To ask if you agree with term time holidays to please sign this petition...

[TermTimeHolidays]

here

It needs 100,000 signatures before it can be discussed in parliament.

OP, does 38degrees think that these ten days in term time should only be open to families on low incomes, or can the rich use the savings they will make by going in term time to upgrade their European holiday to a Caribbean one as well?

Perhaps that would like to add it to the list of things that are only allowed if you claim child tax credits?

I won't sign that because its stupid.

I'll sign. I'm asking for a week's holiday before Christmas...

I don't understand posters who say, a huge chunk of learning will be lost if they miss a week. Especially when they are in primary. Learning is a gentle, upward curve. I hate to think, if you arent there on a day when long division was taught, you can never get the hang of it...

I am not signing this

As a teenager I did not go away for holidays - no money in the house. But we had some amazing days out, on the bus, and they were wonderful memories.

This summer we couldn't afford to go away but had days out, paid for time at clubs, allowed a lot of daydreaming time for ds, and we built memories that way. Memories can be built without the framework of a formal 'going away' holiday.

Staggering holidays is a nightmare idea. Most parents have more than one child, and therefore often have children at two or even three different schools. It is difficult enough to wrangle childcare arrangements and annual leave as it is without having to factor different term times for different children into account, particularly if you are a lone parent with only one set of annual leave to go around.

Don't be so bloody silly

my children speak french, go to nature reserves and lots of other educational experiences, last holiday we stayed out til 10 watching a light show about the fall of Carcassone.

Why is having a holiday experience that isnt totalled by the rain for the adults? I get great pleasure in my childrens enjoyment and although they love camping, huddled in a freezing cold tent is not as much fun as splashing in the sea in the South of France.

I love it - the peasants can learn about passports and ferry ports, airports and French and Spanish etc. in school, but not actually be allowed to experience them.

I will sign a form to get travle companies to low the price during school holidays but I see no reason for children to miss out on 38 weeks per 52 of school.

Don't understand why you can't spend quality time with your children at home during the holidays tbh.

Is it OK to take children out for up to 10 days if you are not going away?

I won't be signing. I agree with everything brokensunglasses has said upthread.

All children who have a good attendance record should be allowed the opportunity to enjoy quality time with their parents on an annual holiday of up to 10 days once per year.

And children who have chronic medical conditions should not be allowed?

I don't actually care whether other parents want to take their children out of school, and think it's a better idea for the parents to be up front about what it is for and when so that teachers can work around them - make sure they're not partnering another child during their absence, or taking a lead part in a play.

My feeling is it should be a rarity and for genuine necessity - taking a child to a family wedding or funeral, for example, or a once in a lifetime chance. Not 'let's have two extra weeks off randomly', which appears to be how the petition is worded.

Well I've signed.

Tbh I feel the law should be abolished and the right to be allowed or not allowed holiday be given at ht's discretion.

Why not? Its about 5% of attendance for a two week hol, not even enough for it to be flagged up as a problem in my area.

They're not mutually exclusive you know.

You can camp in France, south or otherwise. Unlike everything else (it seems) in France camping is cheap.

You can camp in the UK without being huddled in a freezing tent. We've had 3 wet days over the past 5 years and we camp 2 weeks per year minimum b/w end of May and end Aug.

Maybe the government could set up an independent panel that parents can apply to for holiday permission and prove that their holiday choice is educational enough.

If you use passports, get to hear a foreign language, see foreign money and travel in something that isn't a car, then you get a pass because your holiday is educational.

If you're going to stay in a caravan and get there in the car you use every day then you don't get the pass, because it's just not educational enough?

YABU- we've all known what the school holiday times are so I don't see why it should come as a surprise?

I have 4 dc and go on holiday in school holidays, if I cant afford to go where I want then I choose somewhere else in my budget.

The fact of the matter is those that can still afford to pay the fines will continue to go outside of school holidays.

As another poster said campaign against the unfair price hikes or to stagger the school holidays then yes id sign it, although I suspect if you staggered the school holidays the price hike would remain in place say june to October.

What a daft idea aside from all the reasons listed above, if the kids get 10 days off on top of their holidays, the travel companies will only bump their prices up year round.

Signed.

I believe the education act states that parents are responsible for providing a full time efficient education that is suited to the needs of the child. It doesn't stipulate how this full time efficient education is provided or the place in which it is to be provided. It doesn't stipulate what is to be learnt. I think there is more to learning than facing a whiteboard or being subjected to endless hours of rote, superfluous testing and "socialisation" on demand. I'm sure some parents think two weeks on the beach is time well spent but many others do find ingenious ways of spending two weeks with lots of learning and experiencing new things and they have to achieve this on very modest sums of money.

YABU. It is utterly ridiculous.

You never had the "right" to take your child on holiday in term time even back in the dark ages when I was at primary.

I'm used to be laid back about this and went with the travel is learning route etc but to be honest the more I think about it - you send you kids to school so abide by the rules - the people that can afford holidays are the one who can also afford tutors and the resources to catch their children up whilst its the children whose parents who can't even afford camping who are most at need of a stable school environment, with teachers not having to focus on catching little 'Toby' up because Mummy and daddy think Skiing is essential but don't want to pay season prices. Plus they are the parents who will complain.

So you want this but can't promote it under your regular name?

What a stupid petition and an even stupider reason to name change.

People need to stop think about holidays away as a right.

It bugs me when these things are worded about being children who have good attendance already. So basically those who are lucky not to be ill can have term time holidays but not those who are ill?

I am all for discouraging term time holidays for all.

or to increase an employees holiday from 30 days per year to 40 to give families more time together?

All children with a good attendance record should be allowed 10 days off in term time per year. Isn't that an oxymoron?
My children have excellent attendance records, but I don't expect them to be offered time off for good behaviour.

when I was in Primary (over 30 years ago) travel was encouraged, children got to speak about their experiences.

We do not live in a dictatorship where people who refuse to conform should be punished.

Rich people just go on holiday in the term time, and children all learn at difference paces anyway, lessons should already be individually tailored.