Have you taken your kids out of school for holiday to save money

[NC2125]

Good morning everyone

Just need some perspective here please.

I’m looking at holidays for October and we can save £500-1000 if we leave 3 days before the half term starts. Is it acceptable to take a child in reception out for 3 days to save quite a lot of money, money which we need elsewhere. Is it something that people do or is it a no go? Thank you in advance.

We are so lucky in this country that education is free...don't abuse that privilege by thinking your cheap holiday trumps your child's free education. Yes, it's only three days, but it's at the expense of what the teacher has to do to catch your child up and the rest of the class as necessary.

Education is not free, it’s funded, it’s a key difference.

You're missing the point. In many countries, people must pay for education, regardless of what they earn. State education in the UK is offered to all children at zero cost regardless of their parent's (parents') ability to pay tax.

Having lived and worked in Africa for many years where you pay for your child to attend a dilapidated school with200 to a class and teachers trying to work in exceptionally challenging circumstances, we really don't know we're born in the UK.

Oh give over with the Africa stuff, we live in a free country, with funded education paid for by taxpayers. If those tax payers use that financial and civil freedom to take some family time with their children and give them a new experience, be that sight seeing or being on a beach, it is not going to suddenly render their education useless.

As a military family spending huge amounts of time apart from my husband I can tell you from MY experience that there are things more valuable than education alone, but like most people, we are all striking a balance.

We did, our kids are adults now, no harm done.

What exactly is vital to cover in the last 3 days of a reception term? We found the last day was a half day, the rest of the week a mix of old material and games/movies and no new topics started? Are there reception classes where brand new concepts are introduced just before the long summer break with no time to consolidate? This seems worse than a couple of days missed.

We are allowed to have different views (and different life experiences which inform those views), so I will respect your pov and keep mine. We are incredibly privileged in the UK.

That we do, but I think we are allowed to make decisions based on our own contexts, we don’t live in Africa, we don’t need to make decisions like we do.

We took some days off in primary school due to work issues, my eldest is now going into year 11 and has had one day off the entire time he has been in secondary school. He is on track for high GCSEs, he is clearly valuing he education just fine, as are we.

Yes we have.
I paid an £80 fine last year, £160 this year. I have 3 toddler age children and one in school (I am separated from eldest dad and luckily he didn’t get a fine, which I would have paid if he did as it was me who took her out) . If we went in school holidays we would pay several thousands more. And then its just not worth it . I’ve booked another one for next year and the fine will be £1k but still cheaper than going out of term time. It’s a week, I really don’t have an issue with it. When the eldest starts secondary school of course I wouldn’t but for now it’s the only way we can get a holiday abroad. I never had holidays as a child so for me , I want my children to have that experience. A lot of people won’t agree which is absolutely fine. But I missed a lot of school because my mother was just awful. I had to look after my siblings when she was too drunk or hungover to function. When I compare a holiday to that, it’s not that bad !

Teacher here and my heart always says go ahead. Family time together is so good, just for a couple of days and if attendance is good etc. Just like to remind everyone thought that teachers are stuck with these very expensive times too! We’d love to slip off a few days early to save money! Wishing you a wonderful holiday!

P.S please be truthful though. I hate it when families lie and the child comes back all suntanned and wanting to tell you all their holiday news. It’s such a bad example, so be truthful though!!

I have for days here and there to go on say a Thursday before the half term as saves quite a bit but this year I took them out for 7 school days. They are year 10 and 7. It was July and eldest had finished mocks. It saved £6000!!!! My year 7 got a free child space before turned 12 2 days after getting home plus term time instead of holidays! No regrets. They didn't do very much the last couple of weeks in term!

Absolutely we would and have done, believe it or not education isn’t my top priority for my kids. Churning out the next generation of workers, school all day, homework all evening. They’re little kids, they’ll still get wherever they want to be in life regardless of a few missed days in the year. My top priority is happy kids, well rested and enjoying themselves having made lovely family memories. No one ever died wishing they hadn’t missed a few days of school

Not to make it cheaper, just to suit our schedule. Flew the 2nd last week of term to visit family.
School summer holidays are 9 weeks long in NI and taking a week off to go away is still very common.
No fines

We didn’t go on family holidays abroad when we were kids but I still remember about 20 years ago my mum took us out of school halfway through the day to go and see High School Musical on ice and I loved her so much for it I still remember strutting triumphantly out of those gates 🤣

As a teacher and parent I think It's sad the rules are so strict, especially for a few days at end of the year. We took DC on holiday and missed just one day of school at end of term. I had a good relationship with their HT and said sorry, she understood but still had to send a letter about inappropriate it was etc.

The problems have arisen over the years when parents have taken kids away for 2 weeks midterm, so they do miss a lot and it's extra erroneous for us teachers to try to ensure they're up to speed and this amount of time has an impact on their progression and is difficult in lessons when they haven't learn the previous steps in a topic. (Secondary)

However, in the grand scheme of things, a few days at the end of term isn't what I would call significant. 😀