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

shumicat

I must be another bad mummy!
I have 3 children - 14,12 and 9 and have taken them out of school for the last 3 years for a weeks skiing. The eldest had SATS and GCSE spanish this year and the school gave their permission without a question! The children have excellent attendance otherwise and superb reports so I don't think they miss out educationally.
We just couldn't afford to go in the Feb half term so we're very lucky to have understanding schools. My children would rather ski than have a holiday in the sun.

Marisan

A super-bargain holiday in Majorca would be more for the benefit of parents than children,I would have thought.Lying baking on a beach all morning,fish 'n chips for lunch and the only foreign language you hear is when the drunken Brits roll back to the hotel at 2am effing and blinding. Hardly cultural.

School holidays are long enough,in my opinion,and there are many places in Britain where you can take the children for a spot of culture,if that is really what you are looking for.I never went abroad as a child,the money wasn't there,but we had camping and caravan holidays.I suppose that is not sophisticated enough these days.I was never taken out of school,my parents would not have even thought of doing so.My education was important to them,not something to be taken for granted.

One thing I will say though is that places of interest in this country ought to offer more free entry to families as it can be expensive if you have two or three children.

robpw2

andysuth wrote: »

£50 per parent per week, surely that's descriminatory against children with three bi-parents?

what how many children do you know that have three bi parents

i would have to say in an ideal world no children get the best part of 15 weeks holdiay a year

but with the prices etc then i would reccomend parents to do whats best for them and thier child
also workplaces dont like you taking holidays in the summer months or at christmas and its usually first come first served and you cannot normally have more than one or two of in same period

aplegjnf

sealady wrote: »

I work in a school and it does make a difference when the kids miss an important piece of work, not because of exams but more about the way work is done in schools. You start a topic or piece of work perhaps on a monday and by friday that work is nearing completion, so when they come back to school on the Monday the teacher either has to start again or the child missing out completely and Now days the is so much silly pressure on the teachers about targets, grades, etc. From experience teachers normally only briefly plan a week ahead so asking for all the stuff the child has missed before it's been taught can be very time consuming for the teacher perhaps it's a parent responsibility for the child to catch up in their own time for the work that they have missed.

From the other side of the coin family holidays are important and sometimes the both parents and the school have to be flexible. We are very fortunate because our Head is pretty understanding about situations and if she can help she is always willing to understand and 9/10 times will approve holidays during school time. I know from experience as I am taking time off during term time for myself and both my kids

I think this sums up the whole matter! It makes not a scrap of difference to a child to be away from formal education for months!!!!! Children can always catch up later.... if the system was in place for them to be able to do it.i would say it was pretty poor teacher who could not help a child catch up on two weeks work.. what happens if child had tonsilitis? or if there was a food poisoning epedemic etc etc? I am absolutely disgusted at the nerve of the profession and the back up from the government to manipulate family life to the extent of dictating WHEN a family can take holidays and actually punishing them for doing so if 'the system' does not permit it Grrrrr! Big brother is thriving in 21st century Britain!

I don't have the problem anyway... i home educate :rotfl::T We are not bound by the silly, petty rules that accompany the 'education system' although steps are being taken to regualte more stringently, despite the research that it one of the MOST efficient ways to educate:mad:
i hold no grudges against anyone personally, I feel sorry for teachers being controlled by said system, when for years most have being doing a very good job concentrating on teaching rather than crowd control and targets.
Hmmph. Rant over! Yes I would def take a child out in term time if any of mine went to school!
P.

clematis

I was pricing up a holiday to Greece for 1/2 term in May 2009. The price to stay for a 7 day holiday was exactly the same as for 14 days!

Tamarind

When my 10 year old goes back to school on the 6th September , I shall be asking for a holiday form to enable us to go on holiday during the last week of September.
My other half was told by his managers that holidays would not be allowed during July or August so that leaves us no alternative.
You may say why not wait until half term but that also is not allowed due to the firm increasing capacity in the run up to christmas.
We are btw holidaying in the UK so would like to go when there is a possiblilty of fairly reasonable weather :rolleyes:

thebubblyone

I think the government should bring holiday companies into line with their prices and then we, as parents, wouldn't be forced to chose between a family holiday and our childrens education.

The prices at the moment are extremely unfair and unreasonable, particularly during school holidays, and if you happen to live in or fly from Scotland you get penalised again with flight supplements.

Its alright for the tony blairs and gordon browns of this world to say don't take your kids out of school during term time, but they either claim expenses for their holidays or they have enough income that the price of a holiday, even at peak season, doesn't make a dent in their pockets!!!

earthmother

I'd definitely take the kids out of school for a holiday - in fact, with one in foundation and one in year three (and one at an unconnected playgroup), that's exactly what we will be doing next June,

But not for any sunsoaked spanish beach for a fortnight, but 4 nights in a wheelchair accessible caravan in Mablethorpe - you try booking one of those in the peak season, or getting parked anywhere near where you want to go!

It's not something we've done before (not had a holiday since eldest started school), and I doubt we'll do it again, but as this year has gone so dismally - virtually everything we had planned has been cancelled due to my husband's health (4 weeks in hospital), two kids with chicken pox (and typically not at the same time), and now three of us are just coming out of the stomach flu, and school starts again tomorrow - that I think we all deserve something to look forward to next summer. And our holidays always include something educational - we're not an amusement park family.

Our headmistress makes it clear she's not that happy with holidays in term time, but she also understands the reasons that force this issue on some people, so doesn't generally stop it unless you are abusing the system.

blue-eyes_6

We took our kids out of school for the last 3 days of term in July. My son's primary school authorised the leave. My daughter's senior school didn't. I raised the matter with the headmistress stating that I could see no added value with her being at school for those three days. One was sports day, one was a focus day (where all they do is play games and watch DVD's) and the last was a half day so the teachers could go to the pub! And I can't recall ever being asked for authorisation for the teachers to have random days for "training" half way through a term when it certainly isn't convenient for a working parent.

I struggle to get my daughters school to set the homework that they state she should get - and certainly don't think she gets a full week of tuition at any time.

Providing it doesn't interfere with exams and as long as you do not make it a regular occurance, I see no reason why they can't be taken out of school. Time spent as a family - away from TV's and games consoles can only have a positive effect.

irecord

My sister and I used to be taken out of school during term time, but it wasn't to go to a rubbishy foreign country, we used to be taken on the Sun £9.50 holidays, generally to wherever the rain was scheduled. We really enjoyed it, mum and dad took us to museums and gallerys, local NT places and other local attractions. As a result, we saw things outside of our local area, which I think is a major plus.

It's all right for teachers, they don't have to schedule their holidays with their co-workers and managers, they don't have to find child care places during the holidays. As long as the child is of a standard that they are capable of catching up, then I don't see a problem with up to two weeks off during term time, I would be against any more than that. Obviously, if it were two, one week trips then that would be better.