To think the penalties for term time absence is ridiculous..

[JKbowling]

I got this in my email inbox today, sent to all parents and guardians.

"Failure to safeguard a child's education" appearing on your DBS, really?

As for term time holidays. If a family can't afford to pay for their one measly UK break per year to be had during the 6 weeks holidays (because the prices are hiked right up and become unaffordable) how does school suppose said family is going to pay the fine?

What limited internal resources … I truly feel sorry for you if the only time you unwind is when you are on a foreign all inclusive. Must be very limiting.

Do I? Thanks. Wish you’d told me that before I took my overpriced summer holiday that I feel exhausted from.

Well, that's a fair point. I did suggest the use of a wooden spoon in another thread and I was widely mocked, so that says a lot.

Are you sure? You might be nicer if you'd had a week at Butlins every once in a while.

What is limiting is to think that we all go on hols to all inclusive. If you’re happy staying at home and making happy memories for your family good for you. Others will choose their ways to make happy memories

oh another point. our society is now so divided that rich people and poor people are worlds apart. Never before has there been a bigger income divide. Never before has it been harder to earn a decent wage, for the majority of people, or dream of owning your own property (unless you have help from family). No wonder people want to go on some nice holidays, affordable holidays. Even without these holidays people couldn't afford to buy a house and live in relative poverty vs those who own property. They earn a lot less than they used to. The cost of living is much higher. Give people a break FFS. Not everyone was born with a silver spoon and holidays bring a bit of life to their otherwise difficult lives.

It would be far better to fund schools, and other services, properly so they could actually tackle persistent absences and the reasons for them.

Going after parents taking their child out for a holiday is using a blunt, low cost, tool to try and solve an entirely different problem.

Removing the discretion from HT's to authorise absences in certain circumstances is both short-sighted, and imo downright insulting to the HT's. They know their pupils and families far better than the government do.

We took two of ours out for a holiday term time last year. For the first time in 6 years we got a week of respite care for my youngest. For the first time in 6 years they had a week where they could be our sole focus. They had our attention. They go on a day out and it not be interrupted by their siblings needs. We did things that we cannot possibly do with her around, one of which was just chill together as two kids and two parents.
Their two HT's were totally in support of it. Yes, they missed school but they gained something they haven't had in years.
If we'd have been facing a fine we'd have gone because we could afford it, and it was worth it. HT's should absolutely have the discretion to allow families who need a break to have it.

I was just checking with google the reasons why some kids miss schools in the uk : bullying , mental health , religion, parents having to work , lack of access to money for transport.
these are reasons that will go unauthorised and that will affect families whilst the government does nothing to support them.

Fine, each to their one preference and their own budget… during school holidays.

as others have posted, I don’t get to take holiday on demand as an adult - I have to work within workplace rules and get approval. Sometimes that means I can’t go on the trip I want - I don’t then get to take holiday anyways and complain about consequences.

can concur on the first two for my child. sadly school was crap and offered little actual support for a child who was really struggling - in fact made it worse. a holiday would have done her the world of good! to the point whereby I was considering home schooling. lots of schools these days are just totally terrible on mental health. solve this = attendance would go up massively.

The problem during the last week is that very few lessons take place ,every parent knows it's just a wind down week of videos and 'fun' , killing time until the last day.
So what does the government expect ? if they want parents to take things a little more seriously then lessons should be as normal in the last week, children taken on holiday experiencing the beach,culture,castles,precious family are obviously going to gain so much more that week than the ones tidying up followed by a dvd.
The attitude to the last week of summer term is ingrained in many parents and children once they reach an age of understanding,teachers also and it is just not taken seriously.
I hate these fines and i am very relieved my kids have finished school now , all 3 have been taken out , not often and 5 days max , these days have had no negative effect ,all my kids are doing well , but what they do have are lots of memories and experiences from a family holiday affordable to us because we took them out of school once in a while and never at important times.
I have no guilt and no regret , my kids my choice my responsibility.
If 450,00 kids were missing lessons during the last week then yes it would be a problem but they're not , that's what the government should be focusing on.

Oh I’m sure you are just overflowing with such incredible ‘internal resources’ that you can keep your whole family on the edge of their seats with excitement for weeks!!

You're right. I never unwind because I just don’t know how to holiday with teens at home and do the housework at the same time. I’m just doing it all wrong. You are a more superior human obviously.

What do you do if the company you work for doesn’t approve hols on school holidays because that’s their higher time of the year for work? There are many posters on this thread who have said they can’t have family holidays for this reason. what happy memories do these kids do?

No correlation is not necessarily causation, but the research strongly suggests that in this case it is indeed causation. Fines, of course, do not apply if a child is home educated. And, whilst you may think grades are not everything, the evidence is that attainment at school is directly related to the child's chances of a happy adulthood.

There aren’t many posters in that situation though- just many hypothesising about that potential. Kids have 13 weeks off, adults have almost 6 weeks - the vast majority of families can find a week together. Whether they spend it abroad or in the uk is up to them.

@prh47bridge you cannot meaningfully measure this in isolation.
It depends on so many other factors - what ability the child has, how engaged the parents are, how well the child felt during revision and exams. How about their mental health, confidence, understanding and resilience?

Clearly it is correlation, because what possible directly causative mechanism exists that means a child missing two weeks of school in year 1 leads them to get a 5 in Drama ten years later?
None clearly.
There’s an underlying set of factors which are causing both lower attainment and lower attendance across a child’s school
career (and arguably mainly their secondary school career assuming they have the basics of literacy and numeracy down).
The factors probably aren’t a fortnight in Tenerife once every couple of years.

I get what you're saying but maybe upbringing / social status in childhood relates to grades, and grades are a result of upbringing / life circumstances, and upbringing also contributes to happiness in adulthood? I don't think you can separate then out TBH. Plenty of unhappy high achievers as well. I am sure they are all linked into each other. So singling out grades from that mix isn't necessarily what it might seem to be.

Happy to spitball ideas if you need inspiration!

would also recommend you look at your approach to housework if it is taking all week - definitely not normal or necessary.

It isn’t just the. 2 weeks in Tenerife, though, is it? it’s living in a family that prioritises Tenerife over education.

At my school, lessons were to be taught right up to the second last day.

every family is different and this is so far from the norm.

bit sensationalist.

I think you should work on your comprehension skills before making suggestions to others. Housework does not take all day but it does need doing daily.

Maybe you live in a bit of a tip? Or you just throw in some processed food for the kids? Tell you what, you tell me how to unwind and relax for a week straight with a teen and a young child and I’ll swap some recipes.

I will always prioritise my families mental health over education and holidays are good for people's health. And if the only way that is affordable is to go during term time I will always support that. Life is short enjoy it

Well if it’s being argued that this research shows a causative link between missing ten days of education and dropping half a grade at GCSE, then literally yes it is just the ten days in Tenerife.