Kids hols during termtime - 10 days max ?

TurnaroundSue

hammy_the_hammer wrote:

i'll play ball then. as a paramedic your roster pattern has your annual leave decided by the bosses then. you are told exactly what weeks you take off ? there's no input from you as a paramedic what period of time you have to take and when? how many are on a roster ? you're young and single and forced to take school holidays while family people get told that their summer leave is in september ?

Yep, that's about it!!!!

hammy_the_hammer

i'm still playing ball !!! is he on, or going on a 5 week roster pattern ? if so without annual leave over that period what is the most consecutive days he is off for ?

Rachie_B

Spendless wrote:

Someone has recently mentioned to me that they don't like to take the children abroad during july/august as they feel it is too hot. The only other 2 week hols we get here are easter (felt it was too early, esp if Easter falls in March like last year)) and Dec (too late, /not always poss to get time off depending on jobs). What they said is if either the May or Oct half-terms were 2 weeks long they would go then. Neighbouring counties from us do get 2 weeks in may and a week less in summer.

that would be ideal IMO

Broken_hearted

My brother in law gets his holidays from work they pick his weeks not him and swapping them for school holidays in near on impossible. So he is left with a choice holidays in term time or they don't go.
So just because he works he should be denied holidays with his chilren!

hammy_the_hammer

Broken_hearted wrote:

My brother in law gets his holidays from work they pick his weeks not him and swapping them for school holidays in near on impossible. So he is left with a choice holidays in term time or they don't go.
So just because he works he should be denied holidays with his chilren!

he would come into the category where it is authorised. you don't need to name company names but what kind of job does he do ? why do the company not let them take time off in school holidays? does the whole business shut down for the company holidays ?

gregg1

TurnaroundSue wrote:

In answer to your questions Harry - firstly we thought it was better for the children THIS YEAR to take them out in June, rather than the first 2 weeks on a new school term - and we are only taking them out for 6 days, by the way!!

No he is not entitled to take his holiday in school holidays just because he has children. He is on a fixed rota which changes each year and it will be 3 years before he will be able to have his holidays in the summer term. As most people in his profession have children, if they were all entitled to have school holidays, then there would be no ambulances on the road!!!

Not at any time did I say that it was year on year (that has been your assumption), but as previously mentioned it is quite a few years that 'his turn' will come before he is off in the school holidays. He has been off for the last 2 Christmas days, but from this year it will be another 4 years before his holidays come round for him to have christmas again - So no in his profession he cannot demand when he has his holidays - unfortunately people need ambulances 365 days of the year, irrespective of what people are celebrating.

In response to Gregg1, again, not at any time did I say that you called me a bad parent - what I said was that I was made to feel like a bad parent from some of the comments that have been made. I think some of the quotes have been "someone with half a brain could think of a reason to take their kids out of school", "at last, someone with some intelligence"; this quote was given in response to somebody who agreed with not taking kids out of school and that is the reason for my statement. No raw nerve has been hit with me, I still go back to the same arguement that if us parents cannot take their kids out of school then neither should the school be doing it - and, as previously suggested, I am not taking my kids out JUST because the school is doing it - for the record, I am a parent of high intelligence who does not play these school yard games!!

I am afraid you contradict yourself yet again here. You say you subscribe to the "if parents can't, then the school can't" school of thought, yet, in the next sentence you deny you play school yard games - listen to yourself!! I will repeat again that I strongly feel it is naive to think that time off from school for holidays does not affect kids' education IT DOES. That is a fact whether you admit it or not. My OH sees this first hand, it is a view held by a lot of people on this post. I still maintain I DID touch a nerve by disagreeing with you but lets just agree to leave it at that - we both have our opinions and are not going to change them.

Spendless

hammy_the_hammer wrote:

he would come into the category where it is authorised. you don't need to name company names but what kind of job does he do ? why do the company not let them take time off in school holidays? does the whole business shut down for the company holidays ?

My sister works for a bank. However her department only allows one off in her office at any one time. there are 4 of them, so 3 of them taking 2 weeks each in the Summer is all the school hols used up.

ruthyjo

I've just read the whole of this thread with interest.

I'm a parent governor of my local first school and have three children aged 10, 9 and 4.

I never take my children out of school during termtime (except once to attend a funeral) because I think it would have an effect on their education - even for small children some areas of the National Curriculum are only covered once and I want my children to be there for that. However I understand that some people have different priorities.

I'm really curious to know how people can afford the time to take their children out of school during term time, time wise. To cover looking after our children during the school holidays my husband and I barely have a day of holiday all year that coincides with each other. If we started having holiday in term time as well we'd never be able to look after our children during the holidays. How are all you people who take your children away during term time managing to care for them in the school holidays? This is not a sarcastic query - I genuinely wonder if I've missed a trick here. I would love it if we had more time as a family with both husband and I off in the school holidays together!

As an aside I don't think it need cost a fortune to go away in the school holidays. Our August gite for this summer is £420 a week. It's in Brittany, sleeps seven and has a small private pool (cheznous.com). Our ferry crossing is £50 return in a seven seat mpv (speedferries.com). We're only going for a week because of the time constraints mentioned above but a fortnight for five would still have come in at less than a thousand pounds. Surely holidays don't ever come in much cheaper than that?

Rachie_B

ruthyjo wrote:

As an aside I don't think it need cost a fortune to go away in the school holidays. Our August gite for this summer is £420 a week. It's in Brittany, sleeps seven and has a small private pool (cheznous.com). Our ferry crossing is £50 return in a seven seat mpv (speedferries.com). We're only going for a week because of the time constraints mentioned above but a fortnight for five would still have come in at less than a thousand pounds. Surely holidays don't ever come in much cheaper than that?

erm yeah they do lol
1k is a huge amount of money for a "normal" holiday IMO

Spendless

ruthyjo wrote:

I'm really curious to know how people can afford the time to take their children out of school during term time, time wise. To cover looking after our children during the school holidays my husband and I barely have a day of holiday all year that coincides with each other. If we started having holiday in term time as well we'd never be able to look after our children during the holidays. How are all you people who take your children away during term time managing to care for them in the school holidays? This is not a sarcastic query - I genuinely wonder if I've missed a trick here. I would love it if we had more time as a family with both husband and I off in the school holidays together!

Of the people I know (doesn't apply to me as I'm currently a student), they either use childcare thru the hols (holiday playschemes), send the kids to relatives who are retired/work in schools, have different days off or are able to change their work pattern eg a friend of mine is a nurse and she swops to evenings/weekends in school hols. Of course if you paying for childcare you need to take this into account against any saving made on a hol.