MMD: Should you take the kids out of school for a holiday?

ceejaydee23

Hi There, I am taking my daughter out of School for 2 weeks just after she starts year 3 this september, she is just 7 years old, and we have had a holiday every year for the last 4, last year it was a couch holiday to the 'Costas' in Spain, where we went to Barcelona to see the big famous Church with the 23 spires, thats taken over 250 years to finish being built. We went to Gran Canaria the year before and it was an experience for me to just go on an aeroplane. the year before was during summer and it was a week in the Isle of weight. This year we are paying for my partners youngest brother to come with us to Florida, he is looking forward to seeing the Citrus Bowl, what ever that is. Next year we have said we will have to take holidays during the school holidays, as just the childcare i have had to pay out over a total of 11 full day sessions, could have paid for her holiday places! But had it not have been for these holidays being within our budget at the time, we would not have had them. And beleive me i cant think of anywhere in the UK i could safely say id not get bored of after a week rather then 2 weeks! My daughter is an incredably bright girl, something that is stiffled in a classroom environment. I have learnt far more since LEAVING school and doing my education when I WANTED to, then i did when i was at school.

melanied_2

This is a question dear to my heart. My little girl is starting school this September so I'm not really sure of the school's stance on this one. All the paperwork I got from the council was written quite threateningly and to be honest I was a bit scared.

I feel that as long as the child is doing well with their studies and the other attendance is good, why not? Childhood passes so quickly and seeing as my own mother died a a couple of years ago I realise that most of the special memories from my own childhood revolve around our holidays together.

I think it's a shame people are discouraged from having a family holiday because the LEA wants it's figures to look good. Surely, it would be better to target the families of the persistant truants-or is that a bit more difficult?

If they are so worried about our children's education why do they keep taking days for "teacher training" etc. out of he school term? Could this not be done in the official holidays? It just doesn't add up.

Jambala

milliebear00001 wrote: »

Goodness me - I am also a teacher, and you must know as well as I do, that whatever is missed in those two weeks is likely to be repeated in spades at a later date (if not, then the school isn't doing its job properly anyway!). I have yet to see a child's 'education' suffer cos they missed two weeks of primary school each year, even if your personal targets might!

Your personal targets are a reflection of how well the children have done, in the case of Pupil Progress targets of Performance Management. Therefore, surely if a teacher's targets have suffered, this shows either a lack of progress in the children, poorly-chosen targets, or a staff training issue.

Also, I find that children who take a fortnight off lose momentum. That is, it takes them another week and a bit to begin to maintain their typical level of progress.

You say that the work is repeated, and I'll give you that to a certain extent, but it's no good having a child come back to school in the middle of a topic about, say, playscripts, and be expected to know suddenly how to write for this diverse genre without lots of extra input.

The_Rock-man

joanna_willett wrote: »

I have to pick up on this. I am a primary teacher, and I know from experience that if a child misses 2 weeks in term time, especially in KS2 which the hypothetical 8 and 10 year old would be, they could quite conceivably miss a whole topic in Literacy that will not be revisited except as part of revision in year 6. If that topic is the one that appears in the SATS paper then they are going to struggle. In other subjects, they could miss a major part of the topic and this is a problem when they return - both for their learning, as they are behind, and for the teacher, who then has to bring them up to speed whilst still catering for the rest of the class.

And what are STATS for? Correct me if I am wrong but it has no effect what forever on anyone who takes them (apart from stress at lest that all I can see from them).

aplegjnf

Jambala wrote: »

You say that the work is repeated, and I'll give you that to a certain extent, but it's no good having a child come back to school in the middle of a topic about, say, playscripts, and be expected to know suddenly how to write for this diverse genre without lots of extra input.

But isn't it true that what it takes a 6 yr old 2 weeks to learn. an 11 yr old can pick up in an hour? and so on. So if the topic is returned to, it really shouldn't take 'lots of extra input'?
I do acknowledge the sytem with its targets stinks for the teachers, but educationally time off shouldn't ( and never used to be) a big deal?

I would wholeheartedly agree that children need to learn to obey rules, but I think it is VERY helathy to question if they are reasonable first, and then to challenge them! I certainly do not think it harmful if a child learns that 'my parents are in charge of my family' and stand up for family rights above state interference rights!

But perhaps we are coming a long way from the original question! is there a political board to share our passionate views:p
Luv
P.

A.Jones

ceejaydee23 wrote: »

Hi There, I am taking my daughter out of School for 2 weeks just after she starts year 3 this september, she is just 7 years old, and we have had a holiday every year for the last 4, last year it was a couch holiday to the 'Costas' in Spain, where we went to Barcelona to see the big famous Church with the 23 spires, thats taken over 250 years to finish being built. We went to Gran Canaria the year before and it was an experience for me to just go on an aeroplane. the year before was during summer and it was a week in the Isle of weight. This year we are paying for my partners youngest brother to come with us to Florida, he is looking forward to seeing the Citrus Bowl, what ever that is. Next year we have said we will have to take holidays during the school holidays, as just the childcare i have had to pay out over a total of 11 full day sessions, could have paid for her holiday places! But had it not have been for these holidays being within our budget at the time, we would not have had them. And beleive me i cant think of anywhere in the UK i could safely say id not get bored of after a week rather then 2 weeks! My daughter is an incredably bright girl, something that is stiffled in a classroom environment. I have learnt far more since LEAVING school and doing my education when I WANTED to, then i did when i was at school.

So does she remember the name of the big famous church in Barcelona, that's taken over 250 (126) years to finish being built?

maman

melanied wrote: »

If they are so worried about our children's education why do they keep taking days for "teacher training" etc. out of he school term? Could this not be done in the official holidays? It just doesn't add up.

I can answer that. Any poster who is older than about 36 would have had 14 weeks school holidays. Do you remember when the summer holiday was 6 weeks? These teacher training days are a week taken from the holidays by Lord Baker in the eighties when he was Secretary of State for Education (some schools still call them 'Baker Days'. It would be very difficult to tag them all onto school holidays (although most schools try to take them on Mondays/Fridays or end/beginning of term to please parents) as there just aren't enough trainers to go around.

Jambala

aplegjnf wrote: »

But isn't it true that what it takes a 6 yr old 2 weeks to learn. an 11 yr old can pick up in an hour? and so on.

If that were true, they'd all start school aged 10

aplegjnf wrote: »

I would wholeheartedly agree that children need to learn to obey rules, but I think it is VERY helathy to question if they are reasonable first, and then to challenge them!

I entirely agree with you.

- JB (Getting slightly off-topic)

A.Jones

Maybe schools should implement a scheme that if children are taken out of class for family holidays (with permission), then on their return they have to do a "show and tell" to say what they did and learnt while they were away.

That way, all the class members may benefit from their learning experience / holiday.

Mohawk_3

This subject really bugs me. There will be the odd good reason for taking a child out of school during term time every now and then, but a cheap sunshine holiday is not one of them.

My dad was a teacher, so we couldn't have our family holidays in term-time, and we weren't loaded either. Guess what? We went camping, either close to home in Scotland, or when we were older, we went camping in France and managed to find plenty of culture and quality family time along the way. It's not just the schooling they miss, it gives your children the impression that it's OK to disrespect the education system.

I know some parents will say they make sure that they get homework for their children and make sure they catch-up, but in order to do that you are making more work for the teachers. It also disrupts the education of the other children in the class, because it is inevitable that teachers will end up going over the work your child missed when they should be onto the new material.

Some parents think that nothing much happens in the last week of term, so it's fine to take kids out then. Have you ever wondered why not much happens in the last week of term? It's because so many kids aren't there, that some teachers don't see the point when they'll have to do it all again when they come back. The very act of taking kids out early is reducing the practical length of the school year.

I'm all for treating your children to a wider range of educational opportunities, and that isn't limited to class-room learning, but I bet many parents who use the 'culture' excuse to take their kids out of school during term time never bothered taking their children on day trips to museums or galleries or other cultural things during the school holidays.