Do you take your holidays in the school holidays or in term time?

[charliecat]

I booked a 4 day holiday last night (sun breaks £38) and didnt give school a thought, just said to dp that he would HAVE to make work fit around it as there was no way of us having a holiday otherwise.
(Never had a holiday before and dds are 9 and 6)
Just realised its the week after they go back to school after easter....
Todays school letter, new headmistress, says that Parents must ensure thier children get a FULL TIME education and permission for holidays will be based on that....hmm, so it wont be then.
So. Im not going to ask, or should I?
We will be going anyway. Its booked now.
And thier attendance otherwise is great.
What do you do?

i have always booked our holiday sfirst and then filled in the school holiday form never go on hoiday in school holidays we can only go for one week when they are at school, the school is fine you are allowed 10 days off

Go go go go go
Have I persuaded you yet?????
I am off in a weeks time for a much needed break and I don't care.
The schools have authorised and at the end of the day sometimes breaks can be such a god send that we have to take them.
One week off school isn't going to kill anyone is it?

Skiwear-I did Friday to Friday at half term and didn't go until the Saturday.I wasn't so bothered as it was one of the cheap breaks anyway.(£65 for 3 for 7 nights)

Actually, I'm a teacher. And I've spent years saying that parents shouldn't take kids out of school during term-time.

It's the least of my problems, on reflection. I am not going to give up time to help kids catch up, but relative to students who have 'work experience' or 'collegiate courses' 2 days out of 5 & for whom I am STILL expected to get them to their target GCSe grades...

...4 days off for a cheap holiday for children who otherwise attend well & whose parents can't otherwise afford a break? Yes, of course you should.

I really don't know why we don't exercise a bit of common sense about this: why can't parents just contact a form tutor (who unlike the Head may know what little Johnny is supposed to be doing that week, & who will be more bothered about his welfare than attendance records) - discuss whether it's a week that the child can afford to miss & agree that it's 'at your own risk'.

A limit of 10 days a year seems reasonable. I don't see why Heads are required to give permission. They can't enforce it: parents just lie & claim illness.

The topic you missed that week you were in Menorca comes up in your exam, you didn't copy up the notes & you fail? Welcome to the real world.

Thanks nikki I thought people might be doing that but don't understand why the companies do it. More cleaning time? Bit of peace and quiet between guests!

Oversted - I think you have summed it up brilliantly.

Go I would - in fact we went to Florida for 2 weeks (over half term) last October and my 2 missed 6 days of school. ( kids are 5 and 7 BTW)

Their school were absolutely fine about it and loads of other children have term time holidays.

charlie cat - havent had the chance to read all the posts but...
i would write to the school and ask; they will probably send you a letter saying they would rather not but as your dds are good attenders and its only a few days, ok but dont do it again. They would prefer to makr it down as holidays( authorised absence i assume) than unauthorised which looks worse on their records. I fyou phone them in sick ,you could get caught out when they tell people about their holidays.....

Well put oversted - its good to have a teachers opinion.

I have booked a long weekend - to coincide with a TT day but DS will still have to have the Friday off (he is Y2 and since starting school only had 3 days off due to sickness). I was feeling a bit guilty even though it is only one day but I will get his homework before we go as it is given out on a Friday.

There is no way we could afford to go away during school holidays.

In the school holidays.

I'm not getting involved in yet another debate over it.

My stance is that you have 13 weeks of the year in which to take holidays and in most cases, it's perfectly possible to manage them in this time.

There are always exceptions and schools do allow for those.

I say go. We don't get that many holidays but have taken them out of school but only if they are behaving well are working hard and are generally up to date with everyth ing at school. I would not take them at the beginning of a new school year or obviously
at exam time. My eldest are now at Secondary school and have exams so wouldn't dream of taking them now. Also my son had a really naughty spell at primary school which did follow him in the notes to secondary but he is fantastic there and keeps getting awards for good work etc., and excellent exam results so it hasn't harmed any of my kids. Life is too short just make a sensible decision re school commitments etc.,

My kids have not started school yet but my step-son has been taken out of school to come on hoiday with us.

We wrote a letter explaining to the school ss does not get to see his daddy & his half brother much so please could we take him out of school for such & such date so we could spend some quality time together as a family.

Everything was fine & it was accepted, we are also doing it again this year....