Aibu to take kids out of school for a ski hol in March?

[Nurserymumm]

Midterm is ridiculous, so expensive. DH has a week off the start of March so thinking of taking them out & going skiing for a week then. It's educational right?

We're doing this. I've no qualms whatsoever.

Definitely term time! It's to keep it more affordable for parents 🤷‍♀️ my niece is going to Italy skiing with her school the end of February. As I said why do schools do ski trips if there isn't some sort of educational value?

I agree with @Murdoch1949

I don't think term time holidays give a good message to children about (1) value of education and (2) following the rules

Given you’ve clearly made up your mind OP, why are you on here?

You mention cost of lessons/ski equipment/lift passes being more in holidays but, in my experience, the only thing that costs more is the accommodation. Admittedly, I've never done the catered/child care thing, so can't comment on this, but self-catering somewhere high - Tignes/Val Thorens - at Easter might be worth checking out. We always did this with our dc but did self-drive which is a lot more economical than flying in holidays with four of you.

Stop pushing the educational value. Just go on holiday and pay the fine.

There is no snow, you can’t ski on grass.

Teacher here if it makes any difference - 100% do it, I absolutely would if I could. Most teachers completely understand when this happens within reason.

No I wouldn’t personally.

Looking to go the start of March as that's when DH has a week of AL... Won't book anything for the time being, we'll follow the snow

@isthewashingdryyet

Theres snow in Italy.

@Nurserymumm

My son is going with the school this year during Feb half term. Not term time.

God yes. I am taking my kids out of school to go to Glastonbury festival for the first time this year!!

I'm looking at taking 9yo (y4) out of school at Easter. They won't miss anything (to the pp saying about maths they are very strong at maths). I won't take 12yo (y7) out for a week as they'd miss too much.

If your 11yo is Year 6 then I wouldn't hesitate. If they are y7 then it's a bad idea.

If primary school and they don't have loads of absence already then I would.

It really won't affect the average student to miss 1-3 weeks if school for a holiday tbh.

It doesn't affect the other children in the class and it doesn't affect the teacher's work load either.

I teach and we have children miss time for holidays every year and they are fine.

Just make sure you have them do some regular reading and a bit of writing and
don't expect school to set holiday work/catch up work. If you have a school learning blog like we do you can see a tough idea of what they'll miss and could cover a bit f it yourself.

But any half decent school doesn't ever rely on only covering key concepts and learning only once, so it's u likely they'll struggle if generally a good student with a reasonable attendance level.

Just incorporate the fine as part of the holiday cost - it's £60 per pupil per parent here for each missed block (so not per week where we are.)

Of course , do it!

It depends how you define 'educational.'

Education isn't just about sat down English/maths work done in a school book.

Lots of non school based activities can be very educational.

Go for it. Why not?
And yes - it could be educational depending on how you define it.

What do people seriously think will happen if a child misses 1-2 weeks of school if they otherwise have a good attendance record?

Ime it's only on MN that people get so worked up about it. In real life it happens all the time with no one really making a fuss either way.

It's not uncommon for there to be little snow at this time of year. It doesn't mean the whole season is a write off, but it does mean Easter (particularly second week) is riskier as the ground is warm and there is less time for a base to build. Plus, you could always go to scandinavia. There is usually snow there and you will get English language tuition.

There are some hair shirt responses here. Skiing is a luxury so you shouldn't do it; Children should always be taught to slavishly follow every rule. Urgh.

Life is for living. And, the evidence is actually really poor on term time holidays and educational loss. Like, non-existent. There is a correlation between significant time missed over a school year/ career and poorer outcomes but this is not causation and also doesn't account for confounding factors.

I take it you won't be asking the teachers to help your children catch up with what they've missed?

But most likely it would make any difference and the kids won't through it back at you at all.

Due to factory shut downs I and my siblings missed 1-2 weeks of school annually ti have a family holiday.

Every one of us continued to treat education seriously. We all stayed in in school to do further and higher Ed. We all have good degrees and value education. I teach and have done for several years, and installed good values into my own child - who is also training to teach within the U.K. school system.

My parents also valued education and although we missed school for holidays once a year we were expected to always value our education and try our best. We did and it had no negative inspect whatsoever. We do also all value our holiday time and family time too. And we all know that school is only one part of education , albeit a large part at times.

So we can say oh they can't miss x y z at school but reality is that, for the vast majority of children, missing a week or two once a year for a family holiday isn't going ti cause then any issues. 🤷🏻‍♀️

School trips are usually February half term. I went on one during the Easter break. So not during term time.

I would absolutely take them out for holiday whatever the holiday unless they were studying their gcse's

God no, their teachers have enough to be doing with the rest of the class. But I will research & print off extra resourses for them to add to the homework in the weeks leading up to the holidays.
They are flying at school & haven't missed a day yet this year. They are huge readers so they will be bring plenty of books to unwind in the evening, they'll be exhausted after ski school & spending the afternoon with DH & I on the piste..

Absolutely do it!

My mum took us out of school for holidays during term-time in both primary and secondary school. I brought books and took some time out to study when we went in my teens but not in primary school.

As a single parent, she couldn't afford it during midterm breaks and I'm grateful that I had some amazing experiences that I wouldn't have had if she hadn't taken us out of school.

She puts huge value on education but she probably defined it more broadly than school work. Less so for skiing but she'd encourage us to keep travel journals, learn the language etc while we were away. No significant impact on our education - we all went to uni, have careers in our chosen fields etc.

If the alternative is your children not traveling and experiencing new things, absolutely take them out of school.