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...

life is too short and learning happens everywhere, memories made means a lot more than a week in school imo

@Sarah061991 Completely agree
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Look at your holidays and see if they differ from standard at all. Lots of religious schools and academies have different holidays now. Think outside the box eg Glasgow flights are cheaper late summer as Scotland back (if you are northern England)
My dc isn’t back until 7/9 this year - first week of September is much cheaper.

I'm curious about the fines charged in the UK (except Scotland as I've learned from this thread). I didn't realise this was a thing.

What is the money used for? How much are they generally? If it's a long absence due to genuine illness can you still be fined?

We hvae a DC in Reception this year. We're doing one week in a caravan rather than take her out of school. I'd rather cut our cloth based on what we can afford than get the DC used to going out of school for holidays and then stopping in Yr 1 for the phonics assessment and in Yr 2 for KS1 SATs etc. If you want to go abroad, look at October half term which is significantly cheaper and better, heatwise, for 4- 5 years olds than a mid-summer holiday.

That’s a good tip. 1/5 is a bank holiday. And 4/5 local elections and 8/5 bank holiday (king) so if your school shuts for polling for 3 days off you can have a 10 day holiday - you won’t get fined 3 days off.

We just get flights and an airbnb somewhere lovely, it’s hundreds, if not thousands cheaper than a resort.

I suppose it depends what a holiday is for you. If you want an AI resort then of course it is expensive, and you might need to save over years for one holiday like that, but if it’s about discovering somewhere new, it doesn’t have to be that expensive and you can therefore do it more regularly.

im a teacher so can’t take them out of school but I would do it if it wasn’t missing exams.

Yep a week every other Feb to ski. My reasoning is the ski season is short basically its Feb half term or during term time (Feb half term is 4 x the cost of the weeks either side). They learn so much, not just how to ski but they're in lessons with kids from all over europe learning to communicate despite language barriers its really valuable but could never afford Feb half term so the alternative is we wait until they've left school at 18?

I don't disagree with a lot of what you have said but key workers children weren't in school to be taught. They were in school to be supervised.

In our local authority the fine is £60 per parent, per child I think. Their policy is to fine after 10 session of unauthorised absence (each session is 1/2 day). So previously I have try to arrange it so we are. Only missing fewer than 10 sessions.

illness should be an authorised absence, but sometimes some schools will ask for ‘evidence’.

I think fining varies massively between local authorise. Some fine and take parents to court more often than other local authorities. The descretion around if something counts as authorised or unauthorised lies with the head I think, thought many will just follow the policy from their Academy/LA.

I heard of one head who was allowing parents to have their child out of school for 1 weeks a year, provided it didn’t coincide with any important exams etc. that seems sensible to me.

personally I don’t believe fining improves outcomes for children who desperately need support. Richer parents will pay, poorer parents will avoid fines and children with very significant issues (eg neglectful parents/mental health school refusal) won’t be helped by fines.

I wish that school holidays were staggered like they are in Germany. Then the peaks and troughs in prices would be more even.

Fine till you have two kids at two schools with different holidays! We live on the edge of two different education authorities. Primary is in one authority, high school in the other! Fine now they're both at high school, but when I had one at primary and one at high school is was already a completely pain that October half term is different weeks, and term start / end dates were different by a few days.

We have never been able to take ours out as DH is a teacher but I totally would have done if he wasn't. I'd not do it in secondary but the last week of term in primary, yep. Although be careful as some of the prices don't drop that much becuase of the scottish and NI holidays which come earlier.

the week before the october half term is still cheaper as the companies haven't cottoned on to the fact that lots of schools are now on a two week HT.

My parents took me out for 2-3 weeks every June. I still remember so much from those trips, learned so much, it was wonderful. I got straight As at school as did my siblings, in absolutely uesless schools. We all have very good degrees and successful careers. I wouldn't think twice about it. The fine is a token amount compared to the holiday cost so if it means the children get a better experience and more varied travel it is worth it. If the children are intelligent and have good attendance the rest of the year it will make zero difference to their educational outcomes.

As a lone parent I'm limited how much I can do this because trying to cover the school hols with annual leave etc is hard enough already. But with two parents to do that, I don'r see it as an issue, at all.

I am thinking to do this the last one or two weeks of summer term, not because of cost but because if there’s another 40 degree heatwave I don’t think I can bear London. It was brutal last summer, school asked parents to keep children home if they possibly could as they didn’t even have fans to help keep them cool. Those children in school weren’t able to learn in that heat, and in fairness to school they didn’t even attempt to make them study, it was just survival mode all round. They couldn’t even go outside to play (primary school) as it’s just a tarmac playground with no shade. If that happens again then I really think being somewhere out of London, where it’s green and cooler, would be preferable on every level! Really cannot afford it but saving hard to try.

Surely the lockdowns illustrated this.

They showed the opposite.