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C'mon, skiing is not educational!

Get real!

if it isnt why do so many schools arrange skiing trips

As a holiday! It's optional in the UK, not a life skill.

medhand'please explain how pointing skis down a mountain is educational?

(This is like Groundhog Day, have you read the thread?)

I didnt say it was, but its the holiday of choice for most of the schools round here

I can see educational benefits in all sorts of holidays

Ski trips from school don't usually take place in term time.

Tinlegs I was with you until you pulled someone up on spelling. Unnecessary.

That said, taking time out for holidays in an exam year is just fucking idiotic. When I briefly worked in an exams office in a large FE college we had a memorable parent asking if we could change some of her daughter's A-Level exams because they had booked to go to Portugal. In June. In Y13

they do here

Our school arranges ski holidays, in holiday time where it belongs.

Tinlegs. I'm sure you've been here long enough to know that pulling a poster up for their grammar or spelling is not on. You don't know if you are pulling apart someone who is dyslexic, or simply posting on an iPhone with its associated autocorrects.

That's why there is a 'Pedants' section. If you have an issue with 5madthings posting style I would suggest you discuss it in there.

tin how predicable! When you said you were an English teacher I was actually watching the thread to see when you would start picking through opposing posters grammer

When I was teaching I was always delighted that children were going on a family holiday. They would learn far more than they would in a classroom
That's a fairly damning indictment of the school system, Consils.
Did you mean a classroom in general, or your classroom in particular?
If that were really the case I'd wonder why we bother to send them in at all.

bowler so did DD1s but it was hugely out of my price range as I was on my own with her then.

I don't normally pick up on mistakes but, when I am reading a post listing a long and illustrious education, boasting about how time off school made no difference to said education, and it contains such howlers I am afraid my inner pedant kicks in.

(Didn't know we pendants had a special section.....how exciting!)

acer12 I care not whether people take children out of school for a holiday. I wouldn't do it myself, but it's other people's business what they decide to do for themselves and their DC.

However what I do object to is people taking their DC skiing of the basis that it's 'educational'. And letting their DC believe that. It's not. It's a family holiday taken in term time because it's cheaper and the slopes are emptier.

Yep still doesn't really excuse mocking some ones grammer, its a bit of a low, easy blow. Maybe your just toooooo jaded after inspiring forcing young people to learn about boring subjects like Macbeth...now if you were talking about Romeo and Juliet I was the nursemaid in school play it would be a different matter!

I choose to live life as I go along and make the most of things, two sudden deaths in my family in fours years made me think bollocks to grey people! My DD1 has the same life ethic as me! Stuff em!!

bowler on that I will agree, your right.

"Romeo and Juliet" too, and "Measure for Measure" and "Much Ado" and "Midsummer Night's Dream" - one Shakespeare per year.

Not jaded at all. I love my job and the pupils, it is just the parents who occasionally need educating.

Not grey...not yet (I have a good hairdresser). If you mean metaphorically grey, not sure how being "grey" is achieved simply by opposing pupils missing out on their education.

Apologies for the comment. It was low, and easy.

They learn far more out of the classroom than they ever do at school.
Even without trying to make the holiday fun the dc will learn things and there isn't a lot of learning going on in school, except maybe how to pass a test

not fun, educational.

Yes, they may well learn things, but if they aren't learning the things that are on the curriculum for their GCSEs or A levels, then it's not going to help them pass these exams, is it?

And passing tests is pretty important, later on in their school careers, surely? If they want qualifications, that is.

morethanpotatoprints that is a ridiculous statement

Tinlegs. As a teacher surely you are aware that dyslexics can also have a 'long and illustrious education'?

Bowlers, acer. Whilst I would agree that skiing isn't necessarily 'educational' I do think it can be good for the children and adults that take part. It is much more than 'pointing two sticks down a mountain'

It is hard, physically and mentally. Your neck, back, thighs and ankles are put under enormous strain, and a decent skier will train for weeks beforehand to build up muscles in their thighs and lower back. Mentally you have to prepare yourself for the fear of pushing yourself down a slope that is unknown to you, you have to be aware of the difference between good soft snow and dangerous soft snow. You have to be able to follow a track unless you are purposely going off piste.

Unless you are a dangerous speed demon you have to be able to control your decent and be able to make turns safely and quickly.

You have to have balance and upper body strength for the pommel lift. You may have to overcome a fear of heights for the chair lifts. You have to show consideration for others and follow skiing etiquette. You may have to make yourself known and understood in another language.

OK, I'm boring myself now . I'm sure you get the drift

I know a lot about dyslexia, of course. I don't think either of the mistakes I highlighted would raise any flags.

And, for a dyslexic, who will find a reading based curriculum a struggle, whatever support is put in place, surely missing school for holidays would be even more of a mistake.

I have apologised. Not sure what else I can do.

However physically demanding skiing is, it is not a well rounded education. It might contribute to PE, or even to emotional well being. However, if you want to pass an exam in, say, Physics, it is no use at all.

My children went skiing with their primary school btw but it was a whole school activity, part of their curriculum, and they missed no lessons. If you want skiing as PE, move to Scotland.....no need for term time holidays.

I didn't see your apology tinlegs, I saw your other post that I thought was unnecessarily sarcastic. But I see your apology now.

My skiing post was really just aimed at Bowlers who called it 'pointing sticks..' Etc. I really just wanted to point out that it was much more than that - otherwise why would schools do bloody expensive trips. It used to be one of my passions.

I've heard horrible parents screaming at their poor DCs on hols, being cooped up together in a tent or hotel room can bring out the worst in everyone.
It's daft to generalize about how good hols are children.