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

kelloggs36

Sickness can't be helped - holidays most certainly can!

kelloggs36

Whether it is a few pounds or a million pounds, the rules are that there are 13 weeks in which children are free to go on holidays, and 39 weeks when they should be at school. If I can't afford to pay the higher price, then holidays are not a priority - if I was desperate to go somewhere then I would bust a gut to save, but it really wouldn't be the end of the world if they missed out on a holiday. Holidays are not a right, they are not a necessity - schooling is both.

kendalls_cave

As anyone thought about how the kid feels if they are taken out of school for a holiday?
As I said in my last post my mum did it cos as a single parent she could afford to take me in holiday time... but I suffered for it. It took me ages to catch up with the work, but I also felt left out with friends. Friendships as kids change quickly. I felt left out, as things has moved on without me.

balletshoes

kendalls_cave wrote: »

As anyone thought about how the kid feels if they are taken out of school for a holiday?
As I said in my last post my mum did it cos as a single parent she could afford to take me in holiday time... but I suffered for it. It took me ages to catch up with the work, but I also felt left out with friends. Friendships as kids change quickly. I felt left out, as things has moved on without me.

surely that depends on how long you were out of school for on holiday? a few days wouldn't have this effect, but I can see where a fortnight would.

kendalls_cave

Yeah I was thinking a fortnight.. just speaking from my own experience

bestpud

kendalls_cave wrote: »

As anyone thought about how the kid feels if they are taken out of school for a holiday?
As I said in my last post my mum did it cos as a single parent she could afford to take me in holiday time... but I suffered for it. It took me ages to catch up with the work, but I also felt left out with friends. Friendships as kids change quickly. I felt left out, as things has moved on without me.

We had two weeks out every year through secondary school as it was the only way we could have a family holiday.

It didn't cause us any problem with friendships or work tbh and I looked forward to spending two weeks with my parents because work commitments meant family time was like gold dust to us.

ash28

kelloggs36 wrote: »

zoeleigh wrote: »

No, I'm not bitter, I just never bought into the holidays being more important that my children's schooling - I had more respect for the school to do that. I always accepted that if I wanted to go on holiday with my children, that I would have to go during the school holidays, and as I couldn't afford it then, I didn't go. I didn't feel like I had missed anything - I love the holidays I have now (all during the school holiday), but I know that if the situation arises where we can't afford to go any longer, then we won't go; we certainly won't be trying to save a few pounds by disrupting the children's schooling.

I'm a parent of 3 grown up children and OH and I are bringing up our grandson who is 9.

Our own children missed school a number of times in the infants and junior school for holidays - never the secondary school. It didn't particularly impact their education - if anything it enriched their education. Education doesn't just have to in the school room.

My own children have all witnessed a shuttle launch in Florida during term time - we took them trekking in the Atlas mountains in Morocco when they were 8, 9 and 10, with a guide they camped, rode donkeys when they were too tired to walk - they visited the pyramids, sphinx and the Cairo museum. Saw poverty that made my daughter cry. No amount of classroom education can give them this sort of experience, and some places are just too hot or inhospitable in July and August.

And of course not everyone's idea of a holiday is 2 weeks lying on a beach - ours isn't and never has been - that would be absolute purgatory for me.

Our grandson has been on safari, turtle watching in Crete, visited Luxor, the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, learned how to fish for and smoke salmon. he like our own children has rarely been on beach based holiday.

I think experience outside the classroom can make them a more rounded person and is just as important to them as experience in the classroom. When we come back after our holidays GS usually has to stand up and tell the class about where he's been and what he's been doing. It started when the they were learning about Ancient Egypt and he'd been to the Valley of the Kings, Luxor and Karnak temples etc, been down the Nile on felucca and camped overnight. He had a papyrus with his name and date of birth in hieroglyphics which he took into school for the display along with some photographs. Up until then the school didn't know the type of holidays we took.

I look on our little trips more as experiences than holidays tbh. Do I have any regrets - not a one and I would do it all again. And I bet the kids would too. I think our kids and our grandson have learned far more about the world and how other people live than they ever could have done in a classroom.

blue_monkey_2

Why are the teachers complaining about us taking our children out of school, posting on this thread during the day? Why are you not at school teaching our kids?

bestpud

gratefulforhelp wrote: »

We do this three times a year in our sceondary school, it is quite common, but the point is the school has to put on some provision for the students whose parents want them to work in school, so it should not require a parent to use a day of (understandably precious) leave from work.


My children used to have these and they were able to go into school but, while they were supervised, they weren't encouraged to do any work so they spent the day larking about and playing games.

durham05

I try to keep the holidays to the kids holidays, But I have took them out of school as sometimes its way cheaper & being a large family its sometimes the only way to do it, I just put a request in if its turned down I would pay the ewo fine it would still be loads cheaper than going in the holidays.