Should parents be allowed to take kids out of school for a holiday?

seven-day-weekend

Torry_Quine wrote: »

I rarely had any holidays even in this country never mind abroad. Staying off school would never have been even considered.

Same here.

fxt576

toffifee wrote: »

We used to take our two children on holidays abroad in September when it was cheaper but since they started school we can't afford the flights in school holidays, so we have holidays at the seaside in the UK.

I think it's much more important for them to be there for their education than to have a week or two in the sun. They both hate missing any school at all, even for music exams or illness, because it's hard to catch up. I wouldn't contemplate deliberately removing them from school for a holiday, even if the alternative was no holiday at all. There were years when I was little when we didn't have a holiday and I thought nothing of it. I don't understand why a holiday abroad seems to have become an 'essential'. (These problems never seem to be about a couple of weeks in Skegness.)

Valid point. However, it is worth pointing out that even the holidays in the UK increase in price during school holidays. In fact I think the UK holidays seem to have some of the most consistent and dramatic price increases. Having said that I am quite bemused that holidays seem to be a must nowadays. I had very few formal holidays when growing up but made me really appreciate time away from school at home/visiting relatives/friends etc.

Prothet_of_Doom

David_e wrote: »

So who monitors, sets and reviews this bespoke "holiday work"?

(I'm not a teacher, by the way.)

How do they check the quality of home schooled teaching ?

The parents make an application to school, including the learning objectives of the trip, and the deliverable offered, (report, essay, talk, etc age appropriate....

The school, reviews, and makes a few adjustments, child comes back from holiday, and does a 10 minute presentation to the children in thier class, about the horrors of the german death camps**.

To be honest, my parents never took me out of school, and we never took our kids out of school. We gave my 17 year old daughter the option of missing a week in her Final year of A levels to attend her cousins wedding in the USA, but she refused, stating that to do the university degree, she needs AAB, and a week wasted in Dayton would do nothing to help.

All our hoildays have been in the school hols, but have included an element of Fun, and education.

**Yes my enlightened liberal parents thought it age appropriate to take a sensitive 8 year old school boy to a Concentration Camp. The Experience is engrained in my personality I think.

duchy

DiggerB9 wrote: »

It boils down to money for us. Case in point; we got married in July and had booked our honeymoon for a week on our own.

We then wanted to take our three children (9, 5 & 2) away on an all inclusive holiday. The difference in price anywhere in Europe incl the likes of Benidorm etc was a minimum of £7500 but in the first week in September the same holiday was £3500!

To me this is just a way for schools etc. to make extra money. Restricting you to 2wks max could and should be amicable and surely it is against our human rights not to have a holiday!

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I think you've just explained why education is so important to our children if you believe human rights are affected by whether or not a child can go to Benidorm !!!! Too funny.

Oh and the schools don't get the money btw

Perhaps if your children's holiday is so vital you could have taken them with you on honeymoon instead of leaving them behind? If it boiled down to just money why would you book a holiday for just the two of you when you couldn't afford a family holiday - sounds really selfish. I couldn't enjoy a week away if I knew it was at the expense of my kid's holiday. For me marriage is about family so the fact it was a honeymoon makes it even worse.

I always used to feel sorry for a child I knew whose parents always took her away the first two weeks in September (ironically Mum was a travel agent so got cheaper holidays anyway) . She once told me it was always upsetting going back because everyone else was already settled in and had chosen where to sit and met the new teacher. I think she had a point - I believe parents who take their kids out for the begining of the school year are incredibly selfish.

Mof

As a teacher,with 38 years experience, I believe that education is far broader than mere schooling.

For children, travelling to another environment, especially abroad, can be a far greater educational experience than spending the equivalent 5 or 10 days in a classroom.

Even on a holiday to Benidorm, which was used as an example on another thread, children would experience a new language, culture, climate, currency and (hopefully!) cuisine which would be a far more intense learning experience than they would have gained in school during that time.

The extended time spent together as a family could also benefit children who may have too little time with their parents during the rest of the year.

Education does not involve filling children up with a knowledge for 40 weeks of the year and it is a fallacy to claim pupils would not “catch up” on what they missed.

In an ideal world, of course, parents should only take their children on holiday out of term time but, if finances do not allow that to happen, it should be recognised that children can gain more educationally from a holiday than they would from time spent seated in a classroom.

Ezmondino

chrisfh wrote: »

I think that a better solution would be a total overhaul of the school term dates - maybe schools in different areas having different holidays with overlap between adjacent areas. Could be a nightmare for exams though!

The Germans have different dates per states (county).
http://www.schoolholidayseurope.eu/germany.html

I've noticed how much quieter it is in some areas when on hols there, it certainly seems to work looking in from the outside.

DiggerB9

duchy wrote: »

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

I think you've just explained why education is so important to our children if you believe human rights are affected by whether or not a child can go to Benidorm !!!! Too funny.

Oh and the schools don't get the money btw

Perhaps if your children's holiday is so vital you could have taken them with you on honeymoon instead of leaving them behind? If it boiled down to just money why would you book a holiday for just the two of you when you couldn't afford a family holiday - sounds really selfish. I couldn't enjoy a week away if I knew it was at the expense of my kid's holiday. For me marriage is about family so the fact it was a honeymoon makes it even worse.

I always used to feel sorry for a child I knew whose parents always took her away the first two weeks in September (ironically Mum was a travel agent so got cheaper holidays anyway) . She once told me it was always upsetting going back because everyone else was already settled in and had chosen where to sit and met the new teacher. I think she had a point - I believe parents who take their kids out for the begining of the school year are incredibly selfish.

The human rights element was meant to be tongue in cheek, as it seems to be the excuse for most things in this country.

Benidorm was used as an example of somewhere people would think would be relatively cheap for a family holiday but was coming up at extortionate prices.

My point is that if you go to book a holiday and there is more than a 50% increase in price, no wonder people who work hard all year will look to take their children on holiday in term time, choosing to pay the fine as it is still the cheaper option.

Affording the holidays was never an issue for us, the money for these, were budgeted for by working hard and saving hard but the difference in cost this year was a massive eye opener.

We are lucky that our household income allows us to take holidays abroad, which we do every two years, alternating our holidays, visiting different areas of Britain as I did with my parents until I took my first trip abroad at 17.

Missing Wednesday to Friday had no baring what so ever on my daughters education and only enhanced it, as acknowledged by her teacher. Neither has our 4 day honeymoon left any mental scars on them, as that was taken in the holidays.

kathrynha

I wouldn't take my daughter out of school for a holiday. Our family holiday is always a week in a tent somewhere in the UK. Last years holiday (including all petrol, food, gas, etc) just under £300.

And even though it was in the school holidays it was very educational. We covered history, geography, science, DT, literacy, numeracy, RE, PE. Thing is despite learning lots that will help my daughter with her school studies, if she had missed school she could of missed a vital start of topic, or bit of learning that could be a vital foundation for other learning.

A family holiday it would be very difficult to decide which are educational and which aren't. I know I could make a week in Benidorm educational for my daughter, but many parents wouldn't.

When parents can't take time off during school holidays I do think there should be some leniency, but how do you police it? Some parents do lie to schools. I know since the rules tightened up parents are claiming that the week in Lanzarote is to celebrate Granny's 70th birthday or similar, rather than just a holiday. I know some parents will be telling the truth, but how can schools be expected to police this?

One issue with the new policy I have, is I would like to take my daughter to the Yorkshire Show. In the past this was always allowed as an educational trip, but not any more, and I can't afford a £120 fine (£60 me and £60 hubby's) plus the ticket price for 1 day off school.
It is an event that is always midweek and always in term time, so going at a different time isn't possible. My daughter is missing out on an event that is part of our families cultural heritage because of the strong enforcement of this rule.

Generally I agree with the rule, but do think it needs more flexibility, but no idea how it could be practically policed.

Astrosnap

If 73% of parents remove their children for 1-2 weeks each year (as indicated by current poll results), the teachers might as well stay at home.
This reflects the same 'fuzzy logic' as is displayed by those who are convinced that taking their kids to lie on distant beaches two or three times per year and buying them loads of 'designer gear' are signs of good parenting. The same people turn up at school progress evenings and complain that 'I have bought him/her x,y and z and he/she still won't do any work'.
How would the 73% define a 'non crucial time' in the school year? At the start of the year when basic foundations are being established? In the middle when a couple of weeks off would leave gaps in knowledge and compromise future progress? During preparation for exams? During the exams themselves? If significant numbers of parents consider all of these times to be 'non crucial' then perhaps we should just send children out to work at the age of 5 and forget education altogether?

RichardK.2009

A 90% attendance rate over school life (approx. 7 days absence/term for any reason) reduces the chance of 5 GCSE A-C's by a staggering 50%. That's one reason why 'holidays' as a reason for absence was removed by legislation in Sep 13.
When an adult misses work, they can usually catch up as its 'more of the same' type of work that they already know, whereas a child does not because its always new instruction that they miss and its not repeated. Once missed its missed. Knowingly damming your child's chances like this should indeed be both illegal and punished.