To despair at holiday prices! Do your take your DCs out of school??

[Yesiminsane]

Have you done it if so how long and did you pay a fine?

DC is in reception and one of oldest in the year so wondering about taking him out for a week in summer...

We don’t do overseas holidays usually but I’ve no problem taking DCs out of school to do them. I’ve just priced up a holiday for this year and it’s £1500-2000 cheaper in term time for a week. Unfortunately we are struggling for even term time holidays this year due to multiple events throughout the year so we will probably do a couple of 3 night Haven holidays during term times, taking the Monday off school or take an odd Friday off to do theme park trips. I hate going in holidays or weekends.

Always take mine out of school - no fines in Scotland.

I've met loads of English folk on holiday who factor the price of the fine into the price of the holiday. They save £1,000s

I did in primary school, but tacked onto a half term where there were already inset days so she missed max 3 days. It saved £800 one year, but most years were around 10% (£200-£250).

Never got fined as it was never 10 missed registrations.

There were several families who'd take the kids out mid Jan to go skiing.

My DD booked just before the May break, like a pp said, there would be no fines because it isn't long enough, however she has got permission. She wouldn't be able to afford the holiday solely during the holidays.

what do you think people on low incomes do? They cut their cloth according to what they can afford.

Holiday =/= going away

We didn’t it in GCSE and a-level years both came out with good grades, gone to very good unis.

OH an ex teacher so while teaching we had to do school holidays but both our jobs for the last few years have been tourism focused so we couldn’t easily take time off.

we always managed to get them authorised even under the new scheme.

for me life’s too short and a family holiday is very important.

I never did until covid…both of mine had 100% attendance from when they started school…we just sucked it up went camping and did long weekends in holiday cottages

Since covid both of my children who were where they were required (ish) to be are now around 18m behind in their schooling and as a key worker mine went to school during most of it… still have no idea what they did for 30 hours a week not learn anything apparently

Now I don’t give a shit and have booked to take them away after Feb half term and will also do it again in May! An extra week behind isn’t going to make a dent in their education at this point.

They can fine me all they bloody want and I might even fight it…

I am paying for a tutor twice a week to catch them up as school don’t seem particularly interested in helping them more money I don’t have but yet again the Tories have fucked up another generation of young people

We had pre-COVID flight vouchers to use so just booked for over Easter. Taking just one day off and it’s £700 cheaper.

Not sure I’d do a week as school are v strict on absences but I can totally see why people do.

We have and I would if I wanted to.

Never taken them out for more than a couple of days at a time. In primary it would have just meant more juggling of holiday childcare anyway. We have never done a resort type holiday but have managed plenty of European holidays in half terms or end of August when the holiday park prices are much lower. We prefer accommodation space over all inclusive and my DH pulls his weight so I don’t mind self catering. I don’t judge others and understand why they choose term times holidays. Our kids lost months of schooling due to CoViD and that was ok so why not?

Our school are fining now so I would think that wouldn’t work. Our solution is not to go on holiday this year.

I have taken now adult children away for a week in term time a few times mainly at primary school, never when at important points ie exams etc.
Rules changed for my youngest child but have 'rung in sick' for the odd day to extend a weekend break , not proud to lie but as others have said life is short and we pack a lot into our holiday.
On the other hand last year there were 3 school trips abroad available for years 8 - 10 and no limit to how many child can go on , almost 3 weeks of school missed , extremely unfair when i may get fined for taking my child away for 1 week or less to a place that will educate her much more than a water / theme park !

Personally no I wouldn't do it.

We do a term time holiday, was fined once as it 5 days (10 sessions) and we happily paid is as the £100 fine was nothing compared to how much we saved on the holiday

Always have, always will. Never been fined as yet, but ds 10 has now moved to a specialist school who are more strict about time off and have refused our request so we will have to pay the fine and that’s ok- it’s still massively cheaper than going away in holiday time.

Dc aged 10 and 19. The only time we haven’t is when it’s literally a gcse / a level year and then we’ve still had a couple of sneaky “sick” days and gone away for a longer weekend break earlier in the year.

Its really important to us to have a proper holiday as a family every year and I think a week abroad, seeing cities, visiting interesting places (which is what we do) and simply having fun together is absolutely worth missing school for.

Hasn’t done either of them any harm academically. Dd is in her second year of university and doing really well.

Once you have factored in the fines and extra holiday childcare, it's not worth it for us.

When mine were in primary school I always took them out for two or three weeks in May/June to go away. We don’t get fined where I live. It never affected their education and the eldest ones now all have their degrees, youngest ones still in secondary. I didn’t take them out in secondary as they would miss too much.

Factor in the cost of a fine. Local authorities have cracked down on attendance and headteachers are not allowed to authorise any holiday, regardless of how many educational photos you take or if you are visiting family you never see. It is the local authority who will decide whether to fine - some seem to do it more readily than others.

Make the most of them being in lower part of primary and take them out!

I'm not one of those people that see a holiday as a human right. I don't think the average family holiday will add any great understanding of other cultures to their lives. We now shop around for affordable holidays, and holiday abroad every other year.

Has someone changed the law to make holidays compulsory?

I w

I definitely wouldn’t take mine out of school in term time. I’d rather do without to afford in the holidays than have her miss any of school. She’s missed enough. I appreciate everyone is different & I wouldn’t knock
anyone that did.

Pressed post too soon.

I won't do it. I value education too much and my son LOVES school.

My mum was a teacher too so I'm used to being stuck with school holidays.

What we have done though is pick airports carefully. We live in London and have just booked a holiday. It was £1000 cheaper to go from Birmingham airport. We're looking at East Midlands too, then it's £2000 cheaper! The cost of getting to those airports / airport hotels is only about £100-200 so we're still on a good deal.

I agree if you look outside resort/AI, holidays are a lot more affordable.

We spent a very pleasant week at a center Parcs near Amsterdam, another nice week in an Airbnb in Valencia, etc

We’re doing it for the first time this year. We normally just factor in the extra cost but the price difference was insane this year.

We had a really tough year last year with illness and bereavement and I had a bit of a fuck it moment and decided to book it and give us something to look forward to.

I do feel guilty and am not looking forward to telling school. It’s not that I think my children will suffer by missing a week of school, I just feel it’s a bit disrespectful.