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?

I think planned staggered holidays would work. As a PP says, they work fine in other countries. Each region could have a six week holiday at some point between late-May and mid-September. The summer would still be "busy" for tourist spots, but it would be a lot less extreme.

Personally I'd hope for a June holiday, as August tends to be rainier in the UK IME.

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.

This is actually a fair point. Kids' learning records are going to be full of holes, even in the schools which did decent provision.

It will be full of holes so make it easier and simpler for teachers by not adding more.

@RainRainGoAway12

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

If a child is off for a weeks illness. Do they have personalised learning plans to catch up on the work? No they don't.

If kids aren't in for a week, they miss the work (in primary). Most learning is repeated and then extended so I don't see it being too much of a problem. Education is a marathon not a race.

Has the penalty stopped people going on holiday? Nope.

I think people should be allowed a weeks holiday in term time, maybe not 2, like it used to be, but one differently. Think blended learning if it continues will show that learning can be done at home/ holiday as well as in school. So children could do that when away or do it as a catch up in their own time.

Holiday resorts are struggling with just having the 6 weeks busy period, not a constant stream of people from May/ June to end of September. I think lockdown has shown to some people that family time is important.

But whilst ofsted looks at school attendance as a measuring stick it will never happen.

Oh, apparently we all just have to chill with education, at least in primary. Messing around and playing with your kids with your kids is not just more than enough but preferable! Or so I have learnt from the many threads where worried parents are lambasted for their concern about the lack of educational provision for their children.

RoseAndRose I was actually talking about when I interview uni candidates. It's for medicine, a competitive and academic subject. The number of candidates we get who have only got academic success to claim is astounding. They tend to be incredibly 2 dimensional and rarely get in. We prefer to take those with good (though not always exceptional) academic records but who are more well rounded, more extra curricular achievements and those who realise school isn't everything. We don't consider attendance in our decision making.

We were all making a fuss about the lack of education during lockdown weren't we and then when we want a week off during term time - that's going to ruin their education. 😂

According the this website

Everyone ought to wfh, permanently.
Keep kids off school whenever we wish.

Because I am wondering if the privilege on here is so saturated that People aren’t even aware of it anymore.

In a post Covid world, this is all bollocks, surely?

Unless the brits get their term time hols we are failing as a country.

Don't forget, many children in academically outstanding countries don't even so much as look at a book until they are seven (or so the line goes if you are wondering why your school has gone incognito) so a week off should be fine!!

We don’t have to swing from one extreme to another. It’s perfectly possible to both

1. value education, not want your child/ren permanently isolated at home

AND

2. think that family holidays especially seeing extended family are also important.

Finally, many parents would have no problem with a supply teacher covering so the class teacher can go on holiday. Schools manage it with illness or paternity leave. The fact that teachers aren’t allowed to do this isn’t the fault of parents. I would fully support teachers having better working conditions including not having to exclusively work term times.

The prohibition on authorised time off school and fines has only resulted in damage to home/ school relationships as teachers get blamed for the system. Parents don't see the point in a dialogue with the school so pull their children out regardless. I had a case of an early spring skiing holiday and the GCSE student missed the field trip for the coursework that 25% of his GCSE was based on. If there was a dialogue, I'd have happily allowed any wek other than that one for a talented, hardworking pupil. He did a good job of catching up but would still have benefited from the actual trip.
The vast majortity of pupils catch up with a short absence from school. Chronic erratic absence is problematic as it leaves too many holes.

Staggered holidays in different local authorities are a PITA. I live within 15 miles of 5 local authorities all of whom vary their term dates. One returns in August, ours tends to go back a week into September. Half terms and Easter are often out of synch and it's a major disruption to families who school and work across those boundaries. Being more flexible would allow teachers the full range of their holidays if they are not constrained by their children's dates too.

The greatest problem in schooling is the data culture driven by its raison d'être of being a political football. Teachers do their best, but the system is not centred around the holistic needs of children, nor producing highly employable adults.

Here in Melbourne, where parents can do that the fuck they want, my DD's school's rule was: by all means take a holiday when you want, but do not ask teachers for work while you're away or catch-up when your child is back.

Excellent.

That would solve the problem of price gouging as high summer would run from June to late September.

They are staggered in Germany (and other places) and it only means that the prices are high from the beginning of June to the end of September. It doesn't reduce the high-season prices, it extends the high-season.

Holiday resorts are struggling with just having the 6 weeks busy period

see above: the English school holidays may be 6 weeks July/August but the rest of Europe is all over the place. The season is really long. (I remember the year one of my DC started school in something like the 3rd week of September and a friend in a different state's children were on the Autumn holiday 3 weeks later)

Superb post BogRollBOGOF.

My children's school (abroad) has no issues with term time holidays. You will get the material that will be covered during this time, and you are expected to do it at home, so children are not falling behind. I think it's great, we have many expat families from the other side of the world, extending holidays is a godsend to them.

And of course staggered holidays reduce the prices. Yes they are still higher than low season, but there is a difference if the entire country wants to leave for their holida on the same exact day, or just one third of the country.

For people using France as an example of staggered holidays -it is only the February and Easter holidays that are staggered. It is done to extend the ski season. Summer holidays are not staggered, neither are the October and Christmas holidays.