Schools no longer allowed to authorise holidays

securityguy

iammumtoone wrote: »

Not during the school holidays no as even an overnight stop is priced beyond alot of parents wallets. So yes I am left with weekends which is not ideal as we will get back extremely late and he has to go to school the next day

Behave. UK hotel prices for overnight stops do not rise appreciably during the holidays. Looking at Wednesdays, n the middle of September, the Slough Travel Lodge, ideal for Legoland, is £37 a night. But in the middle of August, ie the peak of the holiday season, it's...£37 a night. In the middle of the October half-term (ie, booking slightly further out) it's £31 a night for the same day of the week.

This "but the prices go up" stuff is true for package companies pitching children's beach holidays to families. But it's actually because they can't shift the quota they have out of season. It's not a price increase in the holidays, but a desperate discount in June, because they only get their hotel allocations by purchasing the entire season, and are grateful for any customers outside school holidays. They price the summer to pay for the whole season's costs, and then regard such packages as they can sell outside the school holidays as jam.

But raw flight prices vary very little (Saturdays around half terms can be a bit pricey but, hey! radical idea! go on Sunday!) and most hotels in Europe are hardly concerned about UK holiday schedules.

Hotel prices in most cities are lower in August than any other time of the year, because most businesses are shut and it's business travel that dominates their bookings. Hotels outside cities can't be bothered to mess with their pricing. Book a hotel in a random small French town, drive there, it'll cost you precisely the same in August as it would in June.

farmerboy

blossom36 wrote: »

This is changing from 1st September 2013 - when heads will no longer be allowed to authorise time off unless in exceptional circumstances, and cannot authorise the old 10 days in a school year. The amended regulations are purposely removing any reference to holidays implying that exceptional circumstances is for emergencies only.

Not emergencies, just prove a genuine reason.

We have asked our DD's school for 6 days in early May next year, and have had them granted. She will be in yr3 and has not been taken out before for holidays.

Our reasons were that its for a special family celebration (My 40th), we can't go in the xmas, easter or whit holidays as they are bank holidays and the railway work that I do is busy then, the 6 week, and october half term holidays are hard to plan exactly due to the harvest on the farm we run, and the Feb on is out due to the cattle being housed and needing feeding. The week we have chosen is a quiet time for both my businesses so meaning I can take the annual leave then.

The school replied granting the abscence with no problems.

I also made sure I had it in writing before we booked incase of any come back

cr1mson

We have this but in reality it just means that you get a formal letter saying it is unauthorised and a scribble from head saying enjoy your hols! We had to cancel our holiday an hour in due to mice in holiday cottage and could only rebook in term time we got the standard letter with a note from head wishing us a mice free holiday!

Dunroamin

peachyprice wrote: »

Oh, I just couldn't. I wouldn't mind staying in someone else's house but it would take forever for me to put everything away that I wouldn't want other people to snoop through, and where would I put everything, and what about personal things like your underwear drawer, where does all that go? And stuff you wouldn't want broken? And all the children's personal stuff. It would be like packing up to move. I shudder at the thought of it.

Some of us aren't quite so precious about our belongings, fortunately. You normally just clear a drawer and some hanging space for the visitors' stuff and let them get on with it. (Although it usually took us a couple of days' spring cleaning first.:o)

Dunroamin

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

You just clear a couple of drawers, lock away personal things and let the visitors get on with it.....there has to be trust on both sides, after all, you are going into their house too.

We did several home-exchange holidays when we had our Spanish house, in the UK and Spain. A good way of getting a cheap holiday, but it is no good if you are too precious about it, you have to be easy-going.

I didn't read your post before I answered but we certainly seem to be on the same page on this one!

Dunroamin

securityguy wrote: »

Behave. UK hotel prices for overnight stops do not rise appreciably during the holidays. Looking at Wednesdays, n the middle of September, the Slough Travel Lodge, ideal for Legoland, is £37 a night. But in the middle of August, ie the peak of the holiday season, it's...£37 a night. In the middle of the October half-term (ie, booking slightly further out) it's £31 a night for the same day of the week.

This "but the prices go up" stuff is true for package companies pitching children's beach holidays to families. But it's actually because they can't shift the quota they have out of season. It's not a price increase in the holidays, but a desperate discount in June, because they only get their hotel allocations by purchasing the entire season, and are grateful for any customers outside school holidays. They price the summer to pay for the whole season's costs, and then regard such packages as they can sell outside the school holidays as jam.

But raw flight prices vary very little (Saturdays around half terms can be a bit pricey but, hey! radical idea! go on Sunday!) and most hotels in Europe are hardly concerned about UK holiday schedules.

Hotel prices in most cities are lower in August than any other time of the year, because most businesses are shut and it's business travel that dominates their bookings. Hotels outside cities can't be bothered to mess with their pricing. Book a hotel in a random small French town, drive there, it'll cost you precisely the same in August as it would in June.

And, of course, youth hostels don't normally put their prices up in the summer either, whether in the UK or abroad.

If people have a problem with summer holiday dates they need to think laterally rather than just complaining about it.

zagfles

securityguy wrote: »

Behave. UK hotel prices for overnight stops do not rise appreciably during the holidays. Looking at Wednesdays, n the middle of September, the Slough Travel Lodge, ideal for Legoland, is £37 a night. But in the middle of August, ie the peak of the holiday season, it's...£37 a night. In the middle of the October half-term (ie, booking slightly further out) it's £31 a night for the same day of the week.

Agreed. But a far more important reason to avoid Legoland Windsor in August is that you'll probably spend 95% of the day stood in queues. We were queueing over an hour for some of the rides :eek: Never again!!

On the other hand, going to the "real" Legoland in Denmark, second half of August is the ideal time to go as the Danish kids are back in school. We've been twice in mid-late August and it was excellent, 10 min max queues for the rides, usually less...

This "but the prices go up" stuff is true for package companies pitching children's beach holidays to families. But it's actually because they can't shift the quota they have out of season. It's not a price increase in the holidays, but a desperate discount in June, because they only get their hotel allocations by purchasing the entire season, and are grateful for any customers outside school holidays. They price the summer to pay for the whole season's costs, and then regard such packages as they can sell outside the school holidays as jam.

But raw flight prices vary very little (Saturdays around half terms can be a bit pricey but, hey! radical idea! go on Sunday!) and most hotels in Europe are hardly concerned about UK holiday schedules.

Hotel prices in most cities are lower in August than any other time of the year, because most businesses are shut and it's business travel that dominates their bookings. Hotels outside cities can't be bothered to mess with their pricing. Book a hotel in a random small French town, drive there, it'll cost you precisely the same in August as it would in June.

Yes, particularly late August, the prices tend to plummet in mid August for hotels in holiday resorts, as a lot of the European school holidays have finished. Late August is off peak.

And as you say outside of typical "holiday resorts" it doesn't make much difference, so if you want an "educational" holiday it shouldn't matter much price-wise whether you go in the school holidays or not.

A few years ago we went to Sorrento in the Easter holidays, the flight prices and hotel prices were no more expensive than at other times (we even got a discount on the hotel's advertised prices), we had 10 days there for £1100 for the 4 of us (£700 hotel, £100pp flights), which I remember as I saw a package offering basically the same holiday, but for only a week, for £550pp, ie £2200 for the 4 of us!! So we got a 10 day holiday for half the price of a 7-day package!! And a very educational holiday - seeing Pompeii, Herculaneum etc...

securityguy

Dunroamin wrote: »

And, of course, youth hostels don't normally put their prices up in the summer either, whether in the UK or abroad.

Indeed. But in my experience, the ambience in youth hostels is Saabs and Waitrose. Oddly, not people who claim they can only afford holidays in term time. Ditto campsites: on one I was on recently (in England), the only coffee on sale in the shop was Lavazza Rossa, because everyone apparently brings their Moka Pot to use on the camp stove.

If people have a problem with summer holiday dates they need to think laterally rather than just complaining about it.

Indeed. But why think, when you can whine?

iammumtoone

securityguy wrote: »

Behave. UK hotel prices for overnight stops do not rise appreciably during the holidays. Looking at Wednesdays, n the middle of September, the Slough Travel Lodge, ideal for Legoland, is £37 a night. But in the middle of August, ie the peak of the holiday season, it's...£37 a night. In the middle of the October half-term (ie, booking slightly further out) it's £31 a night for the same day of the

I must be honest and admit I've never looked at travel lodge prices for the holidays but last August I looked for a B and B at a seaside resort I could not find one for less than 130 a night

angelil

^^ not a seaside resort admittedly, but we just found a B&B in central Cardiff for £90 a night (and that's only 3 weeks ahead of wanting it thanks to a change of situation). You can drive to the beach from Cardiff. Maybe you just have to shop around!