Parents need to stop lying about term time holidays

[Ljcrow]

If parents want to take their kids out of school for a term time holiday because it's cheaper, I wish they wouldn't give the bullshit that it's an "educational experience". There's an article about this on the BBC today, but working in a school I've heard it all before. Can we not pretend that an all-inclusive to Lanzarote or similar is a rich cultural and educational experience?! If you want to take your kids our because it's cheaper that's up to you but don't try claim the moral high ground, no one's falling for it. (Fwiw I think holiday companies shouldn't be allowed to hike their prices up in school holidays, it's disgraceful, and as a parent myself I have no choice but to pay those inflated prices. It sucks.)

Heads can still grant it in exceptional circumstances, mine were granted the days I requested last year. I would have taken them whether they did or didn't. I believed taking them out in this specific circumstance was the right thing to do, so I didn't need to lie about.

If they had fined me, I would have accepted that, I had made the choice, I would have dealt with the consequences.

I have no issue with parents taking them out in 'once in a lifetime' circumstances, and our school is actually quite good at permitting trips when the child really needs it. Our head is very compassionate and stretches the rules as far as possible.

Which makes it even more annoying when people take the mick and lie, this head is risking getting in trouble by permitting some trips, and her kindness is returned with lies.

If parents want to take their children away in term time (and pay the fine), that’s their choice. However, don’t be asking the class teacher to provide work, additional reading books etc or extra lunch time support for DC to catch up.

Which brings it back to social acceptability again then. I took my kids to Switzerland before Christmas. We travelled on a Sunday and came home Wednesday. The elder was off college anyway and the younger missed 2 days of school. I honestly couldn't be doing with the hassle of asking if he could go and the hysteria surrounding one child missing 48 hours with a bunch of tired people counting down to the end of term, so I said he was ill.

He navigated an airport, customs and trams to the hotel, went to a Swiss Christmas market and some landmarks, got on a train, went to France and another Christmas market, shopped with Euros and Swiss Francs, spoke German to order food, watched me speak French to order food, buy tickets and do a customer satisfaction survey 😂 and ate Alpine specialities in two different countries. He arguably learnt more with me in those two days than he would have in school when everyone is at the quiz and video stage, and nobody is going to convince me otherwise!

They’re not going on holiday “every week”. Going to the supermarket to do the shop is educational. Doing it every week would not be.
Do you really not see the difference between giving kids rich and varied experiences and doing one thing repeatedly?

Every time you leave the U.K. to go abroad it’s imo a good opportunity. Children who never been abroad never experienced a lot of things , even in crappy AI holidays you get a chance to interact with people they never meet before .
you can spot an adult who never had holidays abroad a mile away , children deserve and should be taken if their parents can do it . I would say it’s 100% more important than whatever they where missing in school

I work in a school and couldn't care less if the parents take their kids on holiday.

Everyone saying it's disruptive.... There are always kids missing bits of the curriculum for various reasons, sickness, non attendance etc. It's just how it is and always has been.

Also, after getting a 'warning' letter from my childs school asking us to 're think' two days off when a very very close family member died very unexpectedly they can quite frankly suck it.

Yes, that sort of thing really doesn't help. I know schools are under a lot of attendance pressure, but that's true of all of them and plenty aren't stupid or insensitive enough to pull a stunt like that letter.

I tell my children that the most important gift the government gives them is an education!

I will never take them out of school for a slightly cheaper holiday! It would make me a massive hypocrite to do such a thing!

I book holidays a year in advance to get the best price possible and plan educational and cultural activities while we are there!

Before I had children I enjoyed cheap non term time holidays and would see families with school age children in my resort!

I would see those children burnt to a crisp from unsupervised sunbathing without suncream while their parents drank their body weight in all inclusive alcohol, their kids living on pizza, chicken nuggets and chips! They never left the hotel to see any of the historic or environmental attractions!

On one holiday I had to jump in to pool to rescue a drowning kid on two occasions, because they were not being supervised… the feckless parents were not even bothered.

In real terms it’s not all that many years your kids are in school and you have to pay more to go in the school holidays!

Plus the additional cost is offset slightly by not having to pay your children into a holiday club for two weeks in the school holidays.

Like most of my colleagues, schools are not a nice place to work anymore on the whole. There is little consideration for the actual children and families. Everything is a box ticking exercise.

There is no room in lessons for impromptu discussions, debates and working with the dynamics of the class.

The lack of practical lessons is dismissing the talents of about half the students and the only thing management care about is results.

Very soul destroying job from what it was when I first started

I take my kids off school to go abroad I’m in Scotland so fines are not a thing . It’s the only way my oldest can do it as he is autistic and struggles in peak summer . I’m lucky my kids are far from behind in school quite the opposite but I wouldn’t think twice about taking them a few days for a holiday . My best childhood memories are from holidays with my family , literally I remeber not wanting to go on a holiday as a teen as I wanted to see my friends and having to go and ending up loving it . In fact I often mentioned this to my parents, that I’m so happy they made us go because some of the best experiences I had where those times . The new foods , the hot summers , the long journeys , the late nights , the new people we always meet , I recently took my own children abroad to meet the old house I used to stay during my summer holidays and was magical to return with them and tell them all the stuff we used to do .
now I’m in my 40s I remember some of my school friends and some of my days at school but the holidays with the family , those memories are priceless!

Again, what about the families who can't go in school holidays because of work? Are we supposed to just not go on family holidays at all while they're school age? We wouldn't have gone on holiday since 2014 when my rldest syarted school and wouldn't be able to go until 2036 when my youngest is not school age. That is many years.

And not all of us have to pay holiday clubs in the school holidays so that argument doesn't always stand.

The 'feckless parents' would do that whether they went in term time or school holidays, and the fact they're only eating pizza and nuggets or not leaving the hotel...so what? They're on holiday? They're relaxing, they're having fun and being children. You have no idea what their daily lifestyle is like - it could be a holiday after a tough time, it might be the first holiday they've had in years (or their first holiday!), the only time they get to chill together as a family etc.

What????

I took my children when young on a tour of Italian cities and visited many heritage sites, museums and art galleries absolutely this was educational! Its not all AI holidays. I also recently went to Turkey with my grandchildren (although that was in the holidays) and we visited The Temple of Artemis and Ephesus as well as doing a wildlife trek with a local guide; even when we went to Canaries we went whale and dolphin watching, visited a wildlife sanctuary and ate in local eateries! all of these are educational opportunities! So yes i think parents should be able to take children away in term time and yes also holiday companies should be forced not to hike prices up! And for the record none of them fell behind at school!

I was referring to the feckless parents that didn’t seem to care that their child was drowning!

The child had absolutely nothing to do with me but jumped into a pool fully clothed once, and once while sunbathing and at least in swimwear because his parents were drunk and having a cigarette and not supervising him!

Based on your comment perhaps people without children shouldn’t save the life of a drowning child because ‘the parents are relaxing’

Plenty of people have a tough time… but I am struggling to see your point!

If you want to get trashed on holiday and relax… perhaps don’t have kids!

Can’t get time off in the summer holidays … take a holiday in the two weeks Easter holidays!

The way I see it is that even a weeks all inclusive to lanzarote is an experience for children. They are spending quality time with their family, perhaps attempting to communicate in a different language, meeting different people, swimming, experiencing an airport, maybe reading a book or two, using a different currency, visiting places they never would have seen, and having fun! Perhaps it’s hard to see the merit if it’s something you’re used to. My kids have been abroad once, three years ago, due to holidays abroad simply being unaffordable for me. They learned so much in that holiday, things that have stayed with them. It gave them happy childhood memories, which are priceless. We didn’t go term time, got lucky booking it during Covid when prices dropped massively, and waited on tenterhooks until we were sat on the plane in case it all went tits up. There are experiences school simply can’t provide, invaluable ones. So until schools stop lauding this power over stretched families, people will book term time holidays and lie about it. It’s not their issue, or yours. So just roll your eyes if you must, and accept it

That.

Seriously. If you want to complain about parents trying their best to give holidays to their kids that they couldn’t afford any other way…Can you do it elsewhere please?

This is no longer true actually. Nowadays private schools have to legally report attendance data to the LEA. Tough luck.

Ireland is doing quite well on the education front and kids go on holidays during school time, noone gets fined and noone has to lie, once you let the school know.

The government should be fining the holiday companies and airlines for unreasonably hiking the prices during school holidays. There is no good reason for this other than pure greed because they know parents have no choice. The government would rather threaten parents because they are too scared to go after the big corporations

Ach, I was taken out for 1or 2 weeks each year for holidays, I don’t think it affected me? Got good GCSE’s and pay my taxes. A week or two should be build into plans for illness, snow etc anyway. Scotland seems to cope just fine. It’s the long term absentees that are the problem and need support. Having a week in the sun if you’ve had no other significant time off shouldn’t be a problem.

I work in a school but everyone knows the last few weeks of the summer term is spent taking down displays, playing games and winding down. Not much actually goes on from experience of having kids myself and working in a school. I have no choice but to pay full whack for holidays as I wouldn’t get leave granted either and if I did it would be unpaid which is one heck of a hit and not financially viable. It is what it is, however, if I had a job where I could take holidays whenever I pleased, I guarantee to save a couple of hundred quid I’d take my kids out of school for the last few days. To you a holiday may not be educational, but the other benefits that come from a family holiday are huge. They are great for resetting, coming together, mental offloading and spending time with each other in nice weather and surroundings. Hugely beneficial given most of us live exceptionally busy lives and pass each other like ships in the night due to many a burden. Kids need that family time and us parents cherish this time. Nothing I love more than seeing my kids communicating with others from a different country in their own ways because of a language barrier, having fun, trying new foods, swimming in warm seas and having a blowout. Happy to take a hit for it personally. We didn’t holiday last year due to other commitments but we went on long weekends and city trips. Family time is so important as everyone is run into the ground with busy lives. Parents shouldn’t be penalised at all.

That's pretty unusual nowadays, most schools have such full curriculum they are still working away trying to fit it in. Dds school has a fun morning on the very last day, other than that they are working as normal.

We took our DS (14) on a Mediterranean cruise when my DH was running workshops onboard. I can guarantee he learned more from visiting Rome, Pisa, Barcelona etc. than he would have in school, not to mention experiencing life at sea. I don’t believe that an absence of 10 days makes it impossible to catch up. What about children who have time off through illness? I can see the problem if it's a regular occurance but for a rare one, I think it's fine.

I live in a fairly MC area and parents often used to take their kids skiing or to Disney in term time. It wasn't because it was the only way they could afford it, it's because they didn't want to pay the full price. Their kids still had other holidays in school holidays.

If you're working it doesn't seem to make sense to take term time holidays, (of course not everyone would get AL granted in school hols) then you need even more AL to cover all the school holidays....