Term-time holidays? for ski lessons?

[iloveshortbread]

AIBU? I think parents should be allowed to withdraw kids - within reason - from school to take them on educational foreign holidays - and have argued the case myself. But now a parent at ds's school is doing it so their ds can have ski lessons, and the head has said yes! I mean, really? Anyone else heard of this or other reasons which - quite frankly - don't have an awful lot to do with education.

Why not? Learning how to ski is educational enough for me!
If you want to, you can now, since somebody has done it already, school can't say no. it's good thing, isn't it?

either holidays should be allowed or they shouldn't be. It's silly to try to judge what qualifies as "educational" or not, because that is a matter of opinion. I suspect the head knows this!

Fine.
The head saying yes doesn't mean it's been authorised it just means the head has no objections to taking unauthorised absence and it won't be fined.
Our HT fines nobody I rake a week every year. There always lots off at Glastonbury festival time. HT can't authorise but has no problem with people going.
Take your child skiing if you want

Also the reasons HT ate allowed to authorise ate for exceptional circumstances nothing to do with how educational or not the absence is. Most authorised leave us not educational eg funerals

We always used to take dc out of school for skiing in those few days between the end of term nativities and the end of Christmas term. I think skiing and being in the mountains is probibly more educational than watching DVD,d at school. Haven't done this in secondary btw.

In our school they won't authorise any holidays at all.

Has the Head really authorised this or is this what you have heard?

Are they potential Olympic medalists ?
I have known children who excel at certain sports having time out of school for lessons training camps and competitions.

How is learning to ski not educational???? It's educational in the same way that athletics is, which is taught in every school in the country! When I lived in the States we had a fortnightly ski lesson as part of our PE curriculum. Just because it's not taught in school, doesn't mean it's not a valuable skill to have. And even if it's a one-off, what a great life experience!

And I'm a teacher.

2014newme I don't think the OP wants to take her dc skiing. She's just having a moan about someone else who is.

what are educational foreign holidays ?

A trip to the Somme? Looking at places significant to history

Different culture, language, food, environment, currency, scenery, history.......
What is not educational about foreign holiday?

irvineoneohone I obviously asking the OP was defining a skiing holiday as not educational (which like you say, is very obviously educational in that you're learning a skill) So I was wondering on their definition.

Obviously as you say, there are very few not educational foreign holidays! re-visiting a place you've visited many times before to do nothing but sit down.

Taking your children to one of the 'tiny britains' which exist in some Europe countries which have British pubs and British cafes and no one from that country in sight would put be educational in my view

'Wouldn't' not 'would put'

Tomorrow would learning to ski not hold enough educational value in your opinion?

I'm thinking that it would but you could do it outside school time, but then you could do the historical visit too.
I do think though that for our family, with a severe lack of coordination, that the skiing trip would be educational trip on clumsiness.

Haha! Same here tomorrow!
I disagree though that you could just go during school holidays. The cost would be prohibitive to us and I imagine to many others. I dearly dearly wish that my dc could learn to ski one day but we can't even afford to go during term-time. I love skiing and loathe the fact that my dc are never going to share that passion with me.