holidays in term time parents win a victory over the lea

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"When they returned home to Park Farm, Peterborough, from the visit to Cape Town to see Mrs Donaldson's family last Christmas, the local education authority ordered them to pay a £50 fine for each child. The penalty doubled after the fine was not paid within 42 days.

When that was not paid, they were ordered to appear before Peterborough magistrates, charged with failure to ensure their children's regular attendance at school. However, the couple were given an unconditional discharge, with no fine and no costs."

Ahem....excuse me. With regard to the issue of who is 'nesh' and who isn't. I've been swimming off the west coast of Scotland. Several times. So there..... And I could almost speak when I got out again. DH was with me at the time (before he was DH though) and there was some concern for a good 20 minutes afterwards that he might never become a father Now that was cold. Very clean though and so beautiful....white sand, turquoise sea, totally deserted....and the water like just melted icebergs.

Nothing to do with the discussion. Sorry.

joelalie - you are, without doubt, not nesh! The W coast of Scotland sounds gorgeous!

Fair point for your specific situation poppadum but I still feel that out-of-term absences for the ratio of the class that you describe must be thoroughly demoralising for the teacher who does the lesson preparation. I'd be surprised if all the other families were taking the same care to keep their children up to speed.

Thankyou Blu

In contextual support of poppadum (is that OK? does it even make sense? anyway) the school her dd (and mine, incidentally) is at was fairly consciously set up to meet the needs of expats, and is, as far as I've always seen, more than understanding about absences/people who live part of the time in one country and part of the time somewhere else. And what goes with that is (again from my experience) parents who are generally very very responsible about their children's education. So it's sort of a special case.

It can be difficult when you have family living abroad.

dh's family are all in NZ, you can't really get much further away from the UK! It's also very expensive to fly there, plus their seasons are the opposite ours. We can only afford to visit once every few years and tbh I would expect to be granted permission to withdraw my children from school for that reason; it will probably ony happen 2 or 3 times during their school life.

"Last year, there were several hundred people killed, not the best time to take kids there."

That has to be the best excuse yet.

or 'reason' even!

havent read whole thread,but we have had to get written permission from the schools my kids go to,to take them on holiday at the beggining of july.

a cf charity have booked and paid for a hol for us,and they have a budget to stick to and beginning of july was the cheapest time for them.

im just glad the schools didnt get funny with us for taking them out!

Well, fair enough then bink. If the school has the flexibility to cater for the understandable needs of families who travel a lot for various reasons, then that is a special case.

sorry lol at the kdis getting killed in termtime reason

If you take your child out of school for two weeks a year Yr1-yr 11 every other year, that is a whole term of school time!
Two whole terms if you do it every year, and that is in addition to time for illness or other unavoidable absences.

but i want to take my children on holiday

Marina, ta for being calm voice of reason (as always)

It's made me see again what a particular niche our school occupies. Eg there is a girl in ds's class who seems only to be there about half of each term (rest overseas) and is really behind on her formal schooling - but when she's there, great efforts are made by everyone and even ds notices and comes home to announce proudly that X has gone up two reading levels.

loving: "they saw elephants on holiday"

parpy parp

Custy - do it!
For families who cannot afford any kind of holiday at all in peak season, or who are bound by their employers inflexibility, like indentured labour, then i think they should go in term time. It is a mark of shame on our country's economy that whilst half the population feels entitled to swan off to swim with elephants for 3 weeks, and can afford a private tutor to make sure they don't f*k up their chances of becoming a lawyer by doing so, half are still stuck exactly where they were in my childhood days, when you knew who was posh because their Dad could take hol when he chose - while everyone else was subject to the rota decreed by the National Coal Board.

(and I was amongst the 'posh' - that meant a flat in Sutton-On-Sea with a chalet on the prom thrown in)

So this is still rambling on then? Is interesting to see all the differing views on here (positive side of mn) but unfortunately i remain outside of the clique again as i do not totally agree and do not have a perchance for being a herding sheep type animal

I am applying to take ds out for 10 days, I do have sound reasons IMO and that of the schools have spoken to ds's teacher today. As others have said each situation differs so does my view on it. I do not wish to broadbrush and say that everyone should every year but it is there for inflexible situations. When I have said we may be going abroad.. abroad means catching the ferry to france with a tent most likely.

If taking child out of school was so completely wrong then why oh why are there specific allowances for it?

Personally I dont plan to make a habit of this with ds as I do feel education is important. And yes if he was struggling at school then i would completely skip the break. The whole comments about how can you afford childcare in the hols etc.. and then afford a holiday. I dont have a choice - my course finishes in Sept. I am doing extra hours whereever and whenever I can - incluiding the exam revision time. So this year I will be taking ds on hol/having a family break.

For personal reasons the time i get with ds is precious to me and I refuse to feel like a bad mum for taking him out of school for a time which is covered by law to spend time with him. Yes i did get annoyed with the whole 'excuse' comments.. why? because it felt extremely judgemental and blinkered and perhaps there are times when the world is bigger than your own experiences.

Why must some make a sweeping statment to cover all and not actually consider that each family unit is individual in culture and needs?

I was interested by Princesspeaheads view that the lea should not waste their time chasing 'middle class parents', it seems to suggest that it's ok to chase working class parents (who really do struggle for money) but middle class parents should be left alone to do what they want!? I think that we often forget to be gratefull for what we have. Many people around the world would give up alot to have the education that our children get. Many of us are quick to criticise schools but not so quick to support. Holidays are a luxury not a necessity and whatever decision people make about taking children out of school they shoul remember that the teacher will have to somehow make sure their child catches up with missed work. And asking for work to take with you only causes more work for the teacher!

NightyNight - actually, that sounds brilliant!

Isn't it hard though, since exams are in a big slot at the beginning of summer, and the autumn chill sets in by mid september..How do all the schools make sure they are ready at the same moment for exams if their school year has been different?

We sort of have that in the UK - Scotland break up on June 24th and go back mid-August, or some parts do.
I think we could go further along that route, but I bet all that would happen if we did would be that British holiday firms would widen their peak charging season.
My top tip for English families tied to the School hols has always been to book a gite in France from mid or even late August onwards - so few French people are heading off for their hols at that time that prices fall considerably from week 3 of August in a lot of areas.
I just feel so incensed by the cost of holidays in Britain over the summer hols that we're just going to go France from now on.

I'm a teacher who used to be taken out of school for a week every September to go on holiday with my family.

Got a good degree and have fantastic family memories.

I never mind when the children are out of school for a little while to have a holiday with their family. Occasionally it's irritating having to re-cap, but I get over it, and the other children couldn't give a monkeys.

The entire world is totally hysterical about childrens' education. Childhood is short and precious. People should take a deep breath, maybe have a nice cup of tea, and attempt to see the bigger picture.

I'm taking ds out of school for 5 days after Christmas. We're going to visit family and as they live in Florida may call in at Disney. Well, seems Disney is on the National Curriculum these days as ds watched three Disney films in one week at school a few weeks ago (Year 2) and another one this week!!!

hopecat - well said