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Original poster

Holidays in school time

251 replies

nutcracker · 30/12/2003 23:33

Did anyone know that if you take your child on holiday in school time then you can now be fined ???????????? Personally i think it's ridiculous, I have only ever taken dd1 out of school for holiday once but i asked for books and worksheets for her to do. What do you think ????

OP posts:
suedonim · 09/01/2004 16:07

I found this article about term-time holidays when browsing and thought I'd play Devil's Advocate .

JanH · 09/01/2004 16:20

Oo-er, look, hmb!!!!

JanH · 09/01/2004 16:21

Ah - just got down to the bottom (should have done that first possibly?) - he is a former headmaster. I wonder how former?

WideWebWitch · 09/01/2004 16:22

he used to be a head teacher janh!

WideWebWitch · 09/01/2004 16:23

posts crossed!

WideWebWitch · 09/01/2004 16:24

do you reckon this is him?

Hulababy · 09/01/2004 16:25

Mears - we have to work in class right up to the last day of every term, even Christmas. Boy, do the pupils complain then - but to me this time!

WideWebWitch · 09/01/2004 16:28

he's quite recently retired, according to this. (gosh, I'm sad going to the effort of finding these things out)

mooshy · 09/01/2004 17:04

Hi,
I have only recently found this great site.I was just reading all your comments on taking ( or not ) your children out of school for hols ect.I just wanted to tell you that my daughter is 11 and most years goes abroad sailing from about May until Sept.One year she stayed away until Nov.I believe the social skills she has aquired far outweigh any missed national cirriculum.!
She can converse in 4 languages and has visited monst of Europe.The deal is I have to see that shes not getting behind and she takes work with her.(She`s with my parents who teach her )
The school have been supportive and having already approached secondary school they foresee no problems.I go with my gut instinct and it feels very right for me.I might not have the same attitude if the school made it so awkward though.It must be quite stressful.We have also taken the children out every year for family hols because its so much cheaper.Surely children benefit so much from spending family time on hols-whether or not they miss a bit o school every year.They have just introduced parental leave for adults so we can take time out to be with our families-hows about childrens leave !!!

JanH · 09/01/2004 17:07

It must be him, mustn't it, www? The piece had a definite slant towards the independent sector. (Which is different anyway of course. I wonder if the head of a school like hmb's or hulababy's would say the same?)

Ava having a long nap this afternoon?

WideWebWitch · 09/01/2004 17:34

janh! Yes she is. Wonder if it's the way I keep rock, rock, rocking her? (my mum's having her tonight, ooo I'm mean)

StressyHead · 09/01/2004 17:37

message withdrawn

Hulababy · 09/01/2004 17:41

As far as I know our head has not changed his rule. The policy here still reads that pupils can have 10 days off a way for a holiday but that it must be authorised by him in advance. It also states that parents should avoid this at all if possible. Also it states some times when he won't authorise hokidays at all, like exam time for specific year groups.

Slinky · 09/01/2004 17:50

Our school sent a letter out today, stating that 10 days will still be allowed as long as a written request is submitted.

However, holiday will NOT be authorised at all for ANYONE from 4 - 14 May as this is when KS1/KS2 SATS are taking place.

hmb · 09/01/2004 18:12

Well, given that progression is a keystone of the National KS3 stratagy, I would say that he is 100% in oppesiotion to all the directives sent to our school by the DfES.

I have only just done my PGCE and we were explicitly taught that lessons are supposed to progress one from the other, and that children learn best when they build on previous knowledge.

Oh and 5 minutes to catch up a lesson, thats a laugh.

Goodness, I'd love to be able to teach them all to be butterflies, but most would fail their GCSEs, and then I'd have their parents on my neck.

Yes, I think he knows as much about current teaching practice as Jimjams autism 'expert'

jac34 · 09/01/2004 18:15

We had a newsletter from the school today, it included a reminder about attendance and punctuality. However, the Head seems more concerned about parents who continually bring their children to school late ( quite a few at our school I think), she says that these parents will be refered to the school Wefare Officer.

SueW · 09/01/2004 18:24

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request.

suedonim · 09/01/2004 18:34

Dd's prelim exam timetable, received this week, required pupils to attend during half term next month. (No mention of how people in our area with no public transport would get there). It seems that not only can we not take holidays in term time, we can't take them in holidays, either!! But there's been such a stooshie about it that they've backed down and changed the date of the exam.

JanH · 09/01/2004 18:38

"Stooshie", suedonim!!!

I love these mad Scottish words. I have a Scottish internet friend (she's from Tillicoultry I think - or near there anyway) who uses lots of words like that, in fact that may well be one I've heard from her.

Never heard of anything so daft as no halfterm!

hmb · 09/01/2004 18:50

Re the 'Very little teaching is so sequential that missing a week or two will make much difference, or cause a teacher much grief if she has to fill in the gaps. Even in the exam years, five minutes at the end of class will usually suffice for catching up, especially if it is backed up with some extra homework. ' If you are interested go to

www.edexcel.org.uk/VirtualContent/18075.pdf

This gives the details of one module that students will study for their GCSE in Double science (in this case it is a plant biology module). They study 12 modules in all and also have to do two extended course work topics. It is an Adobe file, and look from page 5 onwards. This lists the sugested lesson plans that the examination body suggest that we used. Would someone like to explain how the statment in the atricle can posibly be true???

Please go and look if you have never seen a GCSE sylabus, it is a great deal of work.

Hulababy · 09/01/2004 18:58

I don't have 5 minutes 'spare' at the end of my lessons to do catch up work for children who missed previous lessons. My lesson plans are already full for the whole one hour, with a starter at the beginning and my plenary at the end - as directed by recent 'plocies'. If I did have 5 minutes left over I would use these to redress my lesson objectives and discuss next week's lesson, or clarify homeowork - so as to benefit the entire class.

What would the rest of the class be doing in this time whilst one or two were given time to catch up anyway?

codswallop · 09/01/2004 19:01

Plenary schmenary, bloody jargon eh? Thats one reason I am plesased to have left

I just thik of how language labs were a the rage 20yrs ago and chuckle

SueW · 09/01/2004 21:16

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn by MNHQ at OP's request.

Slinky · 09/01/2004 21:22

Aaaah yes, you've reminded me of Monika - a German woman who used to visit us during "Double German" on Tuesday afternoons when I was studying for my 'O' level.

Also remember the French labs used to have rows and rows of headphones where we could listen to French conversations, and then translate If you rubbed your shoes on the carpets then touch the headphones, you would get electric shocks aaah, those were the days

popsycal · 09/01/2004 21:24

slinky -rofl about carpets and electric shocks - we did that too!!!