Holidays with kids in school time, have you done it?

Mojisola

Spendless wrote: »

Do they? I can't say that's ever been the case with mine. The last time my DS had a week off school it was with swine flu, shortly after his return I went to parents evening and said he has a weakness in literacy and the teacher said "yes, unfortunately we spent the week he was off sick covering this so he missed out and we've now moved onto another topic".
There was no question of her going back over it, she hadn't time and I accepted that, so if they don't do it for illness, why would they do it for holidays?

Because it has an impact on the overall success of the class which reflects on the quality of the teacher. Perhaps you should question how good his teacher is if she won't help him catch up!

bestpud

Mojisola wrote: »

Because it has an impact on the overall success of the class which reflects on the quality of the teacher. Perhaps you should question how good his teacher is if she won't help him catch up!

Shouldn't we be more worried about the children than the teacher's reputation...?

kelloggs36

Jinx wrote: »

Of course you are correct, these fabulous places dont disappear outside the school hols.

But why should I not take my daughter out at a time that suits me as the parent; suits my work and suits my budget? It may be disruptive to the school but thats not my only consideration; you have your work to consider, I have mine. I dont have 23 children to consider, only 1. if you live in this country then you live by the laws of the land - so if you choose to have children, you expect that the children have to be in school for 39 weeks out of a year, and you are free to do what you like during the rest of the time - it is very selfish to say you only have 1 child to consider - you need to look at the wider picture and think that it isn't just your child who is affected, but the other children in the class and the teachers. I have said before that if you want to go on holiday then go, but you have 13 weeks in which to go, and if you have to save up for it, then that is one of the sacrifices you make when having children.

I can of course only speak for myself but it worked for us and I have no regrets at all. My daughters education didnt suffer and shes a hard working, well-travelled young woman who is now at Uni.

I was always fully supportive of my daughters teachers and none of them ever raised her holidays as an issue, nor did her Head.

Things are set to change though - rumour has it that it will be a requirement for LAs to fine parents, not left to choice.

kelloggs36

Mrs_Arcanum wrote: »

If you have approval from the Head Teacher I cannot see any problems with holidays in term time. Head Teachers will consider attendance and achievement and decide accordingly. Parents who care about their children's education will respect the HT decision. Those who don't will probably not bother to ask in the first place and claim some spurious illness.

Our holiday to Florida would NEVER have been affordable for us in School Holidays as as fast as we saved the prices go up/children get charged at adult rates. At least they have some fabulous memories.

Yes it would have been affordable had you waited and saved up over a longer period of time! You can't say that it isn't possible to save for something if you really want it - it is the 'I want it now, so I will have it now' attitude that has got this country and lots of its inhabitants into the financial mess that we are in!!! I agree with my mum's attitude of 'if you haven't got the money then you can't have it'. If you want something, you will save up until you have got the money. You know the prices increase during the holiday times and so you know that you will have to save up more money to be able to go - that's life you know!

kelloggs36

bestpud wrote: »

Shouldn't we be more worried about the children than the teacher's reputation...?

Yes of course that is the priority, but teachers are blamed if children don't reach their targets, even if attendance is an issue! That isn't fair.

kelloggs36

Mojisola wrote: »

Because it has an impact on the overall success of the class which reflects on the quality of the teacher. Perhaps you should question how good his teacher is if she won't help him catch up!

HOw much time do you think teachers have?? Why should teachers have to work twice as hard just so that parents can do what they like? It is a hard enough job as it is without making it harder - there is no time in the day to help children catch up - especially when it wasn't an emergency that made it happen in the first place, like sickness. If you want a teacher to help your child catch up for missed lessons, then why not pay the £25 per hour that you would have to pay a private tutor? Teachers are available during the school terms to teach your children - if you don't want your children taught during that time, then you will have to pay more!

GobbledyGook

Spendless wrote: »

Do they? I can't say that's ever been the case with mine. The last time my DS had a week off school it was with swine flu, shortly after his return I went to parents evening and said he has a weakness in literacy and the teacher said "yes, unfortunately we spent the week he was off sick covering this so he missed out and we've now moved onto another topic".
There was no question of her going back over it, she hadn't time and I accepted that, so if they don't do it for illness, why would they do it for holidays?

That only works if the child doesn't miss a fundamental basic that they need to know.

So while they might have moved topic and it is ok for the teacher not to go back and cover the Tudors or the Romans with a child, if that child has missed the very basics of how to do division or the basics of verbs and adjectives then the teacher will have to, at some point, spend time teaching the child that as so many of their future lessons will require them to know it.

kelloggs36

I would maybe tell the parents that is what we were expecting to cover, and maybe they could spend some time helping their children? If parents are willing to take a chance that their children won't miss something fundamental then take them out, but if they expect extra sessions because of their choices then that is very, very selfish of them.

Bloomin_Freezing2

kelloggs36 wrote: »

HOw much time do you think teachers have?? Why should teachers have to work twice as hard just so that parents can do what they like? It is a hard enough job as it is without making it harder - there is no time in the day to help children catch up - especially when it wasn't an emergency that made it happen in the first place, like sickness. If you want a teacher to help your child catch up for missed lessons, then why not pay the £25 per hour that you would have to pay a private tutor? Teachers are available during the school terms to teach your children - if you don't want your children taught during that time, then you will have to pay more!

Thats a fair point, and if by taking our holiday in term time means my 6 year old falls drastically behind and a topic has moved on then I would actually be more than happy to pay for a few hours catching up. Although I can't see this will be neccessary in our case. I'm more than happy to take some books with us covering the topic she'll be doing whilst we are away. Obviously I won't be teaching her the same as they are doing in class but she can grasp some understanding of the topic.

tiggs239

I took my DS out of school for the last week of the summer term every year he was at primary school, this was alway authorised by the head teacher. The 1 week difference in the cost of holidays made going a week later out of my price range. This year he is at secondary school and i have managed to get a Sun holiday at May half term. :T