Holidays

[dubsie]

Holidays are becoming more expensive and this is especially the case during school holidays.

Thanks to the education act we are forced to cramming our holidays into just a few weeks a year and holiday companies know this and can pretty much charge what they want.

A week's holiday in Croatia has just cost me over 2500 for a family of three in a threw star hotel bed and breakfast in May/June The same holiday a week earlier was just 1300.

Isn't it it time that parents are allowed to take their children out of school for a couple of weeks a year so we can enjoy a break together. They are our children and they don't belong to the state .

@RampantIvy CGP guides are not textbooks and English GCSEs still have the anthology if that's what you're thinking.
I'm talking proper textbooks you use in class and follow through the whole year. I only remember that happening briefly in KS3 for Maths, Science, Geo and History because I'd read the page, answer the activity questions and then become bored. We had to share the books with our partner. Unless every kid gets a laptop I don't see how online textbooks will help.

DD didn't get any textbooks in KS3. They got worksheets and maths was set online.
Homework was set on the school's online portal.

It's partly about prioritization. School systems that think of textbooks as an unthinkable part of education that can't simply be opted out of

The curriculum changes frequently in the UK so that almost as soon as schools buy a (hugely expensive) set of text books, they are obsolete. I wonder if other countries don’t change their curriculum so much?

Countries are probably more reluctant to change their curriculum if they know they will have to overhaul all the textbooks, so maybe the causation arrows more point in the opposite direction!

Maybe it depends on who has shares in the publishing companies making the textbooks!

Government has one job and that's to provide funding, it should not meddle in the curriculum. Children need a good balanced education arts, science and literature with plenty of active hours.

Obviously the curriculum should be set but it shouldn't be political. It should be set by people who understand the modern requirements and what demands our children will face as they grow up.

It's not a tick box excercise and it's not a race and our children should not be used in such a way nor should our teachers be used to push targets. It's unhealthy for children and teachers to be constantly chasing numbers.

I certainly wouldn't want to be a teacher in today's environment of inspections, targets and assessments....

Excellent post. You have summed up perfectly how things are in education right now and as a teacher, I appreciate your empathy.

Well said @dubsie
I don't understand the teacher bashing posts I see on here. DD had some good teachers and some truly excellent teachers. It isn't a job I could do.

My original post was about holidays and how government policies are forcing parents and schools to deliver attendance targets. This is largely driven because our education system is so stretched that schools can't afford for children to be off school. Teachers manage large groups of children and an ever growing list of demands from both the state and parents. Schools have become the solution to child care with breakfast clubs and after-school clubs, feeding stations for starving children because their parents are on such poor incomes and often the teachers do all this extra stuff for nothing. On top of this they have lesson plans, school targets, local government targets, government targets, inspections and managing budgets.

My point is that it isn't the state's place to tell me when I can take my child on holiday. As a responsible parent my job is to ensure my child attends school and has good attendance but also my job to make common sense decisions like taking a week away for a holiday. We have social services to deal with vulnerability and poor parenting....and again schools now have that responsibility too.

Again, why not answer my question?

If you're not happy with how the education system is, you should pull out your children to home educate them instead.

That will solve your questions.

@Shinyandnew1 Most European countries that use text books provide them free and they're owned by the state. Esp in primary years which for the continent is usually age 6/7-16. Im sure they my have to use private printers etc but by an large, aside from books for MFL, the basics are state owned. Much like public transport and most others things, the countries on the continent haven't sold off everything to private companies. I am sure they all have their own problems though.
Interestingly, those countries have used the UKs stupidity to their own advantage. Much of the UK train companies are now owned by some EU countries and they use the profits to help their pension funds. For eg Arriva (London Overground, Wales and Borders, Northern, Grand Central, Cross Country, Chiltern) is owned by German State Railways, DLR- French state, Essex Thameside- Italian, Gatwick Express- French, Greater Anglia- Dutch etc etc. It goes on and on.
Whilst be pay through the nose for train fares and unreliable services, most EU countries have excellent and affordable rail fares and a propped up pension thanks to our pockets. Go figure.

I completely agree with you Op and I feel very very sorry for anyone working or relying on education in this country. Unfortunately that includes us all as our education is what will determine the future of the UK.

If you're enrolled in the English school system you should comply with the rules.

If you don't like it, feel free to home educate your precious darlings.

@Mademetoxic Everyone has the right to receive an education and use the school system. The system as it currently is, is not ok and simply telling someone to just sing out of the system is ridiculous. It will never improve with that attitude. Why don't you stop needing medical care because you're not happy with the NHS?
People are allowed to be angry and unhappy with the situation. The economy relies on parents going to work, and the education system has been designed to force parents to have to use it. Being able to home school is a massive privilege and even for those that can afford to do it. Why should they have to?

Quote from the OP 'my point is, it isn't up to the state when I can take my child on holiday'

Well if you're enrolled in the state school system it is.

Just like if you have a job which is required you cannot take leave in a certain month.

@Mademetoxic Well I do agree that the state oversteps. I appreciate that it's not great for teachers but if a week off on a holiday is so problematic, what's happening to those who are sick a lot? How do they catch up if it's so hard for a child to catch up after only one week off?
I appreciate LAs provide teachers, but that's still a burden on the actual teacher to provide the sub teacher with material the child has to cover. This is a problematic design. Kids aren't robots that come in daily without fault and neither are teachers.
Having a curriculum that by design is easy to catch up on, would benefit all.
I don't think signing your child up for school should be equal to signing your rights away. I appreciate there's rules that have to be followed, but i do think the UK state oversteps in a lot of ways when it comes to education. Interestingly they fail a huge amount of vulnerable students and they don't seem that bothered about that. Or failing their teachers and staff.

Being sick, that cannot be helped.

Imagine if a child is sick a lot, absent from that. Then has loads of appointments.

Then if their parents decided to take them away for a holiday every year for a week they'd barely be in school at all.

Teachers are stretched enough as it is without helping kids catch up.
Then they miss out on a good chunk of their education.

Teachers kids cannot go on holiday during schools.

There would be an uproar if little George's teacher decided she wanted to take her kids out of school for 2 weeks.

One bright, well-motivated child having a week or two off school is no problem at all - for the child or the school. Multiple children having weeks off at different times throughout the year - some of whom may have poor attendance generally, may have learning difficulties or may find missing school and routine difficult to cope with - makes planning and teaching the class somewhat challenging.

Having a holiday is not a right. Spending two weeks somewhere hot costing £3k is not a right either. I'm sure most people don't take those sorts of holidays every year. As pp have said, until recently, many people hardly wentvaway at all. There are 13 weeks school holiday and multiple weekends during the year, plenty of time to do things as a family.

@Mademetoxic I never said it's not problematic when parents do this. I know it is. My point is the government oversteps so much, they've designed a system where even taking your kid out for a week isn't possible without effecting many. It is very much guilt driven.
That sick kid you're making me imagine probably won't catch up! There's no textbooks they can look back on. They'll be given a rough idea of what was missed. Can you not see that the design of the system fails massively in this area? It's designed to force parents to never be able to take kids out, for whatever reason. Even genuinely sick kids are penalised by attendance certificates and their parents threatened with fines.
Saying 'just homeschool' isn't going to do much help. If people don't complain, things don't change.

I'm sure you'll be happy if your child's teacher decides to take their children out of school for 2 weeks for a holiday leaving them with a supply teacher.

@Mademetoxic Actually more and more teachers are going off sick with stress and other reasons. My daughter didn't have an English teacher for nearly 6 months in Y8 and about 10 different supplies in that time period. Following a text book or a more flexible curriculum would've really helped everyone then. The school was not at fault. They did what they could with what they were given. This is very much a reality for many many headteachers daily.
Teachers should be allowed time off without being burdened by the guilt that their class is being failed.
The system penalises teachers equally. The recruitment crisis is very real and actually your point is very valid. In order to attract people to a high stress, low paid job, the government either has to make it more flexible or pay more.
As I said up thread, a more flexible model benefits all. Not just the parent who wants to take a kid on holiday for a week.

As a PP said a holiday is not a given right, and that children have weekends and 13 weeks of the year to do things with their families.

@Mademetoxic You're completely ignoring all my points. Have a good day.

If teaching was just following a text book my job would be so easy!

@Macaroni46 I never said it was. I teach. That's not the point of my post and you know that.

@Macaroni46 Also I bet having text books would make your job easier.