School declined holidays and branded the kids truants

poet123

Not even educational professionals believe that it is detrimental to kids to miss the last couple of weeks of term, which is why up until very recently the absences for those weeks were not included in the figures. They are now though, which is why the % seems to have risen, in reality they are probably no greater than they have ever been and it is the figures that have been manipulated. Most teachers agree that these figures are yet another stick to beat a school with, and are used for purely statistical purposes in the league tables.

Do you have any educational background which leads you to be able to say categorically that missing two weeks at the end of term is detrimental toa child overall education.

Murphy_The_Cat

malkie76 wrote: »

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Who is to judge what is "limited" or "very small", when participation in a certain activity may not have immediate measurable impact on learning or future abilities ? A child spends a couple of hours doing something different at the end of term and realises it's the perfect career for them - you need to think slightly beyond the immediate when it comes to learning.

If the child is already ahead of their average level then why risk excellence by holding them back? Just because they may be ahead of average learning does not mean they would not benefit from whatever educational activities are ongoing at different points of the academic year.

There are summer holidays for a reason, and people shouldn't ignore term dates purely to save a few quid.

Who ? me for one.
When my son comes home from school without any homework or books to read and I ask him what he has done today and he replies that "Miss X was on a course and Mrs Y was ill, so we joined all 3 classes together and just played" there isn't a great deal of academic excellance going on, is there .
As for what is going to be the perfect career for him, thats a bit eraly for him to start looking. Even though he is doing ever so well at school and chugging along ever so fair, age 6 is a liottle bit early for career structure developement. However, if its of interest to yourself, the last thing that he said that he would like to be was a professional pilot.

As for taking him out of school and holding him back, I'd suggest that it does the complete opposite. It opens his mind to new experiences, new methods of learning, new cultures and he gets to see and try whole new ways of doing & achieving things. Naturally, he can do these things on a holiday in school holiday time, or in term time. But if the only optioon for a family holiday is in term time, then term time it will be :j .

I like your idea of "you need to think slightly beyond the immediate when it comes to learning" and it is somethiong that I already do with both of my children. I consider that they are both making a damned good job of enjoying every aspect of their childhoods and I'm having a great time of it, driving them along.

Just out of curiouslty, you say that there are Summer holidays for a reason - what reason is it ?

malkie76

I've seen your posts on here for some time, and it's clear you are an outstanding parent who takes their parenting extremely seriously. The points I'm raising aren't an attack on you at all, but against some of the points you are raising.

It's obvious you take all things into consideration before making decisions from some of the questions etc you've asked on these forums. I think you are a pretty solid parent!

"Miss X was on a course and Mrs Y was ill, so we joined all 3 classes together and just played" there isn't a great deal of academic excellance going on, is there

I completely agree with you, however the point you raise it entirely irrelevant for the discussion at hand.

Naturally, he can do these things on a holiday in school holiday time, or in term time.

Exactly, and that's my only point - that education is a combination of schools, parents and experiences. Only the three can produce a well rounded student (in my opinion). However, the fundamental point is that all three can be achieved without the need of taking children out of school.

I've never argued against the experiences of travel, and I'm not sure why people continue to attempt to use this as some sort of counter-arguement to the points I'm raising.

But if the only optioon for a family holiday is in term time, then term time it will be

Absolutely not - how can it be the only choice? Please expand on that point.

Just out of curiouslty, you say that there are Summer holidays for a reason - what reason is it ?

There was no real depth to my comment - just highlighting that children are given perfectly adequate breaks from term time to be able to be reasonably flexible in choice of dates for summer travel holidays. It's central to my point that children can experience everything that travel has to offer without the need to risk traditional learning in the school environment.

No-one has produced a counter arguement to this stance.

photome

What if one or other parent can only get time off work during term time.

Does that family not get to go anywhere?

malkie76

Not at the expense of their childs education. Nothing stopping only one parent going on holiday with the children. If that isn't an attractive prospect then one parent could consider changing jobs. Neither of those suggestions is ideal, however both offer solutions.

However, that's a minority situation, almost irrevelant to the points being discussed.

photome

malkie76 wrote: »

Not at the expense of their childs education. Nothing stopping only one parent going on holiday with the children. If that isn't an attractive prospect then one parent could consider changing jobs. Neither of those suggestions is ideal, however both offer solutions.

However, that's a minority situation, almost irrevelant to the points being discussed.

No it is not an attractive proposition. It seems to me that you will argue forever about not taking kids out of school irespective of the positives

thommy

malkie76 wrote: »

Not at the expense of their childs education. Nothing stopping only one parent going on holiday with the children. If that isn't an attractive prospect then one parent could consider changing jobs. Neither of those suggestions is ideal, however both offer solutions.

However, that's a minority situation, almost irrevelant to the points being discussed.

sorry, but i have to draw a line with you here. you are very good at cherry-picking points in support of your argument whilst at the same time completely dismissing points in opposition as being 'irrelevant' to the argument, when in fact they are extremely relevant. there's no evolution to the discussion. you can't just keep on dismissing people's opinions and counter arguments as irrelevant because they disagree with your apparent opinion that it is wrong to take a child out of school, for a holiday. sorry, but your answers are often irrelevant to the real world. how great it would be if we could all just 'change jobs'...and as for one parent going on holiday with the kids (great idea, split up the family unit so the kids can pull up a few weeds)...i'm sorry again, but it just gets dafter....

poet123

You also failed to address a direct question, which was do you have experience which would give you something to back up your confident assertion that a child is harmed educationally by having a term time holiday?

vodkachick68

malkie76 wrote: »

Not at the expense of their childs education. Nothing stopping only one parent going on holiday with the children. If that isn't an attractive prospect then one parent could consider changing jobs. Neither of those suggestions is ideal, however both offer solutions.

However, that's a minority situation, almost irrevelant to the points being discussed.

Thing is we like to go on holiday as a FAMILY unit ie mum,dad and 2 kids! I cannot believe you are also suggesting that one of the parents should change their job just so they can jet off on a once a year holiday. As i have previously said and i will say it again there is no evidence that a child will suffer any ill-effects taking them out of school once a year in termtime for a family holiday as long as their attendance record is good.

lorne57

I’ve been reading this thread with interest!

My own thoughts on the matter would be that I don’t think it hurts to take children out of school for a couple of weeks max for a family holiday as long as they are not studying for exams or falling behind in their school work. I don’t think it should be something that is done on a regular basis unless needs must – a friend used to work with colleagues where quite a few of the husbands worked at the same place and the factory would shut down completely for two weeks in June, should they not have been allowed to take their children out of school for a holiday??

My husband and I have been lucky in the fact we’ve always been able to take our holidays when we wanted to within reason so most of the time we went on holiday – when we could afford to - in the school holidays. As we became a little more affluent and decided to venture abroad we have been known to take the week before a school holiday (with the schools permission) as it was usually cheaper!

Did it damage our daughter educationally????? You tell me........she has 10 GCSE’s , 4 A levels, a Foundation Degree and a BA honours degree.........she wasn’t a top A* student just plodded along and tried her best.:T

She’s 24 now and what does she do for a job....................nothing........can’t get a job, interviewed and turned down numerous times, couldn’t even get a job at the local supermarket.:(

Her thoughts on education if you asked her would probably be....it’s overrated, if she had her time over again she says she wouldn’t have gone to university, it hasn’t got her anywhere, she would have gone and got a job and worked her way up instead.

Life is for living and missing one week’s school once a year isn’t going to damage anyone!