To want more people to sign the petition?

[Somethingneedstobedone]

Allow students to be taken out of school for two weeks a year without penalty? I know each school is different but resent government’s directive to toughen up on attendance really grating on my nerves. Now, my children have 98% attendance, bar a few days for illness and docs appt I’ve always taken them on holiday during the break. However a lot of families simply cannot afford even a caravan break. A week in Cornwall in a caravan for £2000?!? Really?! A lot of places in the world do not have such strict guidelines and I, for one, has always been an A+ student even though we were travelling a lot. So I find the argument that 100% attendance is the main factor for children to succeed in their education pretty silly. Parental involvement is by far the most important factor. But teaching people how to be involved in their children’s life whilst working the said people to the ground is too tough. Rant over, thank you for reading 😅

@Biker47 well each job is different tbf. My point is that you can prioritise your load knowing when you’re off. Or sometimes you have to log in on holidays to make sure that you’re on track… anyhow, if you are actively involved in your kids education you know at what point in a year you can take them out and what you need to go over whilst you’re away.

@MississippiAF well some folks dont have the money others don’t want criminal record 🤔 soo…

Private schools have longer holidays generally, but also longer school days. Some of them have a compulsory lesson at the end of the day, some of them have Saturday lessons, so the number of teaching hours probably is the same as state schools.

It remains the case, that the majority of posters who post about taking their children out of school, mention their high level of attendance, as though it was a justification. Your background isn’t relevant though, neither are the circumstances in other countries.

As @SprinkleOfSunak says, own it and don’t expect your child’s teacher to explain the concepts and content they’ve missed. And hope that Ofsted don’t downgrade your child’s school, because the attendance and progress data aren’t good enough.

What if all the teachers and school support staff were allowed to go on holidays during term time? Or one day/week the classroom has one student as everyone else is on the beach?
If a child misses a couple of weeks, why should the school have to pick up the slack to stop them from falling behind? I think the holiday industry is a piss take for inflating prices that much.
But as the schooling system stands it's not fair on the kids or teachers if there could always be several people off for weeks at a time.

I think this would be better though, seems like how it used to be - it was a bit cheaper in term time, not much, some people went in holiday then for whatever reason, most people went in school holidays.

Then they brought in fines. Fewer people went in term time. Prices went down in term time but continued to climb and climb in school holidays so now more people are going back to term time holidays and eating the finest, because its worth it.

If the economy restabilised as you describe above, I think fewer people might actually take holidays in term time, and the perceived unfairness would be gone.

@Bluevelvetsofa well, if you read my post you will see that my point is exactly that - own it.
the justification is if they attend school and I’m clearly a reasonable parent why do I have to pay fines and risk criminal conviction so that my children can see their family abroad (for example…) or learn new life skills or experience life.

If you choose to enrol your child in school, you’re expected to conform to the school’s rules. If you think the rules are silly and you can do better, then you can opt not to enrol your child in school, home educate them yourself, and make your own rules. Just as if you don’t like your employer’s rules about the amount of annual leave and taking annual leave, you can opt to be self employed.

@ComtesseDeSpair except I don’t really have a choice do I? It’s either or. When it comes to employment I have lots of choice. To add, for other who may read this post, it’s absolutely fine to campaign for flexible work and better work conditions even if you’re already employed 🫶

Well that’s why there’s such thing as curriculum. It’s up to the parents to give their children a few things to go over whilst they are on holiday.

Is that why we have curricula? I never realised. Why are we wasting so much money on schools and professional teachers when we could just get parents to 'go over' a few things?! Is there another petition to appoint you as education secretary that I can also not sign?

I think you took too many term-time holidays.

@CranfordScones i have my own successful career thank you though 🙏 and a few term time holidays never affected my chances in life 🧐 I did however get to experience the most amazing things with my parents that are no longer here. It also widened my horizon enough to see that in a grand scheme of things reading your textbook on holidays instead of your class for a week is not such a big of a deal.

I did read your post and I’m glad you take responsibility for your child’s learning when they’re not in school.

Teachers do teach individuals who form a class. That’s why they tailor their lessons to take account of differing levels of need and ability. Thats why it’s difficult to manage ensuring the progress of each child, when there’s rarely everyone in class without absentees.

I’m not sure why you think flexible work and better conditions, by which I assume you mean, the facility to be out of school during term time, will be an improvement overall. Yes, maybe, for those who take their children out of school, there is certainly a benefit, not least a financial one. Not so much for the school and the teachers though.

🤣🤣

Never took my children out of school in term time for any reason other than illness.

But you keep making up your own clap trap and read into it what you like.

Op, you have misunderstood what is happening here. You are putting forward a logical argument, but the reason behind this isn't to do with logic, or the fact that involved, educated parents are perfectly capable of filling in the minuscule gap in knowledge from a child missing a couple of weeks of primary school, the reason is that they can't outwardly be seen to differentiate between types of family.

They are using this as a way to attempt to crack down on truancy, an attempt to force into compliance those families where school isn't really seen as something you do unless you have a good reason not to. I don't know enough about it, but presume that those in charge feel that it's more beneficial to do something about truancy, and if they have to annoy a whole sway of parents, whose children would be in school regardless, then so be it.

An irritating part of the whole debate, in my opinion, is that there are a proportion of children, be it due to SEN, or mental health for example, who find attending school a real struggle, and whose parents would really love for their attendance to improve, however this is a much more complex problem to solve.
The holiday issue is relatively easy way for a government to improve overall attendance because a good number of parents self regulate and are natural rule followers.

I know what you mean because where I live you can take a holiday when you like, but it's up to the parents, or the students when older to catch up. If you don't, especially when older you risk not passing the school year, so it's a big incentive.

OP - Will you personally undertake to ensure that your child/ children have caught up on all of the lessons, class work, homework, tests, etc that they miss? Or is that not your problem and the teachers can somehow manage to catch them up, whilst differentiating their learning in the meantime since they’ll be behind. Or do holidays matter less than education?

For Mary reasons, that is not going to happen.

I've never taken my children out of school but my point is, if I want to, why shouldn't I be able to?

They are MY children. Not the schools children, or local authority or the Government. They're mine. So why should I/others get fined for taking children out?

I work, I pay my way for this country and my children will do the same.

So many rules, rules, rules. The more rules that get put in place, the more we're losing rights over ourselves and our children. Soon enough, people will only work to exist in this country.

You may not find that scary. I do.

You’re really comparing adults and their ability to manage being off work where other people will pick up that work etc with a child’s learning? Wow! No wonder you think that it’s okay to take them out of school for holidays 🙄

No thanks. School isn't optional as far as I'm concerned and people who want to claim it is optional as and when it suits them should have to pay a fine for taking that privilege.

Another post to show how little respect people truly have for teachers and education. Great.

No, I will not be signing.

@Teentaxidriver i understand it is not only about me. You can see where I come from in my replies. I think that every normal parent wants what’s best for their child. They also want to be involved in their learning because it affects their children’s chances in life. Each parent who is a responsible adult understands that taking your child out term time means that they miss part of the curricula and therefore should seek prior advice front heir child’s teacher/s on when is best to take holiday and what is going to be going on at school. This may not be a norm in the UK currently because parents have to lie to get their children out of school. And when they lie they can’t have an open discussion on their children’s education. Once it becomes a norm every normal responsible adult will make sure that their children are best equipped and ready to go on holiday to experience things, see things, feel things. To get some vitamin d, to meet Pedro in a local park and become pen pals, to see their grandparents in a far away country that they could only meet via Zoom etc and etc. I think that all these good people can make a responsible choice and decision on their children’s education without a penalty or risking criminal conviction.

@Somethingneedstobedone I agree with you completely. The new rules are absurd.

It’s ok for those like Rishi who’s DC are in private school so have longer school holidays; being a millionaire, he never has to worry whether he goes in state school holidays or private school holidays.

Why should the average child miss out on such experiences? Family time is important.

The stance of “school is important, they’ll miss out on education” doesn’t wash with me. I have a SEN child who was out of education for months . Nobody cared. Not the LEA, not the school, not the government.

My DC got nothing , not even a welfare check , so the hypocrisy is lost on me.
If the issue is such about DC education, then how can a fine magically resolve that issue?

@Tristar15 yes because behind most children there’re responsible adults who can make this decision for them and support them in their learning whilst they are on holiday.

@CheeseSleaze 👏👏👏

“How did we all manage during the lockdown?”

Brilliantly.
All children were receptive to being taught by parents that had the time, knowledge and aptitude to teach them.
The great thing was, the more vulnerable children found that their parents were the ones who were even best at this 👏🏻

And there have been zero reports of any children falling behind 👏🏻

Killer lockdown argument there OP 🙄

No there isn't. Behind a lot of children are a lot of irresponsible parents who don't give a fuck about what they might be missing that week at school. Not all, obviously but claiming there's a responsible parent behind every child is ludicrously naive.