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.

"Can you start a petition for every child to receive a free school dinner regardless of parental income while you are at it?"

Why? Dont you think that the parent should feed their child? Its not exactly too much to ask surely.

Most people will take far more out than they put in so cant exactly say they pay for education.

Personally, I'd prefer that free school meals were given to all, or to none.

As it doesn't seem acceptable to stop giving them to children that need them, I think they should be free for all.

I hate the current system of free school meals, because it's not just about feeding children. It's about the extra few hundred pounds a FSM child gets spent on them, as if they and their families are more important than everyone else that gets me.

At a meeting at my child's school this week, we were encouraged to apply if we were eligible, because there would be an extra £900 available for FSM children to pay for their trips, extra tutoring and equipment if they need it. We were also told about a trip that costs £450. So the FSM children who have a grandparent that would pay for them, or whose parents could save up to pay at least some of the cost get to go for free. Yet other families, whose income is pretty much the same as a that of a family that claims tax credits except their income is earned, have to pay for it or miss out.

Too fucking right I'm resentful that other people's children are deemed more worthy of going on a free trip than mine just because their parents work less hours or in a similar but slightly lower paying jobs.

Normally, I'd agree with you HappyMummy, parents should pay for their own children to eat. They should also pay for their own children's school trips. But unless all parents are going to do it, then it becomes divisive, and you end up with a system that picks and chooses children that are worthy.

Free school meals for all is the way forward, and pay for it by scrapping the pupil premium.

Bully for you made sticking to your guns makes you an all out stella parent!

I've been all over the world with dd, I worked and paid for it myself. Dd1 did fantastic at school waaaaaaay better than me. She has a brill career ahead if her. It's not one size fits all.

^Yet we are the ones living on a teacher's salary, abiding my the state education terms for our holidays ( because we have to ! due to husband ), and he earns a LOT less.
Please can someone tell me how I am meant to be able to afford to go somewhere warm abroad in the summer holidays ?^

People have to holiday according to their financial means and circumstances. I'm not trying to sound deliberately uncaring. My husband earns similar to a teacher and I don't work due to disability (so similar situation to yourself bar the teacher holiday issue) but I don't think a holiday somewhere warm is an automatic right or necessary.
People don't need to tell you how you are meant to be able to go somewhere warm. You can get away cheaply in the school holidays without resorting to sleeping in a tent.
Travel lodges and premier inns are pretty much cheap all year round and there are lots dotted around the country. A short self catering break at butlins / pontins in a caravan is much less expensive than going abroad. Most major cities in the UK have apartment hotels that can be rented out for a few nights at a reasonable cost.

Part of the problem is that people want the type of holidays that are not within their financial means and begrudge those who can afford to spend several weeks in a sunnier climate at any time of the year.

This is a gross generalisation but it is thought to be only the top 40% of households by earning that contribute more in tax that they cost the state (ie including NHS, benefits, education etc etc). I guess that if you looked only at households with school age children the tipping point would be even higher. So most of the people who take the view that they pay for their children's education through their taxes are simply wrong!

Hmm well we do pay the higher tax rate thanks.

The govt cant make the holidays do anything.

Absolutely laugh at the idea employers will worry - the recession was the worst thing that ever happened to flexible working.

Also - some people don't see the need for foreign travel, others accept their lot in life is not to have it, some people value the benefits "more" than formal education.

What annoys me is a one size fits all approach when it clearly benefits the wealthy and penalises the not so well off.

Plus I know best how to parent my children not a faceless bureaucrat..

So do we, retropear, but I still maintain that we couldn't afford to buy the education our children are getting/got for the percentage of our tax pounds that are spent on education.

I love the fact people are actually suggesting travel lodges, premier inn -what a fanfuckingtadtic holiday that would be for a ten year old or go butlins for a short break! (Overpriced bullshit) OR "live within your means " very fucking humble--

NO body has the right to say when, where, what you do with your own kids.

Tbh most of the anti posts smacks of jealousy

med I agree on the some people don't want to travel. There the same people who sit back on the fold away stool out side their family tent stating " nooooo I'd rather be in Skegness than Cuba ! All that Nasty foreign food!"

All this talk of Butlins and haven being cheap in the holidays is P*ing me off now.

Four years ago I booked 4 nights in Yorkshire at Haven in May for £89, we took £750 in spending money and we took the children out of school for five days. The youngest was 4 and it was his first holiday and that year it was all we could afford (we even came home with change) he still talks about the wall around york, the abbey, the caves and the railways museum as though it was yesterday.

Since then we have enjoyed three holidays all in the UK and all within our budget (which thankfully isn't quite so squeezed these days)

I would prefer to spend every day visiting places, showing them the great history of the British Isles than spend the same amount of money on shoddy accommodation, because that is what Haven offers. Why spend 350+ on a accommodation when you don't have to. The likely result is that very poor families wouldn't have any money left and their children would spend every day on the beach learning and seeing nothing.

For those that say poorer families should just suck it up, maybe the parents should, but to suggest that other children are not deserving of nice experiences and a good childhood, you should hang your heads in shame.

For those that say poorer families should just suck it up, maybe the parents should, but to suggest that other children are not deserving of nice experiences and a good childhood, you should hang your heads in shame.

But that's part of living in a capitalist society; some people can afford more than others because they earn more. Some people can afford to buy villas in Spain and take their kids out there for the whole summer whils others can't afford a day out in Blackpool. Some people drive their children to school in Audi Q7s / range rovers/ bentleys whilst other people have to get the bus / walk/ take a scooter. It's not that some children are more deserving its just that the parents earn more / have more due to inheritance etc and can provide their children with more expensive things / more expensive experiences.
People don't have to suck it up; they can emigrate to live in a communist society where wealth is evenly spread and all children have the same things.
I think its only fair that people who have chosen (or been fortunate enough) to get well paid jobs can afford to have expensive holidays, drive whatever cars they choose etc and thnk it would be pretty unjustified if a person who been on the dole since leaving school was able to lead the same lifestyle and purchase all of the same things as someone in a well paid highly skilled job.
Disclaimer: I am not well paid and neither is my husband ( I just don't feel jealous of those with more money than myself).

Nice experiences and a good childhood can happen without term time holidays.

But we live in a global society now.

The fact is those that visiting other countries will do better in geog,languages(realising why they're studying them for a start),experiencing other cultures is hugely beneficial in raising aspirations and broadening ones horizons etc. The benefits are endless.

It's far easier to enable more children to experience these benefits if those with good attendance are allowed 5 or 10 days off at non important times of year.

Broken, thats awful re trips. Our school doesnt give free trips to FSM, the pupil premium is £600 i think and goes towards the TA's we have.

Assuming though £450 is high school not primary. Totally unfair to get a free holiday just because parents are unemployed or work just the odd few hours a week. I'd not be happy with that at all.

Nice experiences and a good childhood can happen without term time holidays

so its only about the children then

nothing to do with the adults in the family

Runningchick123 In order to argue against the statement: "For those that say poorer families should just suck it up, maybe the parents should, but to suggest that other children are not deserving of nice experiences and a good childhood, you should hang your heads in shame"

You would have to be able to justify why the children of poorer parents deserve less. You haven't argued that, instead you go on to argue that adults deserve less.

yes, oh my!

You would have to be able to justify why the children of poorer parents deserve less. You haven't argued that, instead you go on to argue that adults deserve less.

I stated that the children of poorer parents were not less deserving, but parents who earn more can purchase more goods / experiences for their children as that's how capitalism works and we live in a capitalist society.

I could easily argue that it's not fair that some of the children in my sons school arrive in range rovers whilst my child has to suffer the fate of driving in my 10 year old family vehicle. Why should my child have to put up with driving in a lesser vehicle than his peers. Why is my child less deserving of travelling in a stylish car?

see its very ridiculous.

Whether its holidays, cars, the houses we live in etc, the fact remains that some people can afford more than others for their children.

What is snobby about saying people need to live within their means? Don't we all have to do that? I know dh and I do - you can't spend what you haven't got.

shouldistayorshouldagonooooooo - I don't understand what's wrong with saying live within your means? Surely that's the responsible thing to do? I don't understand your post, your comment about the antis being jealous - jealous of what? I don't know if we'll be able to afford holidays once DD starts school, but that's part and parcel of all the changes that we took on when we decided to become parents. Money's become very tight, but that's our problem! No-one else's fault we've gone for unlucrative jobs.

running the cost of a car doesnt change depending on the time of year

also re mini - that sums up this country for me - that £750 spending money gives us 3 weeks in France in a caravan

there is living within your means - but at the same time - stopping people trying to do that from buying yellow label in Asda.

I love fresh salmon - my means mean I cannot afford it - if I see it reduced to a £1 then I fill the freezer - no term time holidays is the equivalent of stopping me buying it.

Saying - I don't deserve the best when it is av, cheaply.