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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:
fisil · 01/01/2004 20:28

It's those long holidays, we've forgotten everything we ever knew!

popsycal · 01/01/2004 20:29

Yes, we get far too many holidays, don't? What on earth do we find to do with our time!

popsycal · 01/01/2004 20:30

don't WE, even!!

fisil · 01/01/2004 20:31

Search me!

popsycal · 01/01/2004 20:32

right - enough of hijacking this thread.
see you in the bar!

zebra · 01/01/2004 20:36

Thanks for clarifying, Ladies. It seems to me there will be more problems in implementing these proposals because of the inconsitencies than anything else (if one headmaster always says ok to holiday requests, and the next school down the road is quick to fine ....).

tigermoth · 01/01/2004 20:36

hmb, you have the experience of teaching secondary school pupils, I don't, so I bow to your greater knowledge. I can see why so many parents taking the p* will make you angry, especially when you bust a gut to try to make their children achieve their potential. I have just spent the afternoon with a dozen or so teachers and have heard them rant about their promising, talented pupils who are destined to go nowhere because their parents can't be bothered in one way or another.

But this fine won't work will it? will £100 really stop those parents taking term time holidays? Don't you wish the goverment would do something more targeted and effective?

popsycal · 01/01/2004 20:39

tigermoth - i think that is what they are trying to do, but in their defence (erm, defence is the total wrong word but nevermind...) they are not in the classroom day in day out so don't know what will work!

zebra · 01/01/2004 20:46

Is it only £100? I read £1000 elsewhere, and possibly a jail term.

Ghosty · 01/01/2004 20:47

Have spent an hour catching up on this thread ...

All I have to say is that I am really really glad that I spent 4 years at University and then 10 years of my life teaching Primary School children nothing 'useful' 'and certainly nothing vital'

Try living in New Zealand when the government gives 3 weeks holiday a year (talking about ordinary people like my DH, not teachers) and 2 of those have to be taken over Christmas ... mmmmmmmm

popsycal · 01/01/2004 20:48

Here, here Ghosty!

popsycal · 01/01/2004 20:52

zebra - there will be so much paperwork to do in order to fine someone......I hoestly believe that it will more often not happen!

popsycal · 01/01/2004 20:53

You can already get taken to court/fined/jailed for keeping your child off school without permission....as a parent, you are legally obliged to ensure that your child gets an education

zebra · 01/01/2004 20:54

2 weeks (10 working days) is standard in the USA, and quite often you aren't allowed to take more than 7 days in succession, too. My Spanish friends (adults, not children) were not allowed to take more than a few days of holiday, except in August when their entire companies would shut down, and when, of course, the airfares double....

TBH, this is another one of those threads that culturally I just can't get, like university tuition fees and a hundred other topics... If the fine is only £100 (per child, I suppose?), I'll probably just be braced for paying it & that will be that. All laughably hypothetical, of course, with our current limited income!

hmb · 01/01/2004 20:54

I've already said that the fine is pointless. Either people will not be able to pay it, or it is nothing compared to the savings that they will make if the kids have an early holiday.

Re the lack of support from parents most are great, love their kids and want the very best for them But some, oh my god! Some of them make you go crazy. One lad, ability in the A/B range at GCSE is failing because he does no homework. He is on report for it, so I had a chat with him and explained the reasons why I set homework, to re-inforce the learning objective, to check for undertanding and to stretch kids skills. He confidently told me that his Dad belives that we only set homework because we are too lazy to do the work in class! And this is a nice kid! They get a lot worse than him!

popsycal · 01/01/2004 20:57

hmb - i sympahise.....many PARENTS have said that to colleagues inthe past
anyway - i am going to bow ot of this thread for now.....

zebra · 01/01/2004 20:59

But then, you have to agree Popsycal, not very good legislation, is it, if it's going to be too awkward to enforce except very rarely? And will be prone to considerable challenges by parents if not very consistently enforced. Not that I object to the underlying principle, you understand, but wonder if there's a better way....

Where I live the 3 counties (Leics, Notts & Derbyshire) all have different half-term weeks. I wonder if more consistently staggering school half-terms would achieve more good.

Presumably my ignorance shines through and that idea is an ancient one?

popsycal · 01/01/2004 21:02

I agree totally
as for the half terms,...from next academic year, all autorhites in the north east have syncronised all there hols for this very reason,...and easter hols will be fixed and if you dont get the easter weekend inthe easter fortight off, then you will get extra bank holidays!! doesnt happen for a year or so though (the extra bank hols)

JanH · 01/01/2004 21:02

hmb, did the boy understand where you were coming from after that or does he still think his dad is right?

BTW what happened to school having 5 or 6 short terms and no long summer holiday? I thought that was going to be trialled or even introduced quite soon?

popsycal · 01/01/2004 21:02

and i still cant type

popsycal · 01/01/2004 21:08

jan - being trialled 'somewhere' - bot sure what next

popsycal · 01/01/2004 21:09

NOT sure what next!

hmb · 01/01/2004 21:09

Well, he does work for me, but I think only because I will fall on him like a ton of bricks if he doesn't! He believes his Dad.

One of the biggest problems that we have in the lower half of the school is that parents will not support us when we put in place punishments like after school detentions for repeated misbehaviour. This give the kids two messages. 1. The school can't touch them, so they can do what they like and 2. that their parents will always side with them and not the school regardless of what they do. So a double whammy for the schools behaviour policy, that the parents and kids both sign before they start school.

By year10 the kids have got so far out of control that we can't deal with them any more, often by this point they are playing up at home as well as school, the police many now be involved, and by this time the parents are begging us to dicipline the kids. It isn't that it is beyond redeption at this point, but it is just so much harder to correct when things have gone so badly wrong.

popsycal · 01/01/2004 21:10

i thikn we ought to begin a new thead...this one has soo gone off at a tangent (for which i accpet some responsibility....)!!

hmb · 01/01/2004 21:11

We are supposed to be doing it next year. My kids have different holidays from me anyway, so not much change from my point of view.

I think that not being away from school for 6 weeks (4 I think) will benefit most kids. They forget how to work after 6 weeks away