Thoughts on taking your DC out of school to enjoy the sunshine?

[Dorsetdelight211]

DD is 14, year 9. She's just had a message off her best friend to say she won't be in school today as her mum is taking her and her younger sister to the beach for the day. Que DD saying how cool the mum is and how unfair it is that I never let her miss school for fun stuff. I've got to work and even if I didn't I still wouldn't let her do it.

YABU-its a beautiful day, one day off school won't make a difference
YANBU-school is important and you can't skive off just because the weathers nice.

@Kerensa70 No. I don’t expect my DDs to lie when they go back to school. Thankfully they go to very small schools on the island that we live on and the principals are both good friends. I always give them the heads up. Last time one of them recommended the hotel we stayed in…

Really late to the party only read your first few comments OP- from that I think this is more about you being annoyed you can't as you have to work-

I may be wrong

This is bollocks, anyone who works can book annual leave then let their kid bunk off and go to the seaside

Or if they’re a teacher themselves, bunk off too…

Banning termtime holidays was what put me off Michael.Gove.

Lessons are not random, they are planned and timetabled in. Your child could be missing an important part of their curriculum. Unless you are planning on asking for the topics missed so you can go through them at home I would not do this. School finishes mid afternoon when the sun is not so powerful but it’s still hot enough to go down to the beach then, and maybe have a picnic/ barbecue for tea.

Bit different a school trip though. Mine have always go load out of a class beach day such as coach ride (yes) games with peers etc learning about the coastline

plenty of opportunity during the other 13 weeks of holiday to go to the beach

Don't do it. One slip up and you'll be paying a fine. Kids these days advertise everything online. Police officer could stop you and ask why child isn't at school.

Life is too short to be critical of ourselves, others, and children. Our kids can be gone any second. If this Mother wants to keep her kids home and enjoy a day at the Beach, who is anyone to judge her or anyone else for for it. Nor should anyone judge you for not taking the day off for fun for your kids. Your kids. Responsibility is important. So is mental health. I would say at this time more than any, all of our kids' mental health is highly important and our responsibility as parents.

If they go to Sandbanks, please ask them not to park in my parents drive! I am all for missing school for treats but what is it about a bit of sun that turns people into complete idiots 🤨

Kids already get 13 weeks off school every year, they only do about 5hrs of lessons a day, so there's barely enough time in the days they are expected to be in school to give them a proper education as it is, without people taking them out for a day here and a day there, even one day can disrupt the whole class in some cases.

I'm proud to say that when I was putting my two kids through school, they both went through 7yrs of infants and juniors and 5yrs of secondary school with only 3 days worth of absence between them. Yes, that's 3 days lost across what amounts to 24yrs of education.

I can go further, because my youngest also went to college for 3yrs and university for another 3yrs and had to have 2 days off due to a family funeral and hospital appointments, so that takes our total to 5 days of education lost across 30yrs.

We still had fun days out, they never missed out on being kids and enjoying themselves but neither did they miss out on taking full advantage of the education they were being offered.

In my opinion, which i know won't be popular but everyone is entitled to have an opinion, unless you can provide 'proof' that a child is actually out of school 'sick' even for a single day, fines should be imposed and I don't mean the paltry fines that schools are imposing for taking kids out of school to go on holidays during term-time, they need to be much, much higher to dissuade people from thinking that school isn't as important as their day/week/fortnight on the beach.

Full disclosure I skived off work on Friday because of the weather. And I don't care. It is never hot and sunny where I live and I'd be damned if I was wasting it sitting in an office.

I don't know the next time I will see a temperature like that so I don't regret it.

Why do you care OP? Because your child thinks friends mum is cool? Because it is something you want to do and feel bitter that they are able? Or because you genuinely think it is terrible to miss a single day of school?

I work full time but took full advantage of our flexi policy to have Friday afternoon off, my daughter had three substitute teachers during Thursday/Friday. Not on the habit of taking her out of school for trips but not against it, our next holiday starts two days before school officially ends, and if we’d happened to be in a situation where me and dh had the same day off and the weather looked good we might have been tempted to have a family day out.

overall if it doesn’t affect you why waste the energy getting upset about it?

I think it’s lovely. It’s the kind of think my mum would have done with me when I was young. I had very average results at school because there was very little pressure from her. But I was always happy and stress free. My career and prospects did not suffer and I have a fantastic relationship with her.
How people choose to raise their kids is their own business, they know their own children more than other parents do. Some people value education over fun and that’s fine, some people don’t really prioritise eduction at all. You do what you think is best and leave them to it.

Police 🤦🏻‍♀️🤣

Given how grossly underfunded they are and how they often don’t investigate actual crimes, I don’t think that’s a very real risk…

do it school is bullshit! They don’t think twice about having teach training days! leaving parents with the inconvenience of having to rearrange work etc!

Teacher training days are usually on the school calendar, so parents get plenty of advance warning. It sounds like your DC's school doesn't do this, so complain to them.

You are aware of covid right? Aware that it was required to be off school with a symptom of covid? In 2020 ie was required to be off if you had been in contact with someone who turned out to be positive. They were off for 10 days at a time. And often not ill.

You would have thought that people would be more wary of sending an ill child to school in case it's passed on. But no, here we have someone who thinks you have to prove the child is ill or risk being fined.

And these days getting an appointment at the doctors is rarer than findings hens teeth.

It's fantastic your children were rarely ill. It's not an achievement though. It's luck. Not everyone is that lucky. My kids are generally that lucky and until covid were rarely off ill. But it was luck. Just like it was unlucky that my child sat next to someone who vomited everywhere and passed on norovirus. That was an "interesting" week

You don't want your DCs teachers to have continuous training?

I take mine on holiday every year for around one week so five days of school and will do it regardless of being fined as the cost of being fined is less than the extortionate costs of taking your family away during the school holidays. I also can’t stand it being too overcrowded as that’s not a holiday for me either and I think it’s totally unfair if your child has overall good attendance: I understand them fining poor attendance though if people just take the piss. I wouldn’t take my child out for a beach day though. Unless I didn’t have enough money to go abroad and r on a proper holiday then I absolutely would if I could and would call off sick. Why not! They’re only little once and as long as they’re not falling behind academically then family bonding is equally as important. Life is so frikking regimental and everyone is so focussed in this country on hard work and the ‘system’. It’s the kids who never go to school that this should be aimed at really.

But in all honesty, they're their circumstances and not all are equal.
I am very lucky, live in very close proximity, walking distance, so for us, even if a beautiful day can combine both school and beach. But being reliant on school holidays/weekends/low Tide timings can mean for some they'd never get a day at the beach in Nice weather.
I come from being a teacher and genuinely believe that education is important, but so are experiences. And for some, a beach day, would be a life experience, understanding tides etc, which if I'm honest, the majority of city visitors down here don't, and at that time of year when exams/sats are over there is less significant learning happening, despite the fact that schools don't want to say this... But look at the time given to sports events practice, end of year shows, suddenly the arts feature, residentials, trips etc.

That's wonderful for your little cherubs. Winning their 100% attendance certificates, regardless of whether they were ill or not they must attend.
Likewise, no doubt wonderful that you were in a privileged position of eving able to afford holidays abroad out of term time etc.
But many cannot.

Likewise your absence fine rhetoric is insane. Unless there are serious absence issues, that's unworkable. GPS will not and don't have the capacity to see children for every illness and concern, let alone write sicknotes, which is what would then be needed. Or even more sick children at school spreading the germs. Look at covid!

Given your children are post university and you sound really out of touch and I suspect, tbh, that your little cherubs would never have told you if they missed a lecture, tutorial etc, for fear of your self imposed regime.

I'd far rather see the poorer families have a day off for the beach, when it's sunny, than have no experiences that you can take for granted and that's the reality for many children. What you see as a given, are not for hundreds of thousands of children.

Will that one day make any difference to their academic achievements? Like hell it will.
Very different to children with poor attendance due to choosing not to attend, for genuine health reasons and you seem to have assumed that all absences are in effect ungenuine.

N.B. I am not a Mother.
My heart goes out to working Mums.
If, for some reason, there is an unforeseen day off - childcare arrangements have to be made.

AYBU? NO

At 14, one would hope DD is sensible and can be trusted to be home alone.

I’d let her have a day home in the garden in the sunshine. Life is short and one day off school makes little or no difference to an education.

Schools rarely have Air Con. and it’s miserable sitting indoors when it’s too hot or too cold.

Harmony why on earth would you want to impose your ideas into others though!
We are supposedly in a free democracy?

If my DC are leaning and achieving why on earth should they miss a day of fun here and there?

Your idea of fun soujds like it would be vastly different to ours.