Taking random bits of time off school

[ButterPie]

Talking about the children's education last night, DP said "well of course the school won't mind you not sending the girls in some days if you have an educational trip or activity planned".

He's talking rubbish, surely? Because the idea of just sending them to school when it fits with our plans is lovely, but quite obviously wouldn't work, even though (and he seems to think this would make a difference) we are nice, well spoken parents who would be doing brilliantly educational things (ie not just wanting to take them clothes shopping or whatever).

It seems like blatant rubbish to me, and that we would get laughed out of the classroom for even suggesting it (he means not even a formal flexi-school arrangement, just not sending them in on a whim), but he insists that no sane teacher would refuse.

i can just imagine the teachers face-

Me: Oh, sorry the girls weren't in school yesterday, it just was such a lovely sunny day so we decided to take the microscope to the meadow and see what minibeasts we could find, then we caught the bus up to the museum and library to find out more about them.

Teacher:...but we were in the middle of a project, and SATs are coming up...

Me: Well, of course you won't mind, because we read the big paper and listen to radio four.

Teacher:

So long as you don't mind your DC living in perpetual groundhog day while the poor teacher has to cover the same ground over and over for the sake of the child who missed it last time, because they were having a random day off, or so long as you don't mind your DC never actually getting to grips with certain things because they missed it, then I'd say go for it.

Or home educate.

Well, it was in a discussion about HE that his weird ideas came up. I want to HE, but he keeps changing his mind, so I asked him to describe how he thinks school works.

I honestly don't know what planet he is on.

I can see the benefits of giving school a try, but I realise that we have to be fully committed to the school model of education for it to work.

He's talking rubbish - if the teacher had 25 children in the class, all taking odd bits of time off to do "nice educational activities" there would be total chaos and no-one would get anything done. And the children would be very disrupted as well - children like to have a settled idea of what is going to happen from one day to the next, not school one day, bug-hunting the next because mummy & daddy think it would be nice.

If you want that kind of flexibility, you'll have to stick with the home ed plan. I assume this is him thinking of ways to get the flexibility of HE while still having them at school part of the time?

How school works is - they go to school. Every day in termtime, unless they are ill or you manage to get permission for a holiday as described above.

Flexi-schooling is much the same, but not every day, or not all of every day, But it still has a regular timetable as agreed with the headteacher.

It is. He is worried that the pressure of HE will be too much hard work and that they won't make friends, but he wants them to learn things that aren't on the national curriculum so I think he sees them doing a lot of studying out of school, which I don't think is fair on them, whereas I'm pretty confident those things could be fairly easily incorporated into a HE curriculum, leaving plenty of time for play.

(he wants them to get a basic understand of Latin and classical history and a good grounding in modern history and geography, as well as canonical literature, art and music and some basic politics/philosophy . Oh and gardening, cookery and craft. As well as your usual literacy, numeracy, science, PE and ICT. All fairly easily incorporated into continuing how we are doing now, not so much with school)

Wow - he's got ideas there all right! All lovely ideas, and I'm sure you'll be able to cover them in HE, specially if he knows about them and is going to be very involved.

But you would both find that school, when they are little, is very tiring. You can see loads of threads on here every autumn about how exhausting their children find school. It settles out during the first year or so, but they won't have a lot of time or energy for more "book learning" outside of school hours, specially when you consider the homework as well. School, homework, one or two evenings at swimming/beavers/etc and playing are about all that they can manage in the first years of school.

Making friends really depends on what scope you have for getting out and about to HE groups and/or "after school" activities with the DC, unless you have lots of local children they can continue to play with.

I put the idea to my sister (who is a primary school teacher) and she was HORRIFIED. She said there is absolutely no way she would agree to a child doing this, no matter what activities they were doing on their time off.

Hmmm, I think me and DP need to have a proper talk about this matter...

not even a ballet or music exam is classed as an educational activity. they do get authorised days off though.

Although your DH's list of extracurricular subjects looks ridiculous at first glance, I'd think you can actually fit a lot of that stuff into weekends and holidays and by pointing them in the direction of the right reading books and episodes of Time Team.

Our bias is scientific rather than liberal arts, but it's astonishing how much they learn through bedtime stories, trips to museums, chats in the car, educational documentaries and listening to Radio 3 over breakfast.

It all depends on what they're interested in of course. If your DC are of a geeky bent then all history may have to be approached via Mark Williams' Industrial Revelations on the Discovery Channel - but then that will be the case even if you HE.

• Your DP needs to learn to respect school rules!

erm ... actually I do this with the head teacher's blessing ... I started when ds1 was little (tourette's syndrome and asperger's) as he couldn't cope with school all the time and needed days off - and because of his difficulties we couldn't go to things like museums etc at weekends or half-terms because the crowds were too much. I've carried on with ds2 (asperger's) and dd (nothing obvious!) - it's not very often, but tomorrow we're going to the Globe theatre, for example and I can guarantee that dd will get an awful lot more educational value from that than literacy and numeracy at school for a day especially when they're winding down towards the end of term.

It's not done their education any harm at all as they've all been in top groups/sets for everything. When you take out all the time lining up, waiting for everyone to be ready, having things explained in different ways so everyone can understand, playtime, lunchtime etc etc the amount of actual learning going on in the average primary classroom is not that much and a bright child can easily make up what they've missed in no time

Hmm...interesting basildon...I wonder if the school would be up for it for a NT family though...would be ace if it was at all possible.

From the pov of the teaching can see why teachers might only be willing to agree to this for very special reasons (such as SN). I am a university teacher, so you'd think my students would be able to manage their own absences and take responsibility for catching up, yet I am always aghast at how much time is wasted just answering questions from students who don't realise they should have known that by being there last Thursday.
Transferring this to a class of 30 7yos who can't be expected to take the same responsibility and I can well see why teachers wouldn't be keen.

Organised flexi-schooling is different: anything that gives your teacher a chance to plan ahead.

Of course unavoidable absences are just that- unavoidable. My dd probably has about 50% off due to chronic health issues and is still able to keep up due to being very bright and working hard. But I am under no illusion as to the effect of this on her teachers' workload: I expect them to put up with it because of dd's needs, not because of my whim.

Actuallly pixie it's 10 days leave a year, at the HT's discretion. (some refuse).

Yes, you have to ask in advance and usually fill in a form.

I wouldn't do what yr DH suggests OP because it reinforces to yr DDs that school is not that important if something more appetising presents itself.

In fact I think it's even worse than taking them out for a planned holiday which could have good reason (eg dad can only take time in June etc).

(LOL @ "we read the big paper and listen to Radio 4!")

Ds's school decided years ago they were not going to authorise any leave expect for very special reasons (e.g. parent terminally ill).