Allow students to be taken out of school for two weeks a year without penalty

[Kalevala]

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/658365

"Families face school fines for taking their children out of school to go on affordable holidays. This can be a particular issue for low-income families, and families with children that have additional needs, who want or need to avoid busier and more expensive periods."

Having taught when children were allowed to take holidays at the HT's discretion and now, in these more draconian times, I can honestly say I do think parents should be entitled to take their children out for two weeks across the year at no penalty. It makes no difference whatsoever. The key indicator of academic success or lack of is poverty. Every piece of research ever conducted shows this to be the case.
If it made a difference we would see this reflected in private school results where holidays are longer (3-4 weeks on average) and there is no penalty for taking children out during term time.
Additionally, this measure does penalise families who can only just afford a holiday. It is incredibly expensive to go away in school holiday times and this precludes many families who would definitely benefit from some quality holiday time together. This is just as valuable as being in school.
It is a punitive measure and not in the best interests of either children or families. It does seem to benefit the holiday companies, who were incidentally, the first group to be consulted some years ago when the DfE were thinking about changes to the school year. Never mind consulting those at the chalk-face!School is a high stress environment these days and knowing there is no way you can take your children on holiday only adds to this.

I would fully support a proposal that allowed parents to choose 10 school days across the year to take their children on holiday by benefitting from cheaper periods. There are only a few times when parents would need to be mindful of not taking their children out, namely public exam times. These timetables are published well in advance, so parents would have this information.

I vote yes for these holidays to be granted without delay and without penalty.

Yes, if holiday and airline companies averaged their prices over the year it would prevent children being taken out of school for holidays.

It would require additional legislation (which I'm not great fan of) to ensure the companies adhered to it, and I am aware of 'supply and demand pricing' but the current situation creates has a negative effect on education.

So this benefits those who can afford holidays and just separates the children who are from worse economic backgrounds? Seems fair

I think the holiday/airline companies are just responding to supply and demand. That's just capitalism. They're not going to change.

Not sure on this but maybe a week every two years as pps suggested . As I remember it was brought In because some families would take kids out for long periods including missing GCSEs eg if they had a large family as it was cheaper then. So if something like this was brought in there would need to be protected times when it wasn’t allowed, eg mocks and maybe whole of y11. And I know that would affect families with younger children but sometimes the state needs to protect children’s life chances.

Exactly. If you ban increasing prices during school holidays, are we also going to ban increasing the prices to fly to places in the southern hemisphere during the winter? It's ridiculous that people think the government need to step in and give people free holidays!!! I've not been abroad in 2 years, I'm only going this year because my dad has gifted me a holiday!

I agree. A holiday is a luxury and not a right.

Yes, if holiday and airline companies averaged their prices over the year it would prevent children being taken out of school for holidays.

It would require additional legislation (which I'm not great fan of) to ensure the companies adhered to it, and I am aware of 'supply and demand pricing' but the current situation creates has a negative effect on education.

Ridiculous idea. You think the government could enforce this on an international market?

Come off it. Airline and hotel prices vary according to the day of the week, because of business travel, not just seasonally.

I agree, my original response to the OP was that there is no point in a petition and that if they want to take their DC away for two weeks it’s probably cheaper to pay the fine than the hiked-up school holiday prices. 2 weeks once a year isn’t going to make that much difference to outcomes unless they take them during their GCSE exam weeks.

Correlation is not causation. Imo the reason that there's so much correlation between absence and lower attainment comes down to the reasons for absence far, far more than the absence itself (except in cases of very prolonged illness etc).

Absence from school can often be a symptom of difficulties which are the true cause of the low attainment. Children with supportive, healthy, uncomplicated family situations are very unlikely to suffer any effect whatsoever from having a week or two off school per year. But that's why I don't support the petition. The rules shouldn't be made in order to benefit the most fortunate children.

Schools should not be forced to be as OTT about absence as they currently are, but neither should classes be constantly disrupted by parents taking their kids out for weeks whenever they feel like it.

It will also be the same parents moaning about why their DC is in a lower class than best friend or another child later on. Or why can’t DC come into school in new trainers or a skinhead haircut, or wear a cropped top and mini skirt etc.

The teachers jobs are hard enough. Imagine trying to explain X topic and little Jimmy has missed two weeks off school to go to Benidorm so doesn’t get it so the whole class has to go over it again. Then little Sally has two weeks off school to go to Ibiza at a different time in the school year so she doesn’t understand Y topic etc etc etc. Meanwhile the naturally brighter kids and the kids who haven’t missed school or getting bored and not learning anything etc etc. Then someone else goes to Majorca for another fortnight etc etc.

I wouldn’t sign this. I want my children in school.

@NeedSomeAnswersPlease - Well there will always be those who can't afford it but penalising those who can, is not the answer to that particular issue.

@Moveoverdarlin and that is your right. No-one is suggesting you have to take a term time holiday, only that if you want to do so, you should not be penalised.

I don't support this.

There are 13 weeks when you can choose to go away.

Lobby the holiday companies.

Accept that prices are lowered in term time.

Or pay the fine.

If you have the disposable income for a term time holiday you can save up and go every other year in the holidays

So as a teacher, I'd have a constant stream of pupils having 2 weeks off at any time of year?

Just don't expect teachers to provide work for them to do on holiday or provide the work they've missed once they get back.

Ridiculous idea.

The increasingly hostile attitudes that teachers are facing are on display here. The fact that there are so many who don’t realise kids being randomly plucked out of class has such a disruptive effect on all - teachers, classmates and their own kids of course.

The lack of consideration for others is so disheartening

The problem with this is that if every child in a class of 30 took 2 weeks out at different times it would significantly delay the rate at which the curriculum could be delivered. There is already too much content and teachers struggle to find the time to get through it, especially at primary level. (See the current thread about what people would change in primary schools)

Each child might only miss 2 weeks but addressing the catch up issues would be a constant and ongoing task across the whole class.

Just keeping track of who had missed what content would be an administrative headache let alone finding the time to help each child cover it.

Some children might cope with a brief catch up to cover a 2 week gap, but for quite a few children the curriculum already progresses rather faster than is ideal for them.

I really don't see how this could work practically. Teachers are already overstretched trying to support children who are struggling with the curriculum without adding a significant extra level of catch up tasks.

No way would I sign this. I took my DCs out of school for 1 day in the whole 14 years to attend the Friday wedding of their Uncle. Holidays aren't a necessity. If a parent took their child out for 2 weeks every year that would be a loss of a total of 2 terms of their schooling.

@LlamaNoDrama

Military families can get exemption if that's the only time they can go, as can others if you can prove you can't travel in the school holidays (so mostly off shore workers, very specific industries not just you didn't put your request in early enough)

How do you feel about the “reset rooms”? Where children miss a day of lessons for breaking rules such as wearing the wrong uniform - they are in school but missing lessons, sometimes a few days a week or more on an ongoing basis. Teachers are expected to catch those children up..

Why don’t schools across the country just vary their holidays a bit? That will even out supply and demand and holiday prices for everyone

Absolutely not. I don't mind missed Friday once a term, but this isn't acceptable.

We have started putting 3 or 4 of our inset days at the start or end of a term in order to help people avoid the peak holiday price. our staff INSET is all done as twilights over the course of the year so the staff can benefit from it as well.