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 😅

Those mentioning teachers taking their DC out. When you sign up to be a teacher, you already know you work term time. You chose to accept those terms and are well aware that you won’t take holidays in term time.

On the flip side, parents who choose to take their DC out for holidays, should do so with the knowledge that it is not on the teacher to catch their DC up. Teachers should also not be expected to up their work load to send home work for DC going on holiday. The point is, it should be a parents choice.

The new rules will not affect the rich. Go figure.

No. Totally unfair on the teacher to try and have to catch them up - so much extra work.
OP your suggestion that parents can just look at the curriculum and teach the child themselves is unreasonable. How will you know which parts to teach - you will need to teacher to give you a handout with it on. More work for the teacher to have to generate and print out 2 weeks worth of work for each child.
Do you know how to teach maths concepts for example? Do you have the right concrete resources at home? If the initial concept is taught wrongly or missed, that is really hard to undo.
Holidays are a nice luxury but not essential. Plenty of families do not go away on holidays each year. I am a TA and we certainly don’t go on holiday every year as we can’t afford it. Neither did I go away every year when I was a child. We are no worse off for it - we had a lovely time at home, maybe doing a few day trips.
People saying their child learns so much from holidays abroad are being very selective. The majority of children who go abroad are just eating ice creams by the pool.

It's unworkable. In a school year of about 30 weeks, with 30 kids in a class you'd have two off on average every week. Or you'd have loads of kids off in the summer all at the same time. Schools can't function like that.

Some interesting points here.

would you be ok with your teacher doing the same? Well what if our teacher is ill for a week? What if it happens during the critical time? Isn’t it why so many schools become academies nowadays? Teachers are also the only profession to have the whole summer holidays off.

you’ve agreed to it when you signed up your children for school. Yes, also NHS staff knew about pay and workload and so did train drivers and teachers. We can demand better work/life conditions.

some people don’t give a sht about their children. *indeed, and some parents are also responsible for the children’s obesity crisis here in the UK. Shall we fine those too?

Why should teachers pick up the workload and teach twice? They shouldn’t. They should just move on. Works in plenty of countries, EU and non-EU. It’s the parents who can support their children during those couple of weeks.

the OP just wants to sip cheap booze by the sun. Please do not project.

now for other interesting points

what do fines actually achieve? People have been taking their children out of school and lying or paying fines anyway. People whom these fines supposed to punish (as in those who don’t care about their children’s education) will still not care. As we can see from some of the posts here the system is not really supporting those who are behind. So what do these fines actually achieve?

Responsible adults can make responsible decisions and decide for themselves based on their family circumstances. Allowing people to have this flexibility doesn’t mean that they will definitely use it. Although even a week would be nice, many won’t be able to pay for two weeks anyway. And those responsible people also have jobs and therefore have holiday allowance themselves. To add, anyone with a half braincell will not take their child on holiday during critical times.and if they do then a weeks holiday is really not their biggest problem.

No, you want everyone else to pay for your childs education, so you have to follow the rules to get that benefit.

You knew the rules when you registered your children to get that freebie, so follow them and keep your child in school unless they are sick.

The world doesn't revolve around you, just because you are too cheap to actually take on full (or any) financial responsibility for your children.

How much more charity than a free education for a dozen years do you actually think other people in this country should pay for?

Why should you take the piss out of every tax payers forced donation to your children, just so you can have a holiday that is only cheaper BECAUSE your children are supposed to be in school?

Your levels of critical thinking are really not coming across well here, OP

@HumanRightsAreHumanRights except none of what you said is actually correct. Because in that instance everywhere around the world would be the same. In every more or less developed country the education is free. Actually, UK teachers are paid pretty well by the world standards. And rightfully so. You absolutely can ask for better work/study/life conditions.

@razorbladethroat enlighten me then?

here https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zqhpk2p/articles/z3cxrwx hope there’re is settled. Oh and Oxford dictionary. To add, English is not even my third spoken language 😉

@MrBouc sorry just read your post. I understand what you’re saying but at the same time I’m always up for a debate. Actually think you’re right, nothing will be done but at the same time it’s not really working the way it is.

It's whether, not weather.
Maybe you shouldn't have taken time out of school for holidays.

@Mookie81 thanks 🙏 anonymous person on the internet whose phone never does predictive texts

Actually, UK teachers are paid pretty well by the world standards.

😂

Work (unless you are teacher of course) isn't remotely comparable with school. You idea is a recipe for chaos.

@TitaniasAss well here’s the source https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/10/teachers-pay-countries-salaries-education/

out of 195 countries on the world 😉

@frankentall hmmm… example for illustrative purposes? Of course it’s not directly comparable! But the majority do the gist

I certainly think that there should be more flexibility, especially for pupils were the time off wouldn't have a negative effect. At the same time work on safeguarding the pupils whose parents can't be bothered to get them to school and are keeping them off because they are covering up partying/DV. My GC will be getting phoned in sick this month. The teacher won't have to putting any extra time for them to catch up.

@Ponoka7 couldn’t agree more!

Oh link to the petition (pls delete if not allowed) https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/658365

Wasn't talking about the kids.

Your ignorance knows no bounds...

I don't often look at posters past comments on other threads but some of your replies show me that words do infact speak louder than actions.

Enjoy your evening.

If your policy came into effect then some kids would be taken out of school for two weeks. They wouldn't get taken on holiday or anywhere else. They'd just miss two weeks. And who's to say they'd come back?

As you were not educated here you probably don't know, understandably, that term time holidays used to be at the discretion of the head teacher.

So she could e.g. grant absence for a family where e.g. both parents were paramedics and couldn't get time off together otherwise, or where there was a family wedding overseas, or whatever. While denying permission where she thought it wasn't wise.

That's the policy we need back. Not your mad idea. Schools are struggling hugely with absence as it is and there are 13 weeks of school holiday. 13!

I don't catch them up.
They have access to homework posted online, the parents can do that. I'm not providing extra work, and the topic and planning moves along with or without them. We don't have time for special catch up for kids taken out for holidays!
And before someone starts, children off for long periods sick are provided with work.

@Phineyj why wouldn’t they return? Anyone can homeschool without giving any reason… and they might not return after summer which is longer…?

I'm a teacher and I will happily sign it.