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?

It’s about discipline really, my kid goes to school unless she can’t due to illness because that is what life is like, you turn up and do what you have to do. Most holidays aren’t enrichment they are just holidays. And tbh whoever went, “oh yes that term time holiday, completely changed my life”. Just own it you want a cheaper holiday and you are fine with your kids missing school for it.

I don’t really get this blasé attitude towards education tbh. It’s valuable. DD’s private school has told parents that persistent absences (and yes they specifically mentioned holidays) will result in a child being asked to leave. Theres a reason for that, mine is ahead and probably wouldn’t be impacted by time off school but thats not the point really. One day she’s going to be an adult and she’s going to have to behave like one which means being responsible and taking ownership.

I mean it’s fine if you aren’t bothered about it, even with fines you holiday will probably be cheaper that going in the summer so if it’s that important to you then you can just go for it.

It's a piece of nonsense.
Education is more than a classroom setting. (MN is all about education and can't usually see past the classroom on these threads)

Holidays can be educational. I wouldn't be arsed with fines.

No I can’t. I can’t afford 5k fine + my records saying that I don’t care about my son because I’ve taken him out of the school to travel around the world in a period of 3 years

And those one or two weeks may only come during term time. Some people have jobs where they can’t always wrangle holiday together during school holidays. Thats life for some.

This x100.

Can we have some common sense back please

Reading this makes me think 90% of people on this forum are mad. Absolutely stark raving bonkers. Taking a few days or even a week out of school a for a family holiday, where memories are made, children may get to experience things they wouldn't usually and where families spend real quality time together is so valuable. Many couldn't afford this in the school holidays. Believe it or not, not all learning happens in a classroom -and I say this as a teacher. Labelling such families as persistent absentees' is ridiculous. If you came to my school I could point out the persistent absentees, those that are off every Friday and Monday because their parents are too lazy/hungover to get them to school. This is a different problem. Apples and oranges.

... and in reference to an earlier post. I wouldn't go camping in Norfork if you paid me. That's not a holiday, that's just hard work!

Does this swerve mean you're not going to imply that our longer school terms mean we're getting more education than countries with longer holidays? I guess that's a positive.

I was replying to your point about the final week of the summer term. If you want to discuss the issue more widely, don't ask (daft) questions about whether it's a problem that loads of kids were off in the final week.

It would be better if we removed the fining system altogether. It doesn't work. The other constituent countries of the UK manage fine without it, there's never been the slightest bit of evidence that it tackles any issues and it clearly creates some. The OP was quite right. Being worried about school attendance doesn't make this policy a good one.

How many kids do you have that the fine would be £5k?!

But you must be able to take some time off? Otherwise you wouldn't be able to take any holidays with your children whether in term or holiday time?

Why are we just talking about holidays? Sick children are being caught up in this too my ds couldn't walk he was in too much pain we got an attendance warning threats of a fine etc etc but he couldn't fucking walk he was in too much pain what were they expecting? Crawl to school? It was obvious we weren't on holiday his younger brother was in school clearly being bought in by me!

Fines don't work no fine is going to fix a chronic illness

There are no fines in Northern Ireland or Ireland though no one really worries about this and everyone seems to manage to catch up and get an education..

You do realise that some fines have been given out due to ill health. You child attendance due to medical appointments will make it low. If child then has a series of illnesses (that can't be proved with hospital stays), you also become.a risk of receiving a fine

It is OUR generation that views travel as a necessity because that is something we have always had. Our children’s views are changing, in part due to a greater awareness of the environmental impact.

if people are relying on cultural cues that the HAVE to go away, then they are living in the past, not the present. Also, if the cultural cues are telling them holidays are more important than education then they are following the wrong cultural cues.

I agree that's its overboard in primary school. My children are finished in school now but we often took them out for a week in primary school. We knew they were bright enough to catch up and time told that they were.

Yanbu kids learn so much from travelling they need to learn their is a world outside their front door. I think summer holidays should be reduced to 4 weeks and families should be able to then take their kids out for 2 weeks at their choosing excluding exams.

I’m not convinced that holidays are educational, we definitely focus on experiences but they are fun, not educational.

Yep! Same with Scotland. I heard a rumour they still have education systems there too. But obviously we couldn't possibly look past some dipshit Tory fail nonsense.

Legally they couldn't spend that much time at discounted prices vs full price.

I only holiday outside of school holidays and it's definitely a hike during, they are massively overpriced for what you get and regular price normally.

It doesn't matter whether you think they're following the wrong cues. The people making the choices about travel, which yes obviously aren't the 5 year olds, don't agree with you. Your experiences in the 90s are not the standard, and so naturally people don't pay attention to them.

But everything is educational. Swimming, languages, different foods, how an airport works, geography, currency. Etc

Im not sure where you are going with this? Yes I can take time off work. Whether their father and my older child can get time off during school holidays at the same time is another matter. If we do manage to get time off in the summer holidays and can afford to go away then is also another matter.

Does this swerve mean you're not going to imply that our longer school terms mean we're getting more education than countries with longer holidays?

Perhaps you have done the calculations, but I don't know. Private schools have longer holidays but also seem to have longer school days and some of them do school on Saturdays so maybe you could look into it. I'm not sure of the relevance though - we're in the country we're in and these kids are missing education to go to Benidorm.

Fine to argue that the fining system doesn't work. It is not fine to argue that parents taking their kids on holiday during term time isn't a problem. It's an increasingly massive problem.

It's completely over the top. School isn't the only place where children learn and it's not often the best place for many.
Don't undervalue family holidays. Whether it's exploring exotic environments, the pyramids or even some quality time poolside with family, it all holds value and helps to develop a child.

This is a totally different situation to neglectful parenting where children are consistently missing education.

The rules in the uk are ridiculous.

I wholeheartedly agree. Doesn't even need to be abroad, it can be in the UK.
We're always learning in life even if we don't realise it x