Term time holiday court fine help please?

matttye

barbarawright wrote: »

Who would give the extra classes? Or set the separate homework? Are the parents prepared to pay for private tuition?

Teachers. Teachers.

Admittedly I haven't given it a great deal of thought. It's just that this whole "you will not take your children on holiday in term time" screams draconian to me. There has to be another way.

Carfal

The change last September from Headteachers being able to authorise up to 10 days for a family holiday to only being able to authorise absence in exceptional circumstances is due to a change in the Law, i.e. set by Parliament, not by schools. You may wish to discuss this with your MP or to consider this when weighing up who to give your vote to in the next election. Schools merely have to follow the Law.

By taking the children out of school, you and your partner have chosen to break the Law. Your choice, your consequences.

CKhalvashi

matttye wrote: »

Schools should be working with parents and kids on this, not against them. Could the pupil not take extra classes to catch up? Why not take some homework to do on holiday? There is inevitably some time spent on holiday in a caravan / hotel / cottage / whatever when homework could be done.

You say it's selfish but the choice for many is a term time holiday or no holiday, because holidays are so expensive during school holidays.

A holiday is a luxury, and should be treated as such. When I was a child, we went away every other year in summer, instead of every year, as that was all that could be afforded.

There is no need for an annual holiday.

The current law is a shambles.

No, the operators putting the prices up in summer is a shambles, however they are businesses, and this is a business decision on their part, so there is no arguing it.

Private companies are welcome to price their products how they wish.

barbarawright

matttye wrote: »

Teachers. Teachers.

Admittedly I haven't given it a great deal of thought. It's just that this whole "you will not take your children on holiday in term time" screams draconian to me. There has to be another way.

So teachers should do overtime because people want their children to have extra holidays?

matttye

CKhalvashi wrote: »

A holiday is a luxury, and should be treated as such. When I was a child, we went away every other year in summer, instead of every year, as that was all that could be afforded.

There is no need for an annual holiday.

So with the current law you could probably have only gone away every 4 years, unless prices were elevated to such an extent back when you went away on holiday as well?

There's no need for a holiday at all, but sometimes you have to be able to do what you want.

CKhalvashi wrote: »

No, the operators putting the prices up in summer is a shambles, however they are businesses, and this is a business decision on their part, so there is no arguing it.

Private companies are welcome to price their products how they wish.

Precisely. This is something that will not change, so parents should be able to take their kids on holiday when they wish.

matttye

barbarawright wrote: »

So teachers should do overtime because people want their children to have extra holidays?

Someone will always be grateful for the overtime.

Time_to_face_the_music

I wasn't going to respond to this but really can't help myself.

If you feel it's ok to take your children out of school during term time, how would you feel if your children turned up for school and the teacher was off because he/she wanted a cheap holiday? Why would parents feel like they are entitled to these cheap holidays but teachers aren't?

I don't agree the holiday pricing system is fair but this can be fixed by the government and/or individual schools from this September. Change the holiday year to more terms and shorter holidays. Stagger the holiday year as they do in France so different schools have different holidays each year. What can the holiday companies do then?

And by the way, teachers do not get paid overtime!

matttye

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

If you feel it's ok to take your children out of school during term time, how would you feel if your children turned up for school and the teacher was off because he/she wanted a cheap holiday? Why would parents feel like they are entitled to these cheap holidays but teachers aren't?

Get a supply in? Seems like a real easy solution to me.

Time_to_face_the_music wrote: »

And by the way, teachers do not get paid overtime!

Then they should!

Time_to_face_the_music

matttye wrote: »

Get a supply in? Seems like a real easy solution to me.

Then they should!

Schools do not have the funding to pay their regular teachers, let alone start paying supply teachers or overtime. If you look at adverts for teaching positions today, they are full of listings for graduate mentors, for classroom supervisors etc, all paid at approximately 50% of what a teacher would cost. Teachers haven't had a pay rise for over 2 years now and this year will effectively take a pay cut due to rise in pension contributions, and that is without inflation costs etc. Most schools can't afford to pay experienced teacher so specifically advertise for NQTs.

Sorry mattye, you are way off with your "solutions".

Chrisblue1962

My two pennies worth...

"Morning all wondered if anyone can offer any advice?
Went on a term time holiday in January this year ,we have two girls in high school;who we'd got permission from the headmaster to take out of school,however the primary head refused.

So we went anyway,we cant afford any kind of holiday apart from this (5 days in a Uk holiday park in Jan ha-ha

At the start of March the council issued 4 fixed penalty notices at £60 per child per parent for my two youngest kids

we didn't have the money,and the fines doubled and of course we still don't have the money."

I personally think there two issues rather than just one here.

a) The rights and wrongs of taking holidays in term time - I personally think it's wrong as this causes disruption to their education. You have to remember if all parents wanted to do this, there could be a continual ongoing disruption to all pupils education as teachers continually had to "stop-start-recap" the teaching syllabus. Also, school administrators would be faced with keeping track of potentially large numbers of pupils who may or may not be in school, depending whether the parents fancy yet another two weeks in Magaluf / France / Wales / elsewhere or not...

"The Primary head refused..." As a professional working in education, he/she has to think of the effect of granting your request has on all the pupils in the school not just your child.

b) ...So we went anyway,we cant afford any kind of holiday......Twe didn't have the money......still don't have the money.

The affordability of said holiday seemed and seems suspect. A definite case of "Needs not wants". Holidays away from home are a luxury not an absolute right. No sympathy here I'm afraid.