Would you take your kids out of school to go travelling?

[Travellingtime123]

We’re in a very fortunate position to have the opportunity to take our kids travelling for a year if we want to. We just need to decide if it’s a good idea.

• We’ve lived abroad for a decade and we’re planning to come back to the UK. We’ll be changing jobs/schools anyway so could take a gap year before we come back.
• The kids will be 9 and 7 (we’d come back to the UK in time for them to start year 6 and 4).
• We own a home in the UK so we know where we’re moving back to. Although I have no idea how this would affect school applications etc.
• Both kids like travelling (we’ve done a lot since they were babies), we’ve done full summers but at a pretty slow pace and obviously only for 7 weeks during summer holidays.
• Both kids are doing well academically at school, we’d do some home schooling whilst we travel but it obviously isn’t the same as being in school.
• Both kids are very sociable and make friends easily. They also get on well with each other (usually!)
• Financially we could do it pretty comfortably without having to make too many other compromises (I realize how fortunate this is).
• Family would fly out and meet us at various points for a couple of weeks at a time.

In our position would you do it?
If so, where would you go? I’d love to hear tips from anyone who has done it or anyone who homeschools kids this age.

Yes

Go for it!

I’d find out what languages the secondary school that you are likely to end up with and spend time in Spain/France or Germany for example.

They have quite a lot of language classes at their current school so they’re pretty familiar with Spanish, French and Arabic already.
Our plan was to focus on places in Asia, Africa and South America because it’s harder to do from the UK (we’ll do a lot of short breaks and holidays to Europe once we’re back living in the UK). We also have friends/family living in France, Spain and Italy so we often visit them in the summer for several weeks.

Lots and lots of families travelling around Australia in a caravan for months or years. Get yourself onto a facebook community for all the information.

The comment above about language has some pertinence, I think, so f you are planning around Europe

Absolutely. Yes.

Are those the year groups they would be going into for their age, or the year.below given they will have missed a year of education?

It’s the year they’d being going into (we’d homeschool whilst travelling for year 5 and 3). It’s the main thing that gives me pause, I care about their education and don’t want them to have gaps

Oh they’ll be fine!! Get tutors when you’re back! Do it!!

I’d do it, but I would want the oldest in school for the full year 6, to make sure they’re at the same level and for high school applications.

Go. It sounds amazing. You'll never have the opportunity to have so much time together again and they are young enough to catch up in school. It also sounds as those you are well off and educated enough to help with any future needs of your children, so I don't see this year off affecting them in the long run. (E.g studies that show children who miss school are more likely to live in poverty as adults etc)

They probably will have gaps. You just have to decide how important that is. You also have to consider whether you will be able to get them back into the schools you want them in. I would also question whether travelling around for a year is what a child those ages would enjoy or need. An adult would love it. A child might prefer a more normal life at school with friends, families, playdates and just holidays.

Go for it!

but do be aware that if they are in a state school the place won’t be held for them so they may end up having to go to a different school

Go forth and enjoy that special time. Your children will learn far more in that special year than a year at school and also make friends along the way. What a wonderful opportunity.

New Zealand. Such a variety of scenery, particularly all the volcanic activity (boiling mud, lakes of the most amazing colours), interesting native people (better integrated than in Austraalia, Kiwi's not quite as keen to put them on settlements in the middle of nowhere!)
Mountains, plains, windy roads, gorges, 90-mile beach...
Amazing!

I'm a teacher so obviously value education but I love travelling myself and strongly agree that a great deal of education happens outside the classroom too. I think it sounds like a great opportunity for you all.

I would either scrap the home schooling and put them into the year below or make sure you are doing a proper job of home schooling and teaching the whole literacy and numeracy curriculum as best you can so there aren't gaps. In the classroom the pupils would usually do about an hour of numeracy and perhaps 1.5 hours of literacy a day, however you would probably manage it in less given there is a much smaller ratio of children to adults.

Travelling should give plenty reading and writing opportunities. There are loads of great online resources you can use too. The other curricular areas should be taken care of as part of your travels!

I would definitely do it at that age, better now than later. I would also try and keep up with the missed work as much as possible - I don't think it would be as hard as you think to do that without impacting too much on your adventure.

Covid anyone?

Your two are the ages mine were when they pretty much missed a years worth of school (Scotland, state). A 10 minute worksheet a day was enough for swathes of children and no interaction with friends family & no travel either.

And they’re fine…

Absolutely go for it! I’m jealous!

In your situation, I’d do it in a heartbeat. What a fantastic opportunity!

Absolutely yes I would! There might be UK based online tutors that you could use for the child going into y6 - but this would depend on the time difference between the uk and wherever you end up.

If you have been abroad for years, with your children educated outside the English school system, they will anyway have gaps and differences in precisely how things have been taught.

Your older child will come back into Y6 - I presume to start it in September - which is inevitably very testing (SATs) focused. This will make their gaps more visible. However, once that year is done, they will start secondary and much of the specific SATs content will either be never mentioned again (grammar and many aspects of writing) or largely re-taught (Maths)

How this affects you depends on the character of your child - if they are robust, cheerful and can cope with ‘doing things wrong / getting relatively low marks compared with their ability’ for a bit, then none of the above should bother you. If they are a more anxious or perfectionist child, then you may want to very specifically focus on Maths, Grammar and to an extend writing (especially specific grammatical features that should be included) using the 2014 National Curriculum documents as your guide and probably structured KS2 workbooks for Y5 and maybe Y6 (to identify gaps) to give them confidence.

Will the schools hold their place or will you meed to potentially put them in new/seperate schools for primary and then the eldest change again for secondary?

I'd I'm absolutely honest, I'd focus on the short European breaks now and do the travelling when they're older.

I do get the travel bug though 🛩

No

Yes absolutely do it.
I'm a primary teacher. In terms of gaps, the only subjects you need to worry about are English and maths. Pay for a Twinkl subscription and use their Home Ed resources to keep them up with the maths and English curriculum.