Students to be taken out of school for holidays

[Spinachandcheese1]

To clarify, I am mum of two young kids - not yet primary school age!

I am a bit puzzled on this hot topic on whether students should be allowed to be taken out of school for holidays mid-term...

Surely, holidays are less expensive mid-term, but how can a kid miss whatever is taught at school/miss homework/miss new topics that they will learn, just to go on holidays?

How will this kid be examined at at school test in this "lost" knowledge at a later day? For example, if they learn about the rivers of the UK or about decimals in maths or a historic event and then the kids will have to somehow know all these things that they would have learnt in this "missed week", how would that happen?

Please forgive if I am worried unnecessarily, as I said I don't have school aged kids to know what's happening but this is something that concerned me.

AIBU - Kids won't learn anything important in a week that will have an impact

AINBU - Kids will struggle to catch up academically on their return

It will depends on which week you choose, if parents help them catch up and how well the child is already doing academically.

Most maths & english gets returned to.
Other stuff is less critical. So you miss out on learning about an oxbow lake, not such a big deal.
Bright kids can catch up relatively easily.

Still wouldn't choose to do it though myself. It gives the idea that school isn't important and I think it isn't fair on the teachers either. But I can see why people do it.

Honestly I don’t know the answer but kids can catch up
1-1 work is much less time than being taught in a classroom.
20 minutes here and there doing the work and they will be fine. A kid getting the chicken pox doesn’t end their entire career 😂 so a 5 day off for a holiday won’t either.
maybe if we had a better educational system as a whole I might be inclined to agree but as it stands I don’t see the harm.

Depends on the age of the children, the time of year, the individual child and the parents.

I have taken my 9 year old out of school to accompany me on work trips as it's an opportunity for him to see the world. We make a concerted effort to make sure we support DS to catch up on missed content.

Good point but when you book a holiday 2-3 months in advance, especially if it involves flights, how could you predict what is going to happen at school then and if it's going to be a heavy week academically or a revision week?

I think part of the consideration has to be the impact on the rest of the class and the teacher. It's extreme to think all parents would do it, but that's potentially 30+ weeks of the school year that some kid isn't going to be there, poor teacher would be constantly having to recap stuff depending on what kids had missed what weeks. On an individual level the impact might be less, particularly when they're little and if they're doing well, but i think cumulatively it could be quite detrimental.

I wouldn’t take mine out of school during exam years but would every other year! Sadly I can’t, because I’m in education and term time only!

DH, when he was a teacher, really wasn't bothered if kids were on holiday during term time. Not his problem.
And this was a school where it was not uncommon for children to go and stay with family abroad for a month or so at a time.
He wouldn't set work for them, no teachers will.

When kids are young there wouldnt be a revision week and even if it is, it is revising what they already know. I've taken my kids out, it is way more important to me that we get quality family time and rest time than what they might miss in one week of school. For context though, neither of my kids have had a day off sick in the last 3 years, so 5 days over the school year is neither here nor there. The only time I haven't done it is years 10 & 11 or the lead up to sat's in yr 6. Both kids have managed good results

As others have said, lots of variables. I know children who have missed entire years of education due to family circumstances and it had no impact on end result - no catch up lessons needed because the parents were invested and although missing school, ensured they covered things at home.

As PP said, also depends on the relevance of what was studied in that time (although admittedly you would not know this when booking a holiday). Fundamental concepts in maths and English are repeated

There are times of the school year where week can be missed with minimal impact so if it had to be done, I would be choosing that (we don't miss school but acknowledge we are extremely fortunate to be able to afford holidays when they are off).

Whilst I am in no way suggesting it is only authorised for brighter children, the reality is brighter children will catch up faster and will ease.

I don't do this because it stresses the kids out. In exam years I wouldn't/don't either. But otherwise I just think a week together having a lovely time with family when it might not be viable in the holidays is as valuable as a week at school for a person's wellbeing. You are very unlikely to miss something in a week or two that's going to affect you in later life. Regular absences are a different matter.

Also depends if you’re talking about a child in y1 or y11.

Some stuff they can just miss without any particularly significant impact - my daughter was off (sick) the week they did “making a Roman artefact” and “writing a Roman soldier’s diary” but I’m confident she’ll be fine regardless. Other stuff seems to be recapped often at primary school, so if they miss the week they’re doing the “ee” sound or whatever it will generally be retaught and revised anyway. A substantial number of children in my daughter’s KS1 primary class have joined mid-year, from abroad, with no English, completely different curriculums and in one case no prior experience of education at all - they all get on with it and most of them catch up.

Missing the fortnight they teach an entire topic on a GCSE syllabus would be problematic but they’d be expected to catch up using friends notes etc.

At primary school they have a curriculum where they cover a different topic for a week then revisit it lots of times over a year. Eg 1 week telling the time, 1 week times tables, 1 week fractions, 1 week shapes… then repeat. It’s so that kids don’t forget what they learned as well as it hopefully being easier even with more challenging questions next time round.

People with kids at school know when exams are eg SATS, GCSEs so know to avoid those times.

I think the opportunity for a family holiday, experiencing new places, activities, foods, people etc is very beneficial for children and unfortunately it’s just so expensive in school holidays that many can’t afford it. I really don’t agree with the fines (unless during or close to exam times), and think this should be parents choice. Parents can then help children catch up with what was missed (teachers shouldn’t be expected to do this).

I’m practice I don’t think it’s quite as big a deal as people make out. Lots of people in our school take kids out a few days before/after a holiday to tag more days on/get cheaper flights and no-one bats an eyelid. I’m taking mine out early to go to Lapland. It’s a one-off and if I get fined I accept that.

You just have to be prepared to pay a fine if necessary and own your own choices. It can be a perfectly rational choice to take kids out but I’ve seen some ridiculous posts on the Disney message boards about people trying to make the case for educational experiences and going properly ott when fundamentally the decision is about price.

The people that make a massive song and dance about it (ie moaning on social media about state intrusion etc) are probably the ones whose children should be in school…

That's why it's age dependent.
I wouldn't take a child out of school during exam years

I'm taking ds out 3 days before may half term because it was £700 cheaper to do so. And ds has Sen so having a few quieter days at start of holiday will help him settle.

His attendance since September is 98.7% he has missed 1 day for illness and started at 11am one morning due to a hospital appointment.

He's achieving well academically.

I'm not worried at all.

I wouldn't do it in year 6,9,10 or 11.

The main reasons why I don't do it :

I worry that my kids will then say "but if I can miss school for a holiday, why can't I miss it today because I feel like it" - they are little at the moment so I could get them in anyway but when they are teens it won't be so easy

If we use up leave in term time, it means we then have to pay for more school holiday childcare so between that and the fines, not sure it would really save us money

I don't really worry about them academically - when one of mine was out with a week's illness, he caught up fine

Not everyone takes children out of school for holidays.

If I did I wouldn't touch years 6, 10, 11, 12 or 13 and would book the week before/after may half-term or around Easter. If you book it at the start of the academic year you ruin their attendance percentage for ages which means if they feel ill at school then won't be sent home unless actively vomiting or a limb is hanging on by a thread.

Even in year 7 and 8 a two week holiday could wipe out a whole half unit of work that forms the foundation for the next one, at my school that would have been 8 science lessons, 8 English and 8 maths.

I also dont have school age children and don’t think I would take them out for a holiday as such but we live abroad and I can see wanting to take them out for the odd day if we want to get back to uk for specific events. Not too frequently but if school finishes on 24th December then take them out for the last 2 days so that we can visit family for Christmas etc

I think you have to factor in what year the child is in - for example I wouldn’t take a year 10/11 pupil out all all, but a reception child in the last week of summer term? Hell yes.

Ultimately I don’t think it should be encouraged too much but that it should be at the discretion of the parent to some extent with school only intervening if it’s having too much of a negative consequence (to be judged on a an individual basis)

We are going to portugal for 10 days this year and Japan which would need 5 days of in school term ( she is in year 5 this year ) and year 6 next year but we are not allowing her to do sats so suppose that won’t effect them too much!

Took mine out for a couple of months and there wasn't much impact. This was in first couple of years of school and they were in the top group for everything prior and we did some small amount of home schooling. Took them a few weeks to catch up but I think it was more about adjusting to the routine and expectations of school again. I wouldn't do it near exams or probably in later years or if they were generally struggling. And clearly if everyone did this it would end up being really disruptive for the teachers.