holidays in term time

Miss_Ladybird

Sadly the school doesn't get to keep the money the_cat! In our area it has come from county that these fines must be given - the school has to do all the admin and then give the money to the local authority!

gemmalouanna

Don't have an issue with parents who take their kids on a holiday when in primary or year 7/8/9 of secondary.

Those who take them in year 10/11 are idiots!

My school sent a letter saying they would not take action against year7/8/9 students going on holiday as they realised about the cheaper prices but it still often goes down as unauthorised absence.

blue_monkey_2

I took mine out of school last year and they bought on a no holidays in term time policy.

Since then I have been called to collect my children from school for 'looking peaky', 'for coughing after playing outside' also for 'saying they felt sick' and because they 'did not look too well'. Seeing as my kids are used to the temperature inside being around 20 degrees and school is about 30, they often look peaky. They also sent my son home for 3 days because he told them he had been sick (he hadn't!!).

My son missed the entire week before Xmas break up because his teacher 'thought he should not be back so soon after being ill'. He had a bug and was off the 48 hours but it was not enough for her and so at 9.30 he got sent home for a week. Some teachers do not like them being back so soon in case they get ill.

If they can send home children that are perfectly fit and well then I will take my holiday when I want to and it's tough really. Some parents have started not collecting their children unless they are visibily ill as they send them home on a whim of looking a bit flushed.

And when we did go off on our authorised 10 days last year, DS class had no teacher for 5 of those days. Just TA's and Parent Helpers, some days PH were left on their own. This is what my son was missing by being on holiday.

gemmalouanna

Blue-monkey: a lot of that is due to the fact that the schools are terrified of being sued by the minority of people who are unreasonable.

Schools can't win whatever they do really

Eg. snow days - get criticised for closing, on the day we opened within minutes we had some parents phoning to tell us that they would sue if their kids fell. Similar to illness - they are scared of not informing the parents of any little thing incase there is more to it. It is all to get responsibility to the parent and not the school sadly due to the culture we have at the moment.

blue_monkey_2

Gemma - sued for what? Getting ill? If that is the case you could sue any manner of people for possibly getting you ill so i don't think it is very good excuse.

And the kids being left for a week with no teacher? Is that acceptable? For that week would my child have been better off at school or better off on holiday?

2gorgeousgirls

We took our girls out of school for 2 weeks in 2009 to go to Florida.

The schools here (Northern Ireland) break up for summer hols end of June and we took them out for the middle two weeks of June. We sent a letter to the Principal telling him our intentions before we booked the holiday asking him if he had any objections and he was fine about it.

I think if it had have been another time of the year it would have been a different story but all the exams were over and they were winding down for the summer. They also both have excellent attendance records so, again, that may have had something to do with him not objecting.

I don't think we would consider taking them out at any other time of the year as I wouldn't want them to have to catch up with lessons.

I haven't come across any schools here who fine you for taking children out of school but I think if we had have been fined in 2009 we still would have gone as it was so much cheaper (and cooler) to go in June rather than July and August.

gemmalouanna

blue_monkey wrote: »

Gemma - sued for what? Getting ill? If that is the case you could sue any manner of people for possibly getting you ill so i don't think it is very good excuse.

And the kids being left for a week with no teacher? Is that acceptable? For that week would my child have been better off at school or better off on holiday?

I mean sued for not immediately informing the parents of every little thing incase it develops into something more serious. That's why my school now phones parents about most things to put the ball in their court about whether to 'risk' leaving their kids in school or if they wish to collect them just to try and cover themselves.

Anacrusis

throughtherain wrote: »

Apart from this, teaching children that they should honour their commitments to what they do is so important and will stand them in good stead when they get jobs.
I know a lot of people will disagree with me but that's just my opinion.

I can't agree with this, because mainly the child has had no say in what commitments have been made, so can only be learning to do as they're told by distant authourity figures!

Money is a great motivator and the vast majority of people will get to work on time/take holidays when the boss approves them because those will be conditions of the employment. (including those people who took term time holidays as children)

moomoomama27

throughtherain wrote: »

Please consider leaving your child in school during term time. Their education is so valuable and even a day missed can have a significant impact on their learning. Yes schools can waste a lot of time but if anything that's even more reason to keep them there as much as possible. Apart from this, teaching children that they should honour their commitments to what they do is so important and will stand them in good stead when they get jobs. You can criticise schools/teachers if you want but at the end of the day their rules are there for the best interests of the children, despite it looking petty to you. I also appreciate that children need holidays with parents and sometimes this can't be avoided for things like family weddings abroad or whatever, and of course children should attend these if possible, but I find it so frustrating that people sell their children short by not allowing them to get all the education they can. I know it's frustrating that it's cheaper to have holidays in term time, but that's just the way it is and it's unfair to others for people to benefit from this by taking children out of school.

I know a lot of people will disagree with me but that's just my opinion.

Totally agree. Education is so very important, as is sticking to the rules. If the policy is no holidays during term times then that's the policy. Lying your child is ill is not a great example of a role model either! It's not as if schools don't have enough time off throughout the year!

blue_monkey_2

gemmalouanna wrote: »

I mean sued for not immediately informing the parents of every little thing incase it develops into something more serious. That's why my school now phones parents about most things to put the ball in their court about whether to 'risk' leaving their kids in school or if they wish to collect them just to try and cover themselves.

We do not get informed of any illnesses of other kids.

There might be the odd note that goes up in the reception if a child has chickenpox or something, but that is all.

But should you be removing your children if something is going around the school? They would never be there with the amount of bugs that go around our school each year. So surely if they let you remove your child because of the possibility of having an illness, they should let them have time off to go on holiday as well. The parents could just say 'I was worried about that illness that was going around' and take them out for a week anyway.