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.

My daughter is educated in a different language. Around 80% of parents of the children at her school don’t speak the language fluently/at all. You’d be surprised how little resource there is for that (a totally normal situation in this part of the UK but too small a population for anyone to do much in terms of producing it).

People shouldn't be living in the UK if they don't speak English. It should be a prerequisite for any settled status.

Can't understand why our education system has to fund non English speaking people. I wouldn't move to France unless I spoke French, so I wanted to make that move I'd be paying for French lessons.

It's the same for some religious groups getting time off for events...why is ok for a Muslim to take a week off to visit a religious site and not a family for wanting a much needed holiday. Screams of councils scared to challenge religious taboos

People shouldn't be living in the UK if they don't speak English.

Good thing Spain doesn’t apply that to British retirees. No country in the world does in fact.

Your last post speaks volumes about you and your attitudes!

We’re in Wales. She attends a Welsh medium school……..

Do you need a flannel to get that egg off your face?

Why are you posting?

1. you dont care
2. your dc are aging out of school terms?

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.

So you leave them down by themselves? There's nowhere closer you could send them?

It's the same for some religious groups getting time off for events...why is ok for a Muslim to take a week off to visit a religious site and not a family for wanting a much needed holiday. Screams of councils scared to challenge religious taboos

Bank holidays are predominantly linked to the Christian calendar. If you don’t celebrate Christian festivals then you are at an obvious disadvantage as a result.

😳😳😳

AI is inevitable but immigrants struggling with language isn’t.

Machines over people.

And BTW if you would learn French before you moved, you are an outlier. I did move country as a child and none of the Brits learned the language before they went. Some didn’t learn while they were there!

Kids learn incredibly quickly. I was pretty much fluent in six months and indiscernible in a year or two.

No the wife gets to enjoy the summer....I get to work it to pay for it all.

Yeah that's Wales, much as I love the idea of clinging on to cultural heritage I think I'd prefer to be taught Chinese than Welsh. I say that because Gaelic was taught in Ireland but everyone spoke English.

Yes. Her credit score will be shot before long. Hope it was worth it. 🙄