Schools no longer allowed to authorise holidays

bestpud

Good news for people who holiday/visit places without children and those of us who home educate.

Rubbish for everyone else!

I hope people fight it! I sure as heck would if I still had children in school!

jameskent_2

This change in legislation is a complete disgrace we live in a democratic country http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/756/pdfs/uksiem_20130756_en.pdf


They failed to consult properly the main effected people - PARENTS.
They claim there is no effect of business so no impact study was done - WRONG there is a potential massive loss of income for holiday companies as places will go empty during term time. The government have complained about how much holiday companies charge during holidays and tried and FAILED to do anything about it. We live in country with a free market system where Supply and demand is king. So well done due to this change of legislation Demand for holidays in school holidays will now rocket, supply will stay the same so what happens Price increases. Maybe some of this Civil servants who changed the rules should go back to school and learn something about Economics. BY the way does a civil servant not serve the civil population some time you might think it is the other way round. I fully intend to take my children out of school for two one week holidays and will phone them in sick and if they think they can prove I am lying and issue me a fine go ahead. Holiday saving £600 fine - £120 = £480 saving !!! Also it is much quieter so many fewer children their screaming!!! If the government did not intend to use this change as a tax on the middle class who are the easiest targets because we always pay fines as we have worked hard to get what we have!! If they really wanted to stop us taking children out of school they should have a meaningful fine!!!

Yorkie1

I think you'll find that it's the politicians you should be having a go at, and not the civil servants who don't make the rules.

knight98

What about teachers striking, a school being closed for a colleagues funeral or any other reason the school decides to infringe on our childrens' education? That is apparently ok.


What about the schools that set NO homework all term but the minute there's a sniff of the holidays they pile it on and infringe on the kids 16 weeks of holiday, thus spoiling many quality hours we could spend with our children during official holidays. Yet we don't jump up and down and fine the teachers. We do the homework with the kids, pay for childcare or take unpaid leave for when the kids should officially be in school.


what is really needed is a bit of common sense as we can't all take holiday out of term time. A good example of this would be the matron who had her request for school time holiday turned down and told she had school holidays for holidays away with her family. However if she complied along with the rest of the staff on her ward, her ward would have to close as there would be nobody there to staff it(or bank staff would be used at exorbitant rates).


Most people with at least half a brain will concede that one children hit GCSE level holidays are a necessary sacrifice if your limited by budget or seasonal work to term time breaks.

nickj_2

meritaten wrote: »

I find this quite sinister - education IS important, but, parents rights are important too. why are parents rights being so eroded? its almost as if children are being 'forced' into state education. and the rights of the education 'system' are overtaking parental rights.

kids get around 12 weeks holiday a year , is really too much to ask them to attend school , which at the end of the day is there for their benifit , for the remaining 40 weeks

meritaten

nickj wrote: »

kids get around 12 weeks holiday a year , is really too much to ask them to attend school , which at the end of the day is there for their benifit , for the remaining 40 weeks

well nickj, they aren't being 'asked' are they? The attitude is that the school takes precedence over family life (and not every parent CAN get their holidays at school holiday time), and they will use a big stick to enforce their rules. backed by the courts. before long parents will be seen as just babysitting the kids and the schools will have full parental rights.

nickj_2

meritaten wrote: »

well nickj, they aren't being 'asked' are they? The attitude is that the school takes precedence over family life (and not every parent CAN get their holidays at school holiday time), and they will use a big stick to enforce their rules. backed by the courts. before long parents will be seen as just babysitting the kids and the schools will have full parental rights.

att the end of the day , parents know the rules when their child starts school and it's a small price to pay for your kids education , your kids are only there for 11-12 years is it really such a big deal
if every parent took their kids out whenever they felt like it then the education system would fall into utter chaos ,
if parents don't like the rules/law then they can educate their kids at home and then they can go on holiday when ever they like .

balletshoes

meritaten wrote: »

well nickj, they aren't being 'asked' are they? The attitude is that the school takes precedence over family life (and not every parent CAN get their holidays at school holiday time), and they will use a big stick to enforce their rules. backed by the courts. before long parents will be seen as just babysitting the kids and the schools will have full parental rights.

30-40 years ago when i was at school, i didn't know anyone who took holidays in term time. We were expected to go to school every day school was open, and respect the teachers and other adults there too (gawd I sound about 80 reading that back!). That was normal.

My DD is at school now, has been for the last 8 years. Its only in the last year that school has these stricter rules for absence during term time, up til now her schools have had a blanket 10-days leave in term time is okay if your attendance otherwise is good.

Whilst I have taken DD out for a maximum of 3 days in past years, because the "rules" said I could, I agree with the stricter rules being brought in - it can only be a good thing for childrens education, in my opinion.

Of course, all the form-filling and box-ticking that goes along with it is, I'm sure, far more time-consuming and complicated than it needs to be, but thats our government for you, isn't it.

Spendless

nickj wrote: »

att the end of the day , parents know the rules when their child starts school

The thread is about 'schools no longer allowed to authorise holidays'. Previously they could ( though some wouldn't) so, no parents didn't know the rules when their child started school if they have any older than Reception age as the changes only came in from Sept last year.

paulineb_2

I find it a bit bizarre that an old thread gets bumped by someone with a low post count then one persons posts get singled out to be quoted when the thread had numerous pages of debate going on.

But I'm getting to the stage where not much would surprise me about these forums.