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.

….and it isn’t your children’s education. ?

As an aside I'm really interested (nosey) to know where the destination is! Unbearably hot in the summer and road-closing snow in the winter. Love places with extremes like that

Lots of state schools have 2 week long half term holidays. It's really not unusual. My grandchildren's schools are completely out of step with the schools where I live, and with each other's now one is in secondary school.

Whilst appreciating that this is going to sound wanky, education doesn’t just happen in school (also with the caveat that as long as they’re not struggling academically/socially etc etc)

You're right it's my dream holiday, not theirs. But I've discussed it with them and they're excited about the idea. And broadly speaking it'd be an 'enriching' experience for them - places that, if they weren't on the other side of the world, you can imagine they'd go on a school trip.

They're doing fine academically - not excelling across the board but at least average and are generally very adaptable. They're not the kind of children who struggle to get back into the swing of things after the school holidays.

Holiday of a lifetime vs pointless and soul sucking SATS. Hmm... just go. They will get far more out of the Holiday at that age then they would out of two weeks learning what a subjunctive verb is or whatever .

But what if they were poorly after they came back from holiday and more school was missed?

I'd wait it out, the 7 year old probably would prefer to go to Butlins or something like that...

Holiday off a lifetime, a 7 year old won't remember it when they're like 30!

Childhood illness is such a roulette wheel though. Both of mine had almost perfect attendance for the whole of the last academic year. This year my youngest missed 4 days just in the last half term with two very minor things which both needed a 48 hour exclusion. I'm not proposing taking them anywhere that has any particular higher risk of illness (certainly compared to the petri-dish that is a school classroom). Chances are they'd come back healthier than they went.

You could argue that we shouldn't take children out of school for additional time when there's already so many things that could take them out of school But on the other hand, is it worth angsting about 5 days when you can lose 2-3 days just because they're sick once?

'chances are they would come back healthier'
What a load of rubbish that is.

Being sick is unavoidable. Term time holidays are a choice.

Imagine coming back, then having a further week off school due to illness. That's potentially 2/3 weeks of school missed.

I'm sure the 7 year old would prefer Butlins/pontins etc.
I went to pontins when I was 7/8. I don't remember much of it apart from the photos.
Seems daft to do a 'holiday of a lifetime' when chances are the 7 year old won't remember it later in life.

I'd like you to answer my question, although your refusal to do so speaks volumes,

Since you believe that one can opt out of lawfully compulsory school education to spend the time on a holiday because holidays are more important - can I stop paying my lawfully compulsory taxes to fund a holiday after my epiphany that holidays are more important than taxes?

True. And there are at least twelve weeks holiday, every evening and every weekend for other enriching activities.

No long haul flights then? Another Petri dish of infection.

I'm saying I'm not increasing the likelihood of them being ill by taking them on holiday - they could miss a week of school at any point for any number of reasons. Yes I'm concerned about the overall impact of missed school days but I'm not particularly worried about them missing a week of school immediately after the holiday because there's no particular likelihood of that happening.

I went on a "big holiday" when I was about 8 and while I would have got more out of it at an older age I have LOTS of memories of it. Was no doubt a bigger deal for me then it would be for my DC as I had less cosmpolitan upbringing than them but the awareness that there's a big wide world out there was something that stayed with me (and has probably continued to influence my view of holidays as an enriching experience).

I just refuse to engage with people who wilfully obfuscate the issue.

@CroccyWoccy Before my kids started school I was horrified at the thought of taking them out for any reason other than life threatening illness.

Then life happened to my family, with a parental diagnosis of Alzheimer’s at the age of 57. Our lives turned on their heads, trying to bring up young family, work shifts around them-childcare plans disappeared with the Alzheimer’s diagnosis…other parent had enormous physical disabilities….MIL had alcohol issues…due to the Alz diagnosis at an age below 65, 20+ years ago there was huge ignorance and zero support for required care, we had to fight for it legally.

Sometimes we just had to get a break, and sometimes the only time we could physically do it was during the school term. We didn’t do it lightly or often, but our children deserved some part of us that wasn’t running off to deal with yet another care crisis.

These kind of experiences in life change you, and Change how you view some things like taking kids out of school during term time

I feel for you @Heyhoherewegoagain - I have seen Alzheimer’s very close as well. In your position I would have done the same and I hope the school would have been understanding. I don’t get the impression that, thankfully, @CroccyWoccy has such issues - at least, she has not mentioned anything.

@JustInterested2 thank you, that’s really kind. I’d hoped not to have to explain my history, but several people were having a go at me, so I laid bare my background, but “haters gonna” and all that

I wonder if people who think it's ok to take children out in school time also think it's ok for school staff to have time off during the term time for things like family holidays.

yes I do. Also my son lost 6 days last year because of strikes. So if he can lose 6 days because of strikes one year then he can lose 6 days to spend with his family somewhere. It’s lost education time in both scenarios

Sigh. The strikes were not for teachers to have jollies and go on holiday, they were for pay and conditions. Wanting better for staff and children in schools.

I know I didn’t say they were did I. But it meant 6 days off for my son whilst the other class from the same year didn’t strike so my son is 6 days behind in education to those kids. So if the education of my son is at risk for taking him away on hols then it’s as well as a result of the strikes.

It wasn't me comparing strikes to holidays... I don't see how it's relevant in this discussion.

@Vistada you’ve gone a bit quiet

Well just don't do it.

You can pick up an illness from the plane, are you not concerned about that?

Being poorly is unavoidable. Term time holidays are a choice. Completely different.