extremely hard to get children to meet targets and milestones. But that's not necessarily the best way for children to learn - it's a relatively recent educational culture and wasn't nearly as prevalent when we were at school - and we managed to learn what we needed to learn.

Universities are worried by the inability of kids coming out of mainstream education to conduct self-directed learning, because they've been spoon fed and encouraged to view learning as jumping through assessment hoops.

'Perhaps we can all think on whether the target-driven culture is working. Plenty of employers are now finding it is possible to trust people to work from home. Perhaps the government might find that they can trust schools to teach children without beating them with the big stick of attendance or exam results, who knows?'

Only if teachers are allowed to do it too.

Hoildays should be least of your worries. I am very worried about how much my son has missed by not being in school. Not just that, also that he seems almost scared to go back now. He's got totally used to th new normal so getting him back used to school will be difficult. This social isolation for kids is probably going to have lasting effects on them long term so trying to get schools back to as normal as possible should be top priority.

You can't say they have had a few weeks off with little effect as we don't know yet. I'm sure once kids are back at school news papers will be reporting about children mostly being far behind now etc

Maybe a better idea would be for each county council to move the school holidays and spread the holidays through the year.

How does that work when you live near a border and have children at school in different counties?

Thinking about it, I could easily have had children at school in Surrey, Greater London and Kent.

A lot of tourist places would LOSE money if you did this actually. At the moment, term time May - Sept is booked out by couples / people who are child free / those who have non dependent children & are actively trying to avoid holidaying when the majority of families do. If you open up term time holidays during these months then those people will simply stop booking & I very much doubt there’ll be enough uptake from families who wouldn’t have holidayed in the school holidays anyway to make up for the lost revenue.

France has staggered holidays, that would also help without putting extra strain on teachers. vacances-scolaires.education/annee-2020-2021.php