Debate in Parlement re Travel industry price increase in school holiday

[bigpigsmum]

Hi all, not a lot of time but if you're incensed at the impossible price increases levied on parents to book vacations during the school holiday to prevent them being fined you need to badger your local MP ASAP:

Please email your MP, asking them to turn up and telling them your reasons for wanting the changes to the school attendance policy reversed.

Here's an email I've received explaining it all:

John Hemming MP has managed to get a Backbench debate in Parliament next Monday - 24th Feb - at 4.30pm.

Technically the debate is about the travel industry charging more in holiday times because despite the 203,000 signatures on this petition, John couldn't get cross party support for a debate on whether it's fine for parents to use our own discretion as to when its OK to take our kids out of school.

So now the challenge is to make sure that the debate is well-attended and relevant to what we want: the reversal of the change to school attendance policy.

But most of all, we need MPs to turn up! Backbench business debates often have very few attendees. The more MPs who turn up, the more seriously the issue will be taken. For that, we need your help.

We've sent MPs a briefing document but it will only get read if MPs think they need to go to the debate and they will only do that if their constituents tell them to.

So please, email your MP now, ask them to attend the debate and tell him or her your reasons for wanting the changes reversed. We can draw MPs attention to some of the points we've put below, but it is your individual stories which bring these to life and give MPs a wider understanding of what the rules mean in real life.

Here are some of the reasons signatories to the petition have for wanting the changes in school attendance policy reversed:

Give children a childhood

Consideration for children with Special Educational Needs

Building family relationships in a 24*7 working society

Work commitments / Business prevent holidays out of term

Small businesses, few employees, all wanting time off together

The society of depressed teenagers we are breeding

Educating a child extends far beyond GCSE results or classroom learning

Family crisis, parental illness, funerals, divorce even

Family occasions

Diverse society with families abroad

School-parental relationship

Pupil-school relationship

Cost - it is not about a “cheap” holiday – to some families – it is the difference between, going or not. It is not about “saving” money, rather it is about “affording” - after possibly saving up for it, for say, 3 years

Impact on tourism related businesses in the UK

It won't help persistent absentees, they have less time of for family holidays than regular attendees

Rule out of all proportion to the impact: only 5% of absences due to family holiday

Waste of local authority & magistrates limited resources

Government shouldn't be making law like this, with no meaningful evidence & no consultation
Good luck

[lljkk]

sadly true, but I am glad he's willing to stick neck out for what he believes in.

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

JH isn't exactly an advert for rational debate.

[lljkk]

John Hemming was just on Radio 4 (the noon consumer affairs programme) talking about today's debate.

[lljkk]

Not too late to email your MP if this is important to you.

[Roseformeplease]

Don't have SATs in Scotland so, no. I am just fed up with having to make up for the determination of feckless parents to have their fortnight in the sun each year. There are 12+ weeks of school holidays. Use them. We managed as children. A package deal is not an unalienable right. Children can have their "stress" relieved by a run around in a local park and many of my generation grew up none the worse for the odd trip to grandparents or a caravan in wet Wales.

[lljkk]

Still not to late to send emails to your MP to ask them to be there (just done it myself!)

[givemeaclue]

'Give children a childhood?'

I take my children out of school for holidays but I do not support this being discussed in parliament and the reasons given are ridiculous, children don't get a childhood unless they miss school to go on holiday? Really?

[GlaikitFizzog]

News this morning are saying the debate so about reducing airport taxes at peak times, not legislating for travel firms to charge less or reverse the attendance policy.

Have I missed something, because there seems to be a difference to what is being debated here?

It's a non starter anyway. It's only being debated because 100,000 signed a petition.

[Mumraathenoisylion]

Honestly as 'Jacinta and Tarquin's' parent, I don't give a fuck if they make it to Oxbridge. What I do care about is their happiness.

I know school is tough for teachers and you have a ridiculous amount of work to do and don't get paid enough for it but it can also be really really stressful for children. It's bad enough they have to have ridiculous tests in primary. Are you worried that more time off would result in lower sats scores and reflect badly on you?

[GoldenBeagle]

I estimate that I will have 70 holiday-going years in my life (18-88). Say 60, to err on the lesser side. Of those, only 17 will need to have been taken in school holidays.

I made excellent us of the rates out of season before I had kids and I'm looking forward to my post-school-parent holidays in June etc once my kids have left school at a bargain rate. I reckon I will, overall, have had better value if it stays as it is.

Why should child-free people or pensioners pay premium rates out of peak season in order to subsidise families in school holidays? Holiday companies have low margins - they need to make the money they make somehow.

Kids can go camping and have a whale of a time. Less so for pensioners.

[Roseformeplease]

"Is teaching not your job, Rosie" - if that is aimed at me, yes it is my job which I do at fixed and pre-arranged times to specific classes, not at a time and in a way to suit Jacinta's Mummy's desire for a cheap trip to Gstaad. And yes, it is the middle classes with their, "Oh, one must get a week of sunshine / skiing / Roman ruins" who piss me off the most. They are the first to blame the school when Tarquin doesn't make it to Oxbridge.

[PenelopePitstops]

Mummy have you ever been a teacher?!

Coming from secondary it's a blooming nightmare when a parent asks for work. Contrary to popular opinion, lesson plans aren't just tweaked from previous years. They are for the most part new and improved lesson plans thay vary by class, level, year group, time of year, prior knowledge etc.

Take your kids on holiday by all means, don't expect teachers to fill the gap.

[Mumraathenoisylion]

No need to resort to insults!

[Greenrememberedhills]

Are you Mrs Hemming?

[Mumraathenoisylion]

No, dc goes to an independent so we don't have this issue. The teacher gives us work to do with our child when we go away.

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

I agree with WhoKnows.

This is a totally pointless use of parliamentary time.

[GretaWolfcastle]

mumra - you home educate then?
I change mine most years tbh

[JeanSeberg]

Agreed vest and all those activities you mention are the same price all year round ie free.

[vestandknickers]

I agree JeanSeberg. My favourite is "give children a childhood".

Nonsense.

School is a massively important part of childhood. All the rest - the going to the park, playing in the garden, cooking with Mum and Dad, spending time with Granny etc etc etc is done after school or in the school or in the school holidays.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

Sorry, I'm not asking my MP to attend a debate under the pretext of one thing but trying to be about another, particularly when it has been instigated by John Hemming. I will save my letters to him for things that I actually think are important.

[JeanSeberg]

Some of the reasons on that list are pathetic and laughable - society of depressed teenagers that we are breeding...

Give me strength.

[vestandknickers]

Lessons plans are only a guide. Work is then differentiated depending on each child's ability. The teacher also needs to assess that each child has understood the lesson and is ready to move on. Not quite as simple as just handing over a couple of photocopies.

[JeanSeberg]

I would support a campaign to prevent this being discussed in parliament and let businesses get on with it.

If everyone feels so strongly, set up your own holiday company and set your pricing levels at the same rate year round or drop them in the school holidays.

[Mumraathenoisylion]

I do know how much work it is actually, often lesson plans are only slightly adapted from previous years in the state system so a brief overview of what the child will be studying would be enough for a parent to keep the child up to date.

I am relating this to primary rather than secondary.

[vestandknickers]

I shall be emailing my MP to let them know I agree with the system currently in place. I happen to think my children's education is important and that it is perfectly possible to fit holidays/seeing family and other activities into school holidays.