To take DC out of school for two weeks for a holiday?

[CroccyWoccy]

Thinking about taking the family on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday next year, but having looked into it, we would have to take the DC out of school for a fortnight to make it work.

They have good attendance record - I have never taken them out for any reason before and they are rarely sick.

I was hoping we could do the holiday only taking them out for 5 days, but it isn’t feasible, to make it work they would need to miss two weeks (though one day is an inset day, so 9 days in total).

Is this too long? Either in terms of lost education or the amount of trouble we’d be in? DC will be Y6 and Y3, holiday would be tacked onto October half term.

Do it
Dont ask for work though - very unfair on the teachers
ask for a copy of the curriculum - that’s a straightforward email for them to send - and either get a private tutor to go through key points with them or do some Oak Academy online sessions (free)
also get them to keep a diary of their trip - helps with English

Japan?

I’m genuinely undecided about it. My original plan was just to go for a fortnight (we have a two week half term), then researching the destination I felt it really needed three weeks to make it worthwhile. And I convinced myself that losing a week of school would be OK, as a one-off, and better done in primary than secondary.

Yesterday I did some more research on dates and found out that mid October things shut for winter and it’d all be a lot easier if we could go a week earlier.

I’m erring towards amending the itinerary so we only take a week out of school.

17 days is over 3 weeks. Plus it's correlation not causation. The drop in grade is likely to be mostly if not entirely due to the reason for absence not the absence itself.
Most pupils off for that amount of time have mental health or physical health problems or troubled backgrounds or are refusing school. It's highly unlikely to be due to parents who are supportive of their education taking them out for holidays.

It's impossible to say whether it has affected their rate of progress. You don't know what progress they would have made if they had KS2 results nor what decisions have been made by school leadership that have drawn on that data.

Ultimately, those children do not count towards the school's overall measure of progress (their Progress 8 score) and, in various scenarios, that can impact on what is offered to them. For example, a friend's daughter is currently in Y11 and is doing well (6s, 7s and 8s) but her high KS2 results mean that she should have been on track for even better. She is now one of a small number of students getting mentoring from a deputy head and being given opportunities to progress at a faster rate and, eventually, attain higher. There are other students at her attainment level who would benefit for this but, because they had lower KS2 results than she did and staff's time is limited, it isn't available for them.

It's absolutely not the be all and end all and self-motivated children can always find avenues for success regardless of targets and the decisions made around them. However, on here, there is so much false information about the KS2 assessments and their ongoing impact on the child that it can lead parents to get the very wrong impression of what the SATs are and who they for.

I would do it if the child was keen, as long as they were doing well (by which I mean better than average).
I don't believe it would make any difference to their long term schooling. So.much time is wasted anyway. It will make more difference from.a social or confidence point of view, if they miss a residential or school performance or the last few weeks of year 6 when all the fun stuff is.
From an academic point of view, if you find out what they will cover you can probably make that up yourself in an hour a day or less.

In all honesty - YABU to take DC out of school for a holiday, no matter how 'once in a lifetime' it is. For all the many reasons cited by posters already. Even if it has no long term effect on a DC's academic attainment, you're sowing the seeds of 'school isn't really important' in your DC's minds.

But plenty of people do take DC out (and not even for 'once in a lifetime' stuff) so I suspect the OP will go ahead and go for the holiday regardless. You're the parent, after all, so you make the decision.

However - as someone who works in a primary school office - if you do decide to go ahead, please bear in mind the following:

1 The absence will be unauthorised, because the headteacher won't be able to authorise it. Don't send in snotty emails or call the school office in a stinking rage because your precious leave hasn't been authorised. Or call the school office AGAIN in a stinking rage in July when you see a swathe of unauthorised days on your child's school report and you think it is UNFAIR. You are entitled to make a choice as a parent, of course, but you cannot demand that a holiday be authorised or that a school bend over backwards to accommodate you.

2 Chances are, you'll be fined. As per local authority guidelines. Don't send in snotty emails expressing OUTRAGE at the fine or call the school office shouting down the phone expressing outrage at the fine. It's not their fault you decided to go away in term time.

3 Your DC's teacher is not responsible for giving your DC work to do whilst away, nor are they responsible for giving your DC extra work to help them catch up once back. Don't send in snotty emails to the teacher, head of year group or head teacher demanding said work and expressing ABSOLUTE OUTRAGE that teaching staff have not bent over backwards to facilitate your holiday. You made the choice to go away. So you need to deal with that and not get stroppy about it.

Sadly, there appears to be a definite correlation between parents who take their DC out of school in term time and parents who behave as per the above. And it's got worse in the post-Covid 'ultra entitled' period too.

But at the end of the day it's a parent's decision...

Why would this be disrespectful?

Go for it, OP.

Advice about asking for the relevant curriculum map and getting in tutors is good. Obviously don't ask for work to be set.

SATs? Pfft. Secondary schools re-test as they know very well how Year 6s are hothoused for this. When working in the UK, the teacher judgments were always, always a more accurate indication of attainment then SATs.

@Londonandon Japan was my thought too as those are the only times we go.

Because of all the thought, work and commitment that the teacher has put into the planning and delivering of the lessons and whole curriculum. Taking the children out of class is saying it doesn’t matter that much.

Does this apply to all term time holidays or there an “amazing” scale to judge which holidays outweigh missing school? Could be seen as unfair.

The June of year 6 would probably be better for the school but only just.
Go whenever is best for you.
Budget £250 for fines.

If your half term is 2 weeks, that means you are private - the school probably doesn't do SATS, and if they do and they're particularly bothered by your absence and how it might affect their results, they'll just offroll you before that point. They probably won't.

If you can minimise your time off to a week rather than two, do that.

When I was in primary school it was allowed to take children out for up to two weeks term time (at least in my particular school or area it was). My parents took us out pretty much every year for two weeks. I remember one year I sent a postcard to my friend, he took it into school to show the class and our teacher set a topic for the class on the country I was in so my holiday impacted the whole class in learning something entirely new. Teachers probably had a lot more freedom to decide on what the class were learning then though.

Hi @CroccyWoccy love your name btw. I am taking my year 3 and year 6 for a week post SATs in May 2024. I just looked at the absence policy and whilst the school don't authorise it (they said they definitely would never authorise during sats week for exception circumstances etc) they said we can go. The LA is £60 per child per parent. And if that's not paid it's £120 like a parking fine. But noone I know has got the fine in my LA. I think post SATs is fine to take them if the temperature is better and I would do it this year while one is in yet 5 personally! Enjoy it all!!!

With your eldest being year 6 I would go after sats. They spend the whole time before that gearing up for them but after the sats themselves they don't do much at all! Our school start concentrating on their end of year play.

Actually it’s not the persistent school refusers this applies to- it tends to be a day or two off here and there because the child has a cold etc. Also, I was merely advising against getting on the slippery slope of it becoming an annual occurrence, or indeed, at any point in secondary school. If it is a genuine one-off then fair enough!

It’s not private. Two week autumn half term is the norm locally.

@FlyingPandas I definitely wouldn’t be demanding work to be set of expecting this to be authorised. I already feel a bit queazy about the idea of having to tell the school, it’s not something I’m particularly comfortable with.

This is really helpful thank you.

Or the flip side being that those of us who lost ones we love during that time know what matters in life

Education is a system but not a prison!

Ok, so can I stop paying my compulsory taxes then? I'd really rather use the money towards a holiday because I know what matters in life now.

Can I stop paying my compulsory car insurance for the same reason?

Of course I can't - what a ridiculous point.

Again - education and schooling is compulsory. You don't get to opt in and opt out at will.

Of course it's not their trip of a lifetime, they're in primary school and it's your dream to go, not theirs. I'm sure there's lots of otjer amazing places you could go that fit into mid-term dates.

I would do it another time you can go without missing 2 weeks of school, or go without them when they're a good bit older.

Ok 🙄