Term Time Holidays

[dwordle]

I have to be honest I take my children on term time holidays. Largely to avoid the crowds but it's also about the cost and the temperatures.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/02/children-summer-holidays-term-time-civil-disobedience-parents-england-wales
In the summer we spend in Devon where we leave the caravan for 5 weeks on a nice inland site. The children spend there entire summer down there and I travel down for long weekends etc.

But the holiday abroad I take in school time. I have been fined numerous times and taken to court by the LEA, but I'll be honest I've not paid a penny. My opinion is they are my children and I take responsibility for them. They worked hard at school and all 4 got good grades. Had they been struggling I think I'd of taken a different approach but I'm a great believer in adapting to challenges rather than one approach.

Thankfully my youngest is just starting GCSES so I won't be taking the term time breaks and I won't face another day in court. But going to court and being threatened with a custodial sentence is to put it bluntly ridiculous for something that is my right as a parent. My child my decision no one else's. I decide whether my children are well enough to go to school and I decide when we go on holiday.

There are parents out there who's kids are badly behaved, don't do any homework, disruptive and miss weeks and weeks in absence....yet take a holiday and tell them you're going on holiday I have to pay a fine. Don't pay the fine and a powerless court will threaten you with all manner of things which they are powerless to enforce. I mean what a waste of money.

I agree it's frustrating trying to deliver a curriculum and then a child goes missing for a week or two , but truth is the homework is delivered electronically so it can be done anywhere. As a parent I make sure it's all done....that's my job as a parent.

For many parents and August holiday is so expensive that it may mean they actually don't get a holiday. The last time we took a week break to Cyprus in August it was close to 6000 pounds.

This is interesting! As a teacher, it doesn’t affect you?

It probably sounds contentious but no, why would it?

Bully for you. Do you give even half a shit about what will happen to children who don't have parents as good as you if your wish for anyone who wants to be able to take their children out of school for a cheaper holiday can just do that?

I would guess it depends what subject/age group you teach.

Other teachers say it's because it causes you additional work and disruption to make sure they've caught up with the stuff that was missed.

Classic case of I don’t like the rules and feel entitled so I am going to justify them with only the points that suit me.

This post snacks of someone who only sees facts or points which suit their narrative and interprets them the way that does so.

It isn’t your God given right to go on holiday. If you can’t afford it don’t go or do something cheaper.

This post is exactly what is wrong with society.

Theme the holiday around a subject ....if they are learning French...take them camping in France get them ordering the bread or buying a train ticket for something. It's not all about money it's about the weather, how busy it is. But please remember some parents are struggling to go on holiday and if a term time deal means the kids get a holiday id say that's more important than a month at school.

The summer holidays are great but as a working person I struggle finding the time to do things I'd like to do with them. As I said I tow my van to a regular site and I leave them all down there for the entire summer. They love it but for me it's an extra job to be with them at the weekends. 600 mile round trip after working 14 hour days. Occasionally I book a Monday off for a long weekend but by the end of the summer I need a holiday myself.

As for the fines, they charge you 160 quid per child and parent and then after three fines they take you to court. The court does nothing apart from a few harsh words and increases the fine and then I don't hear from the again. It's a pointless exercise.

In an ideal world holiday companies wouldn’t be able to inflate the price but that is never going to be legislated against successfully.

In countries which do not make a big deal out of term time holidays there is no burden on the teach to help children catch up. That’s on the parents. If the child comes back and fails a test because they were absent then that’s just the way it is.

It’s supply and demand. If you start spreading the holidays out across the entire year they’ll all just get more expensive……

I can’t speak for primary but certainly in secondary we don’t do anything that’s so critical in two weeks it can’t be revisited.

Where’s their other parent while all of this is going on?

What’s the point of employing 80 people if you can’t ever take time off?!

As someone who was taken out of school for a couple of weeks every year until I was about 12 and did the same for my DC and now my GDC, none of us suffered as a result, none of us are entitled or think the rules don’t apply to us, so I’m with you. I don’t think it’s an issue, but other parents and teachers disagree.

It wasn’t a rule until recently though, was it? So it wouldn’t change your view on rule following.

You can't speak for secondary either, just for yourself! Sounds a bit lax if two weeks would make no difference.

Possibly is but I can’t say anything I do is that vital that a couple of weeks a year will make that much difference.

To put it another way, I teach a core subject so there’s a lot of teachers in our department (big secondary school.)

I have been there seven years now and every single year someone’s been off long term, either through illness, maternity leave, other circumstances. Somethings always happened to someone.

Somehow, everyone’s got by, classes have sometimes not had a permanent teacher for the best part of a year and had an ever revolving door of supply. By no means am I claiming that’s ideal, but the schools results are good and so it does indicate that perhaps kids muddle through regardless!

I don’t generally believe in fines and think there should be some common sense, I’ve taken out mine occasionally (never in secondary school, because of work availability as opposed to cost) but in the years we haven’t their attendance has generally been 100%. My year 10/11 son hasnt missed a single day of secondary school. Unfortunately, parents like you mean common sense can’t prevail and heavier handed approaches are required.

Of course it can be revisited. Who carries out and supervises the revisiting? What is the work and disruption if one child or another is revisiting something cute to unauthorised holidays every week of the term?

Maybe it's nothing, and the teachers who've told me it's a pain aren't correct.

As someone has pointed out I can’t speak for all teachers. Our English lit is quite fast paced but not so much so that two weeks is the be all and end all. I do remember in 2019 having a double English lit lesson on a Monday and that year we were hit hard by the May bank holiday and Easter Monday along with some idiot one on SLT deciding to do a PSHE day on Monday but even that was manageable.

Ultimately kids go off all the time; they get ill or there are trips out or exams that affect some subjects and not others or geography field trips or whatever. At KS3 it makes no real difference. At KS4, it can occasionally be a pain but nothing insurmountable. I’m one teacher in one school, though.

It's always been the rule. It wasn't a criminal offence until 1996 because previously parents told their children that school was more important than a holiday. Then do many started to take the piss it became a criminal offence.

The OP is unlikely to get away without paying the fines. They may well find bailiffs on the doorstep sometime soon.

I’ve previously had any term time holidays authorised by the school, and that’s been in the last 8 years.

How have you managed to avoid paying the fines / being sentanced?

I always went on holiday in term time (primary school and first two years of secondary) but it was authorised by the school.

She hasn't. She has been to court where they likely gave her a hefty fine. She has now ignored the fine issued at the court. They will now use various debt collection methods to attempt to collect the fine and may consider a custodial sentence given her wilful refusal.