Day off school on birthday?

[Givemeabreak88]

What are your thoughts on giving a child the day off school on their birthday? If they are asking for the day off..

@Givemeabreak88

He wants the day off, it’s one day. Was only asking if others do it! And it seems some do some don’t. I will.

Children want lots of things. What they need is a different thing.

You say he doesn't miss friends. Why?

@Givemeabreak88

I wasn’t before I actually posted, it was the nasty rude and plain spiteful comments that made me think fuck it I will keep him home! Like I said you can give an opinion without being down right rude.

You've had a couple of rude comments and they seem to be all you're hearing.

Many comments have been about the impact this action could have on your son's already fragile attitude towards education. But you don't seem to be acknowledging those.

The fact that he is even asking is quite telling. It shows he thinks you might agree and that is worrying. You really should not allow this. It sends the wrong message to your son.

The fact that your child has a school place due to disability makes it more important that he attends. The school/local authority have agreed that the risk of a Covid spread is outweighed by need for one to one teaching.

If it is soon and you are in England it is also the point when things will becoming more normal so he may miss out on re-setting. That will be hard anyway from what may have been a few children to a whole school.

@RootyT00t, the vast majority do work in industries were they could book their birthday off, retail and health. It's a seven day a week job, people work five, so it's possible.

Some of the statements on here make me wonder if posters were off on days that helped build critical thinking.

School can be miserable for children who have additional needs. Lock down has been particularly hard on pupils who rely on sports/hobbies to keep self esteem high, because they struggle academically. Some children go through our education system and don't get a lot out of it because their needs aren't catered for and hopefully parents do what they can so they aren't crushed and have alternatives after 16.

OP, you are giving him a break and showing that you understand what he's feeling. That's more important than one more day at school.

"Find out the reason wjy doesn't like school and then fix that"

Unless the OP is Gavin Williamson, that might not be possible.

"Teach him a bit of resilience"

Children who have additional needs have a lot of resilience. In some cases their conditions go hand in hand with increased anxiety and a lack of confidence.

@Ynwa12345

Wow I haven't RT but I was thinking about doing this next week for my going to be 5 year old...

I'm considering the same for my 10 turning 11 year old Circumstances with my work dictating that it will be best option

You can guarantee if you do it once, he will want to be off on his birthday every year.

That’s bollocks. My kids asked to have a couple of their birthdays off school, but not all of them. One of my kids also had a couple of days off because they didn’t want to do a certain thing in a lesson. I let them. They didn’t keep asking and it never became an issue.

[quote Ponoka7]@RootyT00t, the vast majority do work in industries were they could book their birthday off, retail and health. It's a seven day a week job, people work five, so it's possible.

Some of the statements on here make me wonder if posters were off on days that helped build critical thinking.

School can be miserable for children who have additional needs. Lock down has been particularly hard on pupils who rely on sports/hobbies to keep self esteem high, because they struggle academically. Some children go through our education system and don't get a lot out of it because their needs aren't catered for and hopefully parents do what they can so they aren't crushed and have alternatives after 16.

OP, you are giving him a break and showing that you understand what he's feeling. That's more important than one more day at school.[/quote]
I don't think giving a kid a day off because he wants it is critical thinking.

Teach him a bit of resilience

🙄

I mentioned the area OP because I'd never heard of children having the day off school for birthdays. Education wasn't important to a lot of the parents and their children already had poor school attendance. I've worked in other areas since and it hasn't been a thing anywhere else.

@RootyT00t

What a load of nonsense being spouted . Teachers off the same time every year , getting days off for shopping , aye right.

And OP, teachers are off sometimes because they're SICK. Imagine.

This has just reminded me of a school I worked in once. Our head worked it so we did training after school a few days a term (or something, I can’t remember the specifics as it was a while ago) and gave us a day in December. It was inset but because we’d done twilight training instead, he called it a ‘shopping’ day

Another school I worked in had a head who gave each member of staff a day off each half term. We didn’t all get a day off a half term, there was one teacher and one TA each half term if that made sense. We just covered it internally as the head would do it.

The same head bent over backwards to make sure all staff that had children were able to watch their DC in nativities/plays etc.

There’s a lot more flexibility in schools than people would believe, and why on Earth not? Everyone is human and everyone deserves to live a life that is more than just work.

Having read the circumstances, yes I would. Hope he enjoys his birthday 🥳

YABU

@FTEngineerM

could you imagine if I said I need Monday off it's my birthday

But that’s exactly what I do @RootyT00t - and the reply is ‘awwww are you doing anything nice?’

Not every job has the same rules around when to use your AL. I have never worked my birthday in more than 10
companies.

This too!

DS is 5 this year so it’s the first year he’s had a birthday in school. In previous years, I’ve booked his birthday and my own off... because I’m an adult with a holiday allowance to use as I see fit.

I usually work my birthday but I’ve got a special one this year so might treat myself 😁

That sounds like a great head @AlohaMolly

I wouldn’t keep my DDs off school on their birthdays, although actually I don’t think they have asked to be off school on their birthdays. All the children enjoy going into school on their birthdays, as they have a fuss made of them in class.

Go into work. Enjoy the evening. Celebrate properly on a weekend day. Always surprised by adults who are perturbed by a work-day birthday but maybe they started off like op's ds.

I'm an August birthday so always had my birthday off fortunately. As an adult I tend to take the day off as it's a great time of year to have a day off and potentially a long weekend. If it was in January, not so much.

Life is way to short not to book the day off work for your birthday if you want to, what’s the issue with someone using their leave as they see fit.

Irrelevant really giving my opinion seeing as you’ve already made up your mind but anyway, no, if my kids wanted a day off for their birthday I’d say no. Their birthdays happen to fall during school holidays and it’s boring! They would have more fun at school with friends though I’m sure they wouldn’t think so at the time. This year I think it’s particularly important to try to avoid any unnecessary time off if possible. Kids are surely behind where they would normally be (although perhaps those that have been fortunate enough to be in school throughout aren’t? I wouldn’t know) and there’s possibly still lots of disruption to come if bubbles burst etc.

@SleepingStandingUp

Why?! Because he hates school *@FreddyTheFlute* and it can be hard enough to get him out the door as it is, I'm expecting it to be worse when they go back next week, and the idea of on top of that being all "no presents, no cake etc until you come home" sees especially mean after a frankly shit 12+ months and his second birthday in partial lockdown

Why no presents or cake until after school? Get up 20 mins earlier. Open presents. Cake for breakfast.

@Dailywalk

Irrelevant really giving my opinion seeing as you’ve already made up your mind but anyway, no, if my kids wanted a day off for their birthday I’d say no. Their birthdays happen to fall during school holidays and it’s boring! They would have more fun at school with friends though I’m sure they wouldn’t think so at the time. This year I think it’s particularly important to try to avoid any unnecessary time off if possible. Kids are surely behind where they would normally be (although perhaps those that have been fortunate enough to be in school throughout aren’t? I wouldn’t know) and there’s possibly still lots of disruption to come if bubbles burst etc.

Made sure your got a dig in about her child being in school though didn’t you..Her child has a disability, how ‘fortunate’

Nope. I’m glad my son’s going back for his birthday next week, it’ll be nice for him to be with his friends on his special day.

Why no presents or cake until after school? Get up 20 mins earlier. Open presents. Cake for breakfast @cardibach how upset do you think he'll be leaving the house without his new toys compared to how upset he is leaving the house on a random day? Yes he can have cake for breakfast, but 20 minutes to open his toys and play with them isn't helpful, we'd have to get him to get dressed first so we could drag him out the door on time and he'd be upset at having his presents whilst in his uniform. Or he had cake and presents first and it's a nightmare to get him to dress in his uniform which he hates Vs his new costume / favourite costume of the week.