Holiday in Term Time - does it affect class?

[cococake]

Hi

I've noticed that although at private school (so longer school holidays and therefore don't think the cheaper holidays is as much as an argument) the majority of dc in my ds' class (reception age) have had at least one week off for holiday's this academic year, and some are on their 3rd already.

I was reading on another thread, of comments along the lines that, if someone has their children out of school, the teacher's time is taken up catching up on the missed work, and therefore detrimental to the rest of the class.

I hadn't thought of it like this before, so my question is do you think it does have a detrimental effect on the other class members? And if it does should the school be discouraging it strongly? Or does it not matter, as long as the other children have good attendance their education won't be affected?

If a child is absent, whether for illness or holiday, I certainly don't use class-time to catch them up. How could teachers justify that? Repeating work specifically because one child missed it? There is a fair bit of revisiting concepts and building on previously-taught skills anyway, but that's general good practice, not because one child's been off. Sounds like a mis-placed rumour that has become "fact."

You may not use class time to repeat work- but surely anything the class is doing together is going to be moving more slowly if some children are always unable to understand what the teacher is talking about?

Having said that, I do find English schools are very paranoid about attendance. My Swedish nephew recently had a month off school in order to stay with his Dad who had a temporary research post in Cambridge: nephew's English improved by leaps and bounds, he lived up to his part of the deal which was to catch up with the work himself, he learnt lots about history and culture and his Swedish school viewed it as really positive that one of their pupils was having such an educational experience. But I can't see an English school being even remotely positive about something like this.

There are always going to be a number of children who move more slowly than the rest, regardless of holidays. That's just part of the package in a mainstream primary class.

I think the scenario you describe, Cory, is different from the vast majority of holiday requests that Head Teachers deal with all the time, which is for time off in term time to go to Centerparcs or Spain or wherever, because the prices are cheaper.

I don't think it makes a big difference. Some parents ask what's going to be missed and try to make it up but tbh I'd rather my pupils enjoyed themselves. Life's too short to worry about stuff like this. I've never gone over anything with a child in class unless it's an area they're weak in and even then I'm much more likely to give an extra bit of work to do at home.

I'm sure this would not go down well with my colleagues at school, but I really don't think it is the end of the world when I child has a holiday in term time, as long as it's not for months or all the time. As a parent I wouldn't expect the teacher to make up for the lost time. Children learn in so many different ways and get so much out of a holiday. Almost everything children learn in school is repeated for reinforcement anyway. The headteacher at my school has made it very clear that no holidays are acceptable during term time but she is a headteacher on £56,000 a year and with no children to support, who goes skiing during every break, so I'm not sure she really understands the problems many parents face. As well as the money there is the fact that many people (like my husband - a fireman) don't get a choice about when they are allowed to take holidays. Personally I think, if it is only a one-off, children will get plenty out of it and will probably not lose out to much by not being school. One more point - I have a class with several children who miss a day every week "ill", though the other children are always keen to tell me "oh, I saw him on his bike this morning". Casual absenteeism is a far bigger problem in my mind, as there is usually no effort to make up for lost time, as parents usually do when they take kids out for holidays. Hope this helps.

Thank you all for your responses. They are all really interesting. I think I will carry on as I am, i.e. ensure my dc attend school, and not argue discuss with my dh that he is right not to allow us to take any holiday time in term time, but at the same time I won't worry that others in the class are.