Do you want to be able to take 1 week holiday a year during term time?

[ioana12]

Please help us get the numbers up on this petition

Allow parents to take children out of school for 1 week a year during term time*
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/231928?fbclid=IwAR0kETxR0gw_mL8ikPjmBG2xSdlBsINbfmDvdXfJdpgfCR-RFMH2MJlIZiE

If this happens, holiday companies will just remove the summer holiday premium and spread it throughout the year instead.

I think the idea is that anyone can take that week off whenever they please - and there's no way the holiday premium can last for 365 days, right?

This idea has been handed about for ages and it doesn't work. What do you do about the work that's missed? Are you expecting teachers to provide time and work to help them catch up? Will this apply to year 11 students too?

this is basically what it used to be like until a couple of years ago. Discretionary for the heads to offer up to 10 days without penalty if good reason. My childrens headmaster disagreed with the changes to stop allowing this. It worked very well, and allowed low income families to occasionally benefit from the same things as more wealthy families. Ive signed, although not convinced it will do anything

Sounds fab as long I can can, too. I'd love to go skiing when the slopes are empty and there are no bloody kids around. Would happily come in and work a week during the school holidays to make up the time.

No I don't. Because I don't want my child's learning to be constantly disrupted by other children missing weeks here and there, and the teacher having to help them catch up what they've missed.

Will teachers be allowed to do this too?

I agree with Brisklady, it is disruptive for the teacher & rest of the class

No. I'd like the teacher to be able to focus on the class, not the one child who was away last week - and on average there would be one most weeks.

It depends - I'm a teacher. Will I be allowed a week off too? No of course not. That would be massively disruptive and cost schools a fortune in supply cover.
I get very annoyed when parents take their kids on holiday in term time and expect us to set work to take with them and mark it so they "keep up". If you are that botheref about them keeping up then don't take them out of school. I imagine this would happen a lot more if a week's holiday a year became a "thing".

I struggle to spread my 17 days holiday (after bank holidays and the days between Christmas and New Year are taken out) over the school holidays as it is, and would have thought this would be an issue for many families.

OP - will teachers be allowed to do this too?

I agree with the posters that say it is vastly disruptive for teachers and the rest of the class to constantly have various children catching up.

Also what message about the value of education does this send to child?

It's not that disruptive at least at primary anyway. As pp said, until recently heads could allow up to ten days a year. Not everyone took all of them - they were useful for things like family weddings etc etc. If attendance is generally good I don't see the problem.

I feel sad that some families are unable to take their children to experience other cultures and food and history as it is so expensive during the holiday periods. There's a lot to be said for a family spending this time together away from home and educational value as well. That said, I can see the challenge for teachers and other pupils. No easy answer I fear.

If you are so determined to take your kids out of school for a week just pay the fine.

Also, in my experience (maybe not typical), it's not the poorer families who take term time holidays and would rejoice at this, it's the well off ones who are having a skiing trip in addition to their 'main' holiday, or the ones who can't quite afford Orlando in the holidays, or the ones taking three weeks at Easter because it's just not worth going for two. Families in that situation wanting one of these extra weeks can bugger off, frankly - they can either trim back their holiday destinations a bit, or drop a star or two off their accommodation - in other words, take holidays they can actually afford and that fit into school holidays, like the rest of us do. In our school, the poorer families generally don't go on holiday at all, or they take a dirt-cheap UK break in a caravan or camping every couple of years. Having an extra week would make very little difference to those costs, and could in fact lead to additional childcare costs.

I'd just like to see discretion brought back so that heads didn't have to be afraid to be compassionate or generous with regards to family events like weddings and funerals. I can suck up the holidays, it's only for a couple of decades between my two kids, but having to worry about whether or not you'll get authorised time off for family events is just not acceptable. And I don't blame heads at all - they are as much under the cosh as the rest of us.

People used to be able to this,it wasn’t disruptive.

Yes please!
Don't complain that I'm not there teaching your kids though!

We're just moving this over to the correct topic now.

Heads still can authorise absences, if they are persuaded the reason is exceptional (such as weddings, funerals, end-of-tour leave with parent returning from Afghanistan, but not 'it's £300 pp cheaper)

It was changed without a murmur from the normally vociferous teaching unions, and with positive support from HT union. Because 190 days a year isn't really that much. Coping with medical and exceptional absences is part of the job. Adding holidays to that is pushing it - especially now that schools can afford only fewer TAs