Real life MMD: Should I ask the school for compensation?

feg

andyslowrider wrote: »

I am fed-up with schools and their vastly over-inflated view of their own importance.

Take your holiday and enjoy it, and then invoice them for the childcare costs that you incur during the revised half-term dates.

If schools and teachers genuinely valued their contribution to your child's development they would schedule their training days during holiday times rather than causing your child to lose a day's education by scheduling them for the last day before or the first day after a holiday.

I think you'll find these training days do not cause your children to lose a day's education. All children in (state) schools are 'in school' for 195 days per year. The extra 5 (or whatever it is) days of training are added to a teacher's calender in addition to the 195 days. The fact that they happen to be scheduled on a Monday after a holiday or wherever is irrelevant, that 'lost' day is added to the school calender somewhere.

PeeJayJay

The state frequently compensates people - bad roads causing car damage, NHS operation botches etc there are many. It is not unusual for schools to do this kind of thing and also to close for a day with no notice, or to close to be a polling station etc. Self employed people lose £as a result. So, much as I support schools as a parent, I'd have have no hesitation in seeking compensation if this is the only option available - as well as school holidays, us working people may not be able to do different dates.
If the school won't play ball I would simply issue a small claim - form N1 claim form (very easy). Good luck!

Str4tm4n

Some thoughts from an ex Headteacher-

If you had come to see me with this problem this would have been my advice:

Since this is a situation caused by the change in half term dates (almost certainly due to the LA - state schools rarely set term dates on an individual basis. It may of course simply be an honest mistake made by the school - we all make mistakes) I would advise that you took your holiday. In the circumstances I'd have been happy to check with your children's teachers to see what work would be missed and provide you with homework that might go some way to compensate for the loss of attendance.

In my experience parents rarely gave a fig about whether the holiday was authorised (but not all) and in the end no Headteacher can stop you going anyway! Unfortunately schools are unable to take such a cavalier attitude since absences (both authorised and unauthorised) form an important part of how Ofsted judge the school's performance. As a Head in these circumstances I would have recorded this as authorised in order to avoid increasing the school's unauthorised absence percentages - something Ofsted home in on!

The only fly in the ointment would be if you were in a position of having used up your "allowance" for authorised absences. Easily dealt with by the school though by the Head being aware of the circumstances and therefore able to explain to Ofsted should it be an issue. So let the school worry about that.

The dilemma isn't really the compensation issue - go on holiday. The dilemma is (as it is for any supportive parent) your perception of the negative effect your holiday might have on your children's education. It may, as others have said, not have much effect in the long term, but on a shorter timescale it could. Classrooms are fast paced environments these days and a crucial part of your childrens' programmes of study could easily be dealt with in a week, especially in the primary phase. Testing for understanding of topics covered goes on both formally and informally all the time in schools and judgements of progress are duly made. So if I were you I'd check, and see what could be done to help if this turns out to be the case.

I must admit I wasn't happy giving my teachers extra work caused by parents taking their children out of school for holidays requesting homework, but (even though I felt it was a bit of a cheek) if parents asked, we generally did. Relationships with parents are key to a school's success (ie the children do well) so you choose your battles. But as I said earlier in this particular circumstance I think you'd have no problem getting that support from the school.

The view expressed by a number of people here that going on holiday is an education at least, if not more valuable than being in a classroom, is one I've listened to many times (many times!!) but is in fact quite wrong in the context of a taught curriculum, the testing of which provides the basis for assessments of a child's ability and progress. Imagine for example you were studying for a qualification in car mechanics. A holiday would of course be full of wonderful "real world" educational experiences, none of which could be applied to a question in a car mechanics exam.

See your Headteacher and I think you'll find this can be resolved in a way you'll be comforatble with. Such concerns are only expressed by parents who value their childrens' education and no Head is going to have a problem with that.

linedancer123

Go on holiday and enlighten your Childrens minds with all the interesting things they will be seeing and doing. Its not your fault the School messed up. If you have to take a little work away, its much more fun in the Sun.

bennett2kuk

I would go on holiday when I booked it. It's pretty far from valuing money over holidays. Nobody would like to lose £1600 regardless of the reasons behind it.
That being said if it was at Primary School then I wouldn't think twice about simply going, secondary school I'd be a bit more hesitant depending on how old your kids are. But a week or two isn't going to make a blind bit of notice in the years and years they spent at school. GCSEs were by far and away the easiest qualifications I ever took so tought, they changed the dates, no chance IU'd change my holiday!

gaily

I'd take them on holiday, but advise the school that their error is the reason why you're in the pickle you're in, and that you can't cancel without large penalties.

No requests for compensation - because you're going away, and not cancelling the holiday.

Find out nearer the time the work that the class will be covering that week, and see if you can either get them ahead in these areas, or find a novel (holiday) way of teaching them some of this information whilst away. Life experience sometimes helps with learning!

The only obvious exceptions would be if there are exams at the same time, but then that's not exactly rocket science is it!?!

Str4tm4n

bennett2kuk wrote: »

I would go on holiday when I booked it. It's pretty far from valuing money over holidays. Nobody would like to lose £1600 regardless of the reasons behind it.
That being said if it was at Primary School then I wouldn't think twice about simply going, secondary school I'd be a bit more hesitant depending on how old your kids are. But a week or two isn't going to make a blind bit of notice in the years and years they spent at school. GCSEs were by far and away the easiest qualifications I ever took so tought, they changed the dates, no chance IU'd change my holiday!

Presumably GCSE English wasn't one of them!

A.Jones

If they published the wrong dates then there will be other children and teachers in the same position. Chances are the school would be getting a supply teacher in to cover the classes that should be given by a teacher that has also booked a holiday for the same week. So no real loss if your child is not there, they would just be following page numbers in a text book or notes, which you can do from home.

Frank87

Wow, I understand this is a penny-pinching forum but I am very surprised that there has been no focus on the children at all. Your kids get to go on holiday AND they get to spend half term with their mates - you should be thanking the school for this!

Don't kid yourself that missing a week of any school will make any difference (unless they have GCSE exams that week), and don't ruin your children's' holiday by making them do any sort of schoolwork. I took many weeks and days off of school for more important things like holidays and days out; and now that I'm a postgrad I think I can safely say that I didn't suffer educationally from it.

So go, enjoy, and let your children enjoy it!

norfolkmum

Definitely go on the holiday.

I took my children out of school for a week every year in June while they were in Primary School. If I hadn't have done that, we just wouldn't have been able to afford a holiday. Their headteacher actually said to me that they would learn more in a week away than they would at school, and I always took them to museums etc to give them a bit of education while away. As they got to High school, I stopped doing it though, and for the past few years we have had cheap camping holidays instead. My eldest child is now doing her GCSEs and has predicted A*s in everything, the other 2 are heading the same way, so taking their holidays in term time really didn't hurt their education!