Schools no longer allowed to authorise holidays

zagfles

FBaby wrote: »

That's all very well, but the same flight, 18th to 25th from London Gatwick are £60 outbound and £102 return. That's £162 per person!!! So if you live in the SW, by the time you've added cost of petrol and hotel, or train fares and again, it becomes much more expensive.

If you take the example of flybe. Fly in August on these dates and you pay £335 per person, that's £1,335 for 4 people!!! Fly end of September and the same flight will cost £135 per person, £540. When you add the difference in the cost of accommodation, it is pretty clear why families make the choice to take kids out of school.

The point is you can get cheap flights in the school holidays. Maybe not if you insist on an airport within 20 miles or a particular airline, but I've quoted flights in August for about the same price as you quoted for Sept, even though this is far from the ideal time to book. Wind back 4 months and it would have been much cheaper, plus more choice.

Also flying from a smaller airport further away isn't usually costly - even if you need to stay overnight - airport hotels can be very good value and often have good parking deals. It could even be cheaper than getting taxis to/from your local airport.

And the other thing is you don't need to fly anyway - most of our holidays in the last 10 years have been driving. Found this far easier particularly when the kids were younger. And they much prefer ferry crossings to flying!

Tigsteroonie

Instead of taking our son out for unauthorised holiday or lying about illness, we're thinking of advising the local authority that he's going on strike

Mr_Wang

mumps wrote: »

I'm not a teacher but I think you have a fairly narrow view there. Teachers don't have the day off for training days, they are training. You will find at your son's new grammar school that when GCSE and A level results come out the teachers are in celebrating with some and trying to sort things out for the ones who haven't quite made it.

They will also be in for some days over the summer preparing for the new year.. I suppose it is a bit different in primary school, which is a long time ago for mine, but certainly in secondary education, well from my experience of the 2 grammar schools that mine attended, the teachers are normally in by 8.30 at the latest, you could normally speak to them until 5 pm and sometimes later. When they get home I assume they do marking and preparation. Anyway your real argument isn't really with the teachers is it..

I guess I should've pointed out that I believe teachers to be amazing and often altruistic individuals.
I am lucky enough that my children are both at outstanding schools and this is a reflection on the teachers and the standard of education they receive.
But I believe heads of schools should still have the power to grant or deny time off on an individual basis.
The fact that the government has in one swipe completely removed this is what concerns and bothers me.

zagfles

Mr_Wang wrote: »

My kids have missed at least 2 weeks every year due to travelling.

I have always obtained permission from the school (including being granted it just last week!)

My son starts Grammar school in September....

Yet another heavy handed approach by an ever increasing nanny state government. With teacher strikes, teacher training days and from a profession that works 9 months per year I can't help thinking this is like using a chainsaw to cut down a daffodil.

Yes, though I imagine your problem is that the school holidays simply aren't long enough for your trips

Spendless

Mr_Wang wrote: »

The fact that the government has in one swipe completely removed this is what concerns and bothers me.

This si the bit I agree with. This isn't the schools' doings, it's the Governments and it seems to have been kept very quiet. When it was first announced in my local area I googled the story thinking I'd missed it but it seemed not to be the case.

Marker_2

Dunroamin wrote: »

Both Tunis and Tangier are about 2.5 hours flying time from London and both (particularly Tunisia) are popular holiday destinations. (Although there is a lack of direct flights to Tangier currently.)

Whether or not you fancy holidaying there, the fact remains that they are short haul destinations outside Europe.

I am going to Cuba this year (eating into 5 days of dd's school term though). I also considered Tunisia and Cape Verde ... to me anything 5 hours or less is short haul (I compare that to places I drive to in the UK that are that sort of distance ... plus 2 hrs before check in time )

Price between all 3 was coming back around the same. After looking into Tunisia a bit more we vetoed that as there was a particular excursion we wanted to do but ds needs to be over 2 years of age. So our last options between Cuba and Cape Verde, we opted on Cuba. It is further away so I'd feel like I got my money's worth, and it is a place I feel I would have to visit soon before it turns into a mini America.

My family and I do not have the luxury (like many others) of knowing when you can take annual leave. So booking a holiday a year in advance or at the best/cheapest time to book is not a possibility.

We go where we can with the money we have at the time.

School holidays can get complicated. They really can. Parents struggle enough to work their 20-30 days annual leave around the multiple term breaks. Let alone trying to coincide it all for a family holiday.

From a very young age kids go into education, then straight from education to employment, and with pension ages rising, people aren't even having the luxury of a rest after years of work work work. Give children and parents a break. In the grand scheme of things, a week or two here or there is not going to make a significant difference to their education ... their memories on the other hand will hopefully be filled with lovely family holidays.

And for a Government (who have the entire summer holidays off) to enforce fines is nothing short of hypocritical and wrong.

Janepig

Interesting story on the BBC website here. The Government are pushing for all state schools in England to set their own terms under plans for more "school autonomy".

It doesn't really effect me because it's in England, but how can the Government suggest that schools should be free to decide what to do on this issue, but they've taken away the ability for schools to decide whether or not parents can take their children on term time holidays. Seems a bit of double standards going on here to me.

Jx

peachyprice

Janepig wrote: »

It doesn't really effect me because it's in England, but how can the Government suggest that schools should be free to decide what to do on this issue, but they've taken away the ability for schools to decide whether or not parents can take their children on term time holidays. Seems a bit of double standards going on here to me.

Jx

Make sense really, if schools have previously had a large number of applications for term time holidays at certain times of year they can now decide that they will have their holidays to suit their community, surely that means everyone will be happy? The school won't have unauthorised absences messing up their stats and the parents can have cheap holidays/time off for religious festivals without being penalised.

FBaby

zagfles wrote: »

The point is you can get cheap flights in the school holidays. Maybe not if you insist on an airport within 20 miles or a particular airline,

It's not a matter of insisting but a matter of practicality. It's all very well quoting a cheap flight, but if it can't be accessed at the time offered without having to book hotels and costly parking, then it doesn't make it cheap after all.

zagfles

FBaby wrote: »

It's not a matter of insisting but a matter of practicality. It's all very well quoting a cheap flight, but if it can't be accessed at the time offered without having to book hotels and costly parking, then it doesn't make it cheap after all.

Family room for a night plus a week's parking at Stansted Premier Inn for £89. That's booking now, for August 18. An extra £10 for 2 weeks parking. Return taxi to the "local" airport 20 miles away could be almost as much.