Term Time Holiday

bestpud

lindsaygalaxy wrote: »

Just to play devils advocate (and i'm not saything this is what I think!) but....

If parents dont respect the rules, how can you expect children to and then moan when behaviour is bad.....

I teach my children that rules are usually there for a good reason and we shouldn't automatically break them. That said, we don't necessarily have to follow the herd just because.

We are all individuals and have minds of our own.

That's no bad thing for a child to understand in my opinion.

pollypenny

Coffee-addict wrote: »

Hi, I have taken my son out of school every year for 2 weeks since he was a toddler, he is now 17 and in sixth form, I have never been fined but other parents from the same school have, i have never asked permission, he is my son and he is gaining valuable experience of the wider world on holidays, so have never felt guilty! I have to say I was always a little disappointed they never tried to fine me, I would have loved a discussion, have they ever asked my permission if they can tag an inset day on the end of every spring break, half term, full term, summer holidays, or christmas holidays, no

The INSET days are extra anyway, for staff not pupils.

Loz01

I used to miss roughly a week a year when I was younger - for example I went on holiday to Florida aged 9 and one week of the holiday was half term so I only missed 5 school days instead of 10. Sometimes the teachers would give me a few homework sheets to do on the plane (which I did, unbelievably :rotfl: very studious)

I honestly dont think that a few days will harm in the long run. I remember in my nephews school two kids (cousins) were going to the same overseas family reunion, one was given permission, one wasnt!!! So it's just stupid and a gamble it seems who is 'allowed' and who isnt.

lukieboy96

I used to take my son at the start of term when at primary school. When he was at secondary I took him out but asked the schools permission. But not when studying GCSE's.

I was threatened with being fined when he went through a phase of not going to school! They were very good and helpful as i had mental health problems which affected him and he didn't want to leave me as worried. They came out and spoke to him. He started going again. Sorry a bit off thread.

kingfisherblue

Coffee-addict wrote: »

have they ever asked my permission if they can tag an inset day on the end of every spring break, half term, full term, summer holidays, or christmas holidays, no

Inset days are training days for teachers. They are a requirement for all schools. Personally I prefer Inset days to be tagged on to holidays, rather than one randomly selected in the middle of a term.

Incidentally, there are only five Inset days a year, so although they might be tagged onto most holidays, they are not tagged onto all. I'm not sure that the teachers like them any more than you do

fawd1

kingfisherblue wrote: »

Inset days are training days for teachers. They are a requirement for all schools. Personally I prefer Inset days to be tagged on to holidays, rather than one randomly selected in the middle of a term.

Incidentally, there are only five Inset days a year, so although they might be tagged onto most holidays, they are not tagged onto all. I'm not sure that the teachers like them any more than you do

Yeah, except my friend is a teacher and at her school they have five inset days. The theory being that they are teacher training days. In reality, the head (along with the teachers) decided to have 10 evening training sessions so the inset days could be days off for the teachers as well!

FBaby

lindsaygalaxy wrote: »

Just to play devils advocate (and i'm not saything this is what I think!) but....

If parents dont respect the rules, how can you expect children to and then moan when behaviour is bad.....

How about the school not respecting the rules (ie. a full week of activity every year!)? Seriously, I very much doubt that taking children out of school for a day there and then, making sure parents are honest and not asking the kids to pretend they are ill is going to impact on the children's behaviour as a whole, especially as I'm still to meet a parent who never ever break one rule (speeding to start with!).

farmerboy

Glad I read this now, as we wasn't aware of the forth coming changes.

Will need to speak to our headmistress about this as we're looking at taking our daughter to Tenerife in May next year for a week to celebrate my 40th. Its the only time we can go really due to work commitments. Will be a one off, and she's not missed a day of school since she started 2 yrs ago. We usually stay in the UK for holidays and fit them into school holidays/weekends.

Thanks for bringing it up, at least we haven't booked yet.

pollypenny

fawd1 wrote: »

Yeah, except my friend is a teacher and at her school they have five inset days. The theory being that they are teacher training days. In reality, the head (along with the teachers) decided to have 10 evening training sessions so the inset days could be days off for the teachers as well!

So...........?

Sounds like a good idea to me.

In reality, schools tend to have a mixture of evening sessions and the full day. Full is usually for moderating coursework or when there are visiting speakers / trainers.

de_g.

Keep in mind also that if a school's attendance falls below the 95% floor target for attendance, they will have to explain it coffee they get inspected and it could have a significant impact on the its rating and any further action. In a small school particularly it only requires one or two children to have a week for the target to be missed.

I believe there is also a clearly established correlation between children who have time off during term time and lower attainment.

The school where I'm Chair of Governors doesn't currently fine parents, but I suspect our family of schools will agree to collectively in the not too distant future. I do support this approach - while holidays can clearly be broadening to experience, it's weak justification to claim they are educational on the vast majority of cases.