To take daughter on holiday in term time?

[ELW12]

Exactly what the title says basically.
We were looking at going on holiday during the May half term, but the prices are just so out of reach for us. Daughter is in Reception so this has been the first year of having the issue of school holiday prices, and the problem we face is having to decide on either not going on holiday at all, or taking her out for the week before May half term.
I obviously appreciate education is very important, but surely it is important to make memories as a family as well? If we could afford to take her in half term then of course we would. Is it THAT bad for us to do it during school? I was thinking of asking her teacher if we could take some work with us so she doesn’t massively miss out.
Also, is it best to be honest with the school and just accept the fine? I feel like daughter will be far to excited to not let it slip, and also don’t like the idea of asking her to lie so we can pretend she is ill!

when I questioned why they were going over the same work we'd done in lockdown - not everyone had your standards 😬 well fuck me sideways and stick your rules about attendance up your arse.

As a former teacher, I was always against term-time holidays. Lockdown changed that for me. My child returned and trod water for a year after returning to school. They were using her as a little TA to go round and help the others catch up. She will do any work missed with me after her holiday. She is already ahead in maths. I will continue to take her out of school her entire time in primary. I won’t in secondary.

For me the biggest problem is if you both work you're using a week of AL and you've still got all the holidays to cover.

We've taken the kids out a couple of days before a half term, that is usually enough to get a decent price and there's no risk of a fine. Also the last 2 days before holiday, I'm pretty confident they aren't missing anything crucial!

Re: holiday prices generally, we go camping in France every summer for this exact reason.

Agreed, this kind of virtue signalling is infuriating. You know they're not going to do the work anyway..!

Actually yes, PP is right - it does depend on your dds attendance so far. If she’s like my dc1 who despite sitting next to kids who were constantly sick, didn’t have a day sick all year- fine. But my dc2 caught everything doing the rounds and if other kids needed one day off for a bug, she’d be still too sick for school after a week- so a child like that, maybe not.

you’ve said your dd is 4 so I’d be happy to take out of school now, but think if she was a child who needs a bit more teacher input than most to help her understand school work, that would also influence my decision.

basically, depends on the child, but reception is ok, further up the school you really need to think carefully about taking her out.

In reception I'd do this. But as she gets older I think you just have to accept that you can't afford holidays like you used to and find cheap alternatives (camping etc).

@iLovee well there's always one! They can piss of to private school for that. You did well to just say no 😆

We took our 2 out of school, the memories we have of those family times are very precious. We used to holiday with the in laws and an aunt, cost and availability was something we had to bear in mind. School asked couldn’t we go in school holidays, which is fine if you can do that, but not all of us could take the same weeks. Also no point in lying, especially if they return to school with a sun tan.

As a teacher - most schools I've worked in have a blanket "no giving work for kids to do on holiday" rule. It's kind of unfair to expect a teacher - who is in the classroom with the materials and teaching them - to do anything additional to that just because you let daughter happens not to be there! Plus, realistically, are you really going to do any work while you're away? If you want to, take some books and read them with your DD - that's always a valuable activity!

Have fun though! 😉

(From a teacher who would like to take her own DC on holiday to and can't afford to because of prices and doesn't have the term time option!)

My children have finished school now and with hindsight I realise I was too much of a stickler for good school attendance and never allowed them to take time off school unless really ill. If I had my time again I'd allow the odd days off for holidays or special occasions as life is all about balance.

Reception should be a pretty informal learning environment so a week off will not have a lasting effect on your child's education. It's more important, in my view, to enjoy happy family time and experiences on a holiday.

Although, don't spoil it by taking work with you!

Do what you want for your family. Please don’t ask the teacher for work or catch-up lessons. It’s your choice not for them to manage.

We're flying out to Turkey on the Thursday evening before half term so my dc are missing one day, it's significant cheaper but not missing loads of school, although mine are older. When mine were younger we often took them out of school, they're both excelling so hasn't harmed them

Ok I get your point, just sometimes I can’t help but think as mothers, we (in most situations, obviously there is adoption etc as well) but we grew our children for 9 months, went through the ordeal of labour, spent countless sleepless nights whilst they were babies, changed hundreds of nappies, kept them warm, kept them fed, tuck them in every single night, make them feel loved every single day and worried about them to such extents. I make sure my daughter’s attendance is excellent and I make sure we read every single night before bed. I put my heart and soul in to my daughter, she is my absolute world. Yet to a school she is just a number, an attendance percentage etc etc..but because of that then I shouldn’t take her on holiday on a plane which she would be SO excited for? Again, I get that education is one of the most important things you can give a child and I am grateful that our children are entitled to free education. BUT it shouldn’t be what life revolves around entirely. If someone WANTS to go and do something like one week of holiday, as long as it wouldn’t have a huge affect which I know for my daughter it wouldn’t - then honestly why the hell not? Life is just too short!!!

Take her. Kids get a huge amount out of travel and family time. Education is apparently optional when it suits government so I feel parents can use their best judgment. If she's doing well with otherwise good attendance I wouldn't hesitate.

I’d take her, if missing a few days aged 4 is going to compromise her education there’s a much bigger problem than taking a few days off school. Education is more than English and Maths, having family time, travelling and seeing new places matters too.

@ELW12 Do what you want, but I refuse to believe it's a black and white choice of taking the term time holiday or no holiday at all, as you've implied in the opening post. You're just making the choice to do that holiday rather than something else that wouldn't take her out of school.

Why are you writing such long long messages of justification, just go on the holiday ffs, you're the parent, you decide

Reception age I'd go.
You don't necessarily have to take an entire week though...even leaving a few days earlier before the end of term can cut hundreds from the price of a holiday. I saved £700 roughly on one holiday by changing the date by two days.

I’m an ex teacher. It’s really not that much of a hassle to tell the parent what phonic you are covering and print a couple of worksheets. She’s not asking for the entire scheme of work.

OP clearly just wants to do it, I'm not sure what the point of the post here is TBH?!

You've made your mind up, so just do the holiday. In future, plan holidays better to help with budgeting.

A teacher friend of mine told me the other day that the fines are changing from Sept 2024, amounts going up (not drastically), but if parents take children out for 5+days for 3 consecutive years, the third year will not be fined, but instead parents will be prosecuted.

Worth bearing in mind going forward.

I think it's really weird to ask for schoolwork to bring on holidays tbh. I don't work (except for a cursory glance at the emails to check nothing's on fire) on holidays so I don't expect my DC to either.

But this is a new law in England. In the 90s and early 00s, almost everyone went on holiday in term time at some point and miraculously none of us suffered. I don’t think it’s particularly disruptive, especially in Reception.

We’re in Wales and it’s a bit more lax here. Our school tend to say yes and recognise holidays are often educational experiences in themselves.

I do think it’s unnecessary to ask for work and, although what you’re saying to them is you appreciate the importance of education, in reality it’s not needed and causes more work for the teacher.

I think the whole holiday rule is unfair and a bit silly. It’s a blanket rule when in reality the children repeatedly missing school are not going on an annual holiday, they have parents who have issues or other key reasons to miss school (like SEN/ALN). I think it’s easy to forget it’s such a new (and slightly odd) enforcement of a rule and wasn’t really an issue. I think it was Gove who introduced them in 2013? (Happy to corrected as from memory) They were based on questionable data and, really, Gove’s inability to explore and discover the complex real reasons for low attainment at school.

Currently, it’s a bizarre juxtaposition that term time holidays are an issue in England, but less so elsewhere - and that, despite this, schools still seem to be having attainment issues, complex other problems and high absences. We can’t discount COVID as a big part of that, but neither can we discount other issues that were already there before (poor access to underfunded and CAHMS, lack of access to early intervention when parents struggle, lack of support for children with SEN/ALN, poverty etc.) It is, however, a useful way to get a small amount of extra funding as most parents will pay the fine.

I agree education is important, but not to the detriment of small amounts of normal, other experiences. Holidays are often beneficial, especially with the pressures faced by school children today. They’re also educational - and, for those which aren’t that educational, have social benefits. An annual holiday will not generally disrupt a child’s education to the point they can never catch up - especially in Reception.

Why are you writing such long long messages of justification, just go on the holiday ffs, you're the parent, you decide

This. It’s your decision to make. It’s not a terrible thing to miss a bit of school for a family holiday, no one (including the school) needs to give you permission. If you’ve considered all the factors as they relate to your child and your circumstances just make the decision and go.

Great post @ChaosAndCrumbs.

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