Who feels their own education was damaged by the holidays they had in term time?

[lljkk]

Judging by the strength of opinion on MN, there must be loads of you.
Speak up!

You have quoted 'stats' based on the replies and then state that you only want people to offer actual experience when they argue that your stats are nonsense......ooookay!

media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/t/improving%20attendance%20at%20school.pdf

I am an old l

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In the long term, no, but we didn't go away that much anyway. We did have a week in Cornwall in October when I was 9 (equivalent of Y5, I think) and when I came back I'd missed reading most of the Owl Service and the whole class was talking about it, some maths that took me (what felt like) ages to catch up, and so much gossip that I felt like I hardly knew my friends! I still remember feeling lost when I came back to school, and it was over 30 years ago.

We also had a week in Scotland in April when I was 15 with no such ill effects, in fact I caught up with the work really quickly. I ended up with a good clutch of O Levels and was the highest scoring girl in my year at A Level (preen), so no long-term damage there!

I've taken my own children out of school when in very early Primary years (Nursery and Y2, I think) but even without the threat of a hefty fine I'd think twice now that they're getting older.

I was an A* student and my mum used to regularly let me have days off at primary school to go to Manchester shopping.

I am an old lady now - well, 62 - and it was not uncommon for girls in my senior school to go on holiday during term time. Many of our fathers, including mine, had their annual leave allocated to them on a rota . Even now I can remember seeing the display of holiday postcards which accumulated on the form room notice board during the summer term.
Did it do any harm? Well, there must have been some catching up to do but it isn't a lasting memory.

We did it throughout my school career - a week next to October half-term, and a week next to the May half-term. We couldn't go in summer, because it was harvest, and if we didn't sometimes take picnics up to the harvest field, we hardly saw Dad at all - and so Mum insisted we went away from the farm, as a family, so Dad got a proper break.

We spent holidays doing things like going round museums and looking at geology, and I used to read stuff like extracts from the Royal Commission which lead to the 1842 Mines Act, and stuff about the Chartists and the Newport Rising and so on (South Wales autumn holidays, all that,), so I really don't think my education suffered, other than my holidays did influence the path I later took (a history degree, with a dissertation on the history of coal mining.) We did any extra homework we were given, and I spent a lot of the rest of my spare time reading and writing stories anyway. Plus once I was in the 6th form, I arranged to stay with a friend for the school week, and got the train back home to stay with them after the half-term week, because I didn't want to miss any school. (I may not have been very typical...)

My parents requested it every time (I remember having to ask for the forms from the school secretary), and it was never refused. I don't know if that would have been different if I hadn't been near the top of the class most of the time, and otherwise, I had a very good attendance record - just 3 days sickness for my entire school career.

It probably doesn't do much harm if only the odd family do it. However because holidays are so much cheaper off peak nearly everybody would like to do it and they all probably want to do it when the weather is good. It would be very difficult for a teacher to keep all their pupils at the same point if there are always a few of them are on holiday during May, June, July and September.

Never did it, as far as I can recall... I think I may have had 1 day after a return from Easter at Disney World, age 7.

And I had a day off to go to the Royal Show with family aged about 14.

My holidays were always in term time, because my father worked for British rail, and in those days, the was a factory 'shut down' fortnight when you had to take your holiday. It the was early July every year. So that was our holiday every year, we never had a choice, and no it never affected me.

I'm now an A level lecturer (and before that a secondary teacher), and in 15 years of teaching have never seen a child get significantly behind because of a week's holiday. I do recommend that students are sensible about when they choose their term time holiday.

Well I wasnt taken out of school for anything including being ill. I can remember going into school feeling like absolute poo. Not sure what I or my fellow students got out of that one!

My parents were of the view that everything should be sacrificed at the alter of education. I came out with okay results, nothing special.

I got taken out of school once to go to Cornwall for two weeks and it didn't affect me in the slightest. I'm very glad that we went as it was the only family holiday we ever had.

DH was regularly taken out of school to visit relatives abroad and his education most certainly didn't suffer.

At secondary school pupils often went on school arranged trips such as exchanges, ski trips, a Mediterranean cruise, all in term time. In fact, once the entire sixth form went to Italy but I suppose if everyone went it doesn't really count.

This was all in the seventies and eighties btw.

I am sure the problem is sheer numbers.

When I was at school in the 60's going abroad was rare so it wasn't that difficult for a teacher to cater to.

Also a child who had been abroad could contribute something unusual and valuable to the class: I remember a classmate of mine going on an African safari and coming home to give us a slide show: it was all tremendously exciting and we learnt lots. But then there were fewer opportunities for learning those things elsewhere in those days, so the teacher was probably grateful to anyone who made it come alive a bit.

These days, the benefit of having yet another child in the class to go to Thailand must be extremely limited. And at a time when so many people can afford to travel the disruption is proportionally greater.

We were never taken out of school. Our UK based holidays were always during school holidays, if they happened at all.
What really annoyed me was the time wasted in class having to go over stuff that other kids had missed when they were on holiday. I didn't think that was fair at all.

Yes, Paintyfingers, I think what happened was, it was quite unusual when I was at school and then it became increasingly common to the point where schools felt they could no longer cope.

Except, Cory why do you think schools can no longer cope?

I am a teacher (15 years) the vast majority of my friends are teachers (not just the ones I work with, also the ones I trained with - they're primary, I'm secondary) and of all my teacher friends, only one actually has a problem with term time holidays. The rest of us do not find it problematic at all. The ban comes from government, not the schools, and most teachers I know do not actually mind it at all.

You even look at threads on mumsnet, and I see lots of other teachers who do not have a problem with it too. Hell, I even take my own children out of school for their holidays (I have fixed holidays, at a different time to my children).

Hi everyone, I'm new to Mumsnet so hello!! I'm so totally outraged by parents being threatened with fines for school unauthorised absences, I've started a petition. Please sign, pass on, support in any way as I think we all need to act on this to protect and preserve our freedom to act in the best interests of our children. Do let me know your thoughts!!

secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Michael_Gove_Education_Secretary_Allow_more_flexibility_for_termtime_holidays_and_remove_threats_of_fines/edit/

Hi everyone, I'm new to Mumsnet so hello!! I'm so totally outraged by parents being threatened with fines for school unauthorised absences, I've started a petition. Please sign, pass on, support in any way as I think we all need to act on this to protect and preserve our freedom to act in the best interests of our children. Do let me know your thoughts!!

secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Michael_Gove_Education_Secretary_Allow_more_flexibility_for_termtime_holidays_and_remove_threats_of_fines/edit/

I agree with those who say how can you know? You don't have duplicate lives where you can try out different things and compare results.

Anecdotally I know only one person who took holidays out if school regularly. She never lived up to the potential the school apparently saw in her. She was in the top set for O levels but didn't pass many and didn't do A levels after doing O level resits at 6th form. Make your own minds up about that. She does however do holiday rep for a small holiday business, escorting tours to exotic places so maybe it did her some good!

I disagree about teachers minding about holidays. They do in Ds's school. They find it disruptive if children miss chunks of work and have to catch up with the rest of their group. Seems obvious to me that they would!

I was off sick for 10 weeks in ny Higher Year at school.

Got 6 As. But..I still wouldn't take term time holidays.

It clearly affected my typing.

I agree with Cory re the numbers issue. I've spoken with 4 parents just yesterday regarding authorising term-time holidays. They were asking for between 5 days and 25 days and those four families had a total of 8 children between them.

I never had term-time holidays when I was at school, it wasn't the norm in the 70s though neither was going abroad. Holiday was a week in a caravan in Wales usually. I've taken my own children (3) out once for two days.