Our kids refused time off school during term time - please advice

Pollycat

fierystormcloud wrote: »

Careful you don't give opinions that the 'clique' don't like. You get called stupid, and ranty, and accused of throwing your toys out of the pram. :rotfl:

I think that's quite a childish comment.

Pollycat

FBaby wrote: »

At the moment it is unfair to pupils who are not affected. If one system has to be unfair, it might be better to be the flexible one that punishes those who indeed are affected negatively by the decision.
.

Why would it be better?
Better for whom?
Surely it would take less administrative resource (and less parental challenge) to have a blanket' no' than assess each individual case?

fierystormcloud

Pollycat wrote: »

I think that's quite a childish comment.

I don't. But I think YOUR comment is childish. As well as derogatory and rude. I was just stating a fact.

Andypandyboy

How is it that anyone who disagrees with you is in a clique? Could they not just disagree?

Pollycat

fierystormcloud wrote: »

I don't. But I think YOUR comment is childish. As well as derogatory and rude. I was just stating a fact.

Then I'm sorry I've offended you. Would you like me to delete my post? I'm happy to do so if you'll also delete yours that you've quoted me in.

But I do agree with Andypandyboy that a lot of people who post on public fora (not specifically aimed at you, BTW) shout 'clique' if more than one poster disagrees with their viewpoint.
Not to mention accusing people of working for whatever company is being discussed if they dare to contradict their own viewpoint.
I must be earning loads of dosh if I actually do work for all the companies (Amazon, all the airlines that exist, most of the travel companies, Argos, M&S......:rotfl:). I'm such a busy lady.

FBaby

Surely it would take less administrative resource (and less parental challenge) to have a blanket' no' than assess each individual case?

Really? Just a quick question to the class tutor 'Do you think X being off that week will affect his learning' and then one letter rather than administrative demand that the new system imposes, ie. letter to say not authorised, then email to LA and than LA writing to the parents? Sounds much more a waste of resources to me.

I've just remembered that the school wrote to parents a couple of weeks back to say that if all year 10 pupils had perfect attendance between now and a week before end of year, they will get a day trip to one of the attraction park. So that's one day missed of learning just so the school doesn't lose out on attendance figures. Ironically, DD said she wasn't interested at all because she valued much more the two days she was off so we could go on our special holiday.

That's the reality of life as it is now, schools prepared to do anything to meet the target because of the implication if they don't, even if it means a day of education. What message is this giving to the parents who ultimately don't care about the school targets as much as they care about that holiday is for many is what keeps them going to work with a smile.

Whatever the school does, or parents taking kids out of school for a week to go on holiday, this will have little impact on children's education and future aspiration compared to the values they are brought up with. The best chance children who don't get these at home have for a brighter future is to give them the chance to break free from instant gratification. The problem is that this is not what teachers are trained for and so the gap will remain.

ViolaLass

FBaby wrote: »

Really? Just a quick question to the class tutor 'Do you think X being off that week will affect his learning' and then one letter rather than administrative demand that the new system imposes, ie. letter to say not authorised, then email to LA and than LA writing to the parents? Sounds much more a waste of resources to me.

And then a parent complains that X was allowed but their precious Jemima wasn't and it's not fair and the teacher must justify their decision and and and...

Nicki

ViolaLass wrote: »

And then a parent complains that X was allowed but their precious Jemima wasn't and it's not fair and the teacher must justify their decision and and and...

How about that Jemima who is operating at B level but has the ability to get an A isn't allowed time off becaus missing school would be detrimental but James who is operating at a fail grade and won't pass come hell or high water due to his learning difficulties is allowed

Or one child in a family can go but the other can't?

Or the parent is happy for the borderline grade child to get the lower grade but the school knows the child won't get a university offer to do the job they ultimately want with it. Eg child has talked about wanting to be a dentist for years and the chemistry teacher says she won't get the grade needed if she goes but she'd be fine in all other subjects. Parents who don't know the specifics of university application process don't believe that dropping one grade in one subject will matter even though it's a crucial subject in that particular case

Just a few examples

Jagraf

All this thread does is show how little some people know about the education process. As I said before, it's like self diagnosis instead of visiting a doctor. Occasionally you may be right, usually you are wrong. And that's becsuse most parents don't understand the teaching profession. Which is so obvious here. That's why we have a separate education system rather than leaving it all to parents.

Predicted grades are an indication of what you are capable of, should you continue to learn at the same level. If you change this by taking your kids out of school, you are lowering their chances. Mocks are based on information learned so far, not the rest of the curriculum.

Each lesson informs the next as you build on knowledge. If you don't have that knowledge it's hard to learn the next. Either the teacher has to take time out to teach your child (not fair on rest of class) or that child misses out (not fair on that child).

Letting those with ability go on holiday is ludicrous and makes no sense whatsoever. It is shooting them in the foot. These silly 100% attendance competitions have been brought in because of absence. It is a shame to have to resort to a "panic response" rather than have a more rigorous absence policy.

Ir you don't agree with the educational process, and think you and your child will thrive with a different approach, take them out and do it yourself. I admire those who do and it works for many children. But don't dither in between, disrupting the rest of the class, just because you want a cheap flight.

ViolaLass

Nicki wrote: »

How about...
Just a few examples

Quite.

Not to mention the administrative pain for a school who have to do the rounds of all the teachers (if in secondary, that's a lot of people). Much easier to have one policy for all.