Fined for holiday in school time

shirlgirl2004

Fly_Baby wrote: »

Why all the fuss on the teachers' part about the child missing out on 3-weeks worth of education? It is not the teacher's child, after all. If the parent in question in fine with it then it's up to them how they deal with consequences: do some additional teaching at home, hire a private tutor or just accept that the child's end of year results are not going to be great. It is the parent's problem, after all, not the teacher's. Yes, bad results - if the child really doesn't catch up - can affect the school's rating but come on, there are less than average pupils in every class even if they don't miss school.

On a personal note, I do far more at home with my son in terms of education (English, maths, science, foreign language) than what he brings in as a homework, so I am sure that with some dedication from the parent any child can make up for the missed time.

After all, the parent can very nicely ask the teacher what they child missed and then cover it at home.

Edited to add: not that I approve of 3 weeks of holiday in the term time - but if bad consequences are predicted as a result then I honestly believe that for a 5 year old they can be rectified.

Society pays the price for inadequate education.

Any good parent will look to enhance their child's education but if the main responsibility is falling on the teacher then she must be allowed to do her job unhindered. missing education at 5 can lead to a poor foundation in a subject and as the rest of the class moves on then the child can flounder. I have a friend whose child this happened to.

Fly_Baby

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

Society pays the price for inadequate education.

Any good parent will look to enhance their child's education but if the main responsibility is falling on the teacher then she must be allowed to do her job unhindered. missing education at 5 can lead to a poor foundation in a subject and as the rest of the class moves on then the child can flounder. I have a friend whose child this happened to.

I am sure that missing eduation at 5 was not the only reason why your friend's child fell behind. They are only children at this age and any parent can teach what he missed at school during those 3 weeks. There are plenty of workbooks that follow the national curriculum.

My own child missed almost entire reception year due to family arrangements - won't go into details now. He had caught up brilliantly during the Year 1 and was not behind in any subject, which was confirmed by his end of year report.

shirlgirl2004

Fly_Baby wrote: »

I am sure that missing eduation at 5 was not the only reason why your friend's child fell behind. They are only children at this age and any parent can teach what he missed at school during those 3 weeks. There are plenty of workbooks that follow the national curriculum.

My own child missed almost entire reception year due to family arrangements - won't go into details now. He had caught up brilliantly during the Year 1 and was not behind in any subject, which was confirmed by his end of year report.

Yes some children can catch up and others can't, some parents will try and help and others will not. I'm sure that if your child missed a full year and missed the basic of phonics and numeracy then the school would have had to give him additional resources, unless he went to school equipped with these skills already from home education. Schools cannot give additional help to every child that misses school.

Fly_Baby

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

Yes some children can catch up and others can't, some parents will try and help and others will not. I'm sure that if your child missed a full year and missed the basic of phonics and numeracy then the school would have had to give him additional resources, unless he went to school equipped with these skills already from home education. Schools cannot give additional help to every child that misses school.

Aren't there teaching support for that particular reason? Some children fall behind just because they need extra help, not because they miss school.

Anyway, nobody advocates missing school here. Some parents simply believe that at 5 years old 3 weeks, although a lot admittedly, are not that fatally crucial. If a particular parent is concerned with the child's performance as a result then there are many ways to help him/her without even involving extra support from school. If the parent is not concerned and the child does not catch up - then it is really a problem and responsibility of that particular family. Even if they want to blame the teacher they will have to accept that he child did miss school so will have little ground for compaint.

shirlgirl2004

Fly_Baby wrote: »

Aren't there teaching support for that particular reason? Some children fall behind just because they need extra help, not because they miss school.

Anyway, nobody advocates missing school here. Some parents simply believe that at 5 years old 3 weeks, although a lot admittedly, are not that fatally crucial. If a particular parent is concerned with the child's performance as a result then there are many ways to help him/her without even involving extra support from school. If the parent is not concerned and the child does not catch up - then it is really a problem and responsibility of that particular family. Even if they want to blame the teacher they will have to accept that he child did miss school so will have little ground for compaint.

Teaching support is there for children that need extra help due to innate difficulties, lack of home support or from missing school for genuinely unavoidable reasons. Teaching support isn't there to help children catch up when they have been on holiday.

Fly_Baby

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

Teaching support is there for children that need extra help due to innate difficulties, lack of home support or from missing school for genuinely unavoidable reasons. Teaching support isn't there to help children catch up when they have been on holiday.

That's true, and they wouldn't give him/her support on that basis anyway.

But I believe they will give him/her support if towards the end of the school year they feel that the child needs help.

shirlgirl2004

Fly_Baby wrote: »

That's true, and they wouldn't give him/her support on that basis anyway.

But I believe they will give him/her support if towards the end of the school year they feel that the child needs help.

And you believe that is fair?

Fly_Baby

shirlgirl2004 wrote: »

And you believe that is fair?

It is difficult to assess fairly why the child is behind - because he missed some days or because he generally needs more help?

Many parents do lots of educational activities at home whereas some don't - and as a result the children of the former do not achieve as much at school and may be seen as requiring extra support - i.e., reading one-to-one etc. Should such chidlren not be given support just because their parents are not very responsible?

shirlgirl2004

Fly_Baby wrote: »

It is difficult to assess fairly why the child is behind - because he missed some days or because he generally needs more help?

Many parents do lots of educational activities at home whereas some don't - and as a result the children of the former do not achieve as much at school and may be seen as requiring extra support - i.e., reading one-to-one etc. Should such children not be given support just because their parents are not very responsible?

The state has decided that it can educate our children, some parents decide to have additional input but the state does not require it. The state does require the children to attend during term time. If parents don't want to do that then they can home-educate or find an independent school that allows term time holidays.

kelloggs36

Fly_Baby wrote: »

That's true, and they wouldn't give him/her support on that basis anyway.

But I believe they will give him/her support if towards the end of the school year they feel that the child needs help.

Which means deciding what to sacrifice instead - TA resources are extremely stretched - I would rather put my TA with a group of children who need help rather than who have acquired the need for help (iyswim).