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

Spendless

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

Personally I think this is a wind up ....I mean you can't post one day about getting your son (who I swear was 14 in the thread about DoE and yr 10 in the thread about sixth forms) into the sixth form and pressurising him to do the DoE so that he looks better for Unis and then not give a toss about missing school the next

No idea if it is, but in each thread the OP has mentioned his child being in yr 9, with their 14th birthday next month.

k12479

Buzzybee90 wrote: »

But 5 days is going to make no difference.

Difference to what, maths and English skills? Probably not.
What about the difference to the ability to abide by straightforward rules, or to do what you need to do rather than what you might want to do?

Jagraf wrote: »

No I don't think they understand particularly. It's a bit like me trying to understand an architects office when I don't have a clue about architecture.

I presume you know what a door, a ceiling and a floor are. That should be a sufficient level of understanding required.

Jagraf

Honestly speaking, I think it would be really useful for parents to be invited into school to learn how the gcse curriculum runs, lesson planning, schemes of work, summative and formative assessment, differentiation, classroom assessment etc. they could then make a more informed decision, one way or the other.

I'm not sure how many year ten learners would want a week off to be honest, science GCSEs are sat in year ten at the moment, along with some other GCSEs.

Buzzybee90

k12479 wrote: »

Difference to what, maths and English skills? Probably not.
What about the difference to the ability to abide by straightforward rules, or to do what you need to do rather than what you might want to do?


I presume you know what a door, a ceiling and a floor are. That should be a sufficient level of understanding required.

It's not really relevant to me, we had to go outside of the holidays, or wouldn't have been able to go at all.

fierystormcloud

bylromarha wrote: »

kids don't get duvet days or the option to take annual leave - it's dictated to them, and their families, when they are permitted to be in school and off school. Is your holiday dictated to you in your job? All year? Every year? For 12 years of your life? Without being allowed to change job? Thought not. Granted, home education is a way out of this, but unrealistic for the majority of families.

Most primary schools now give 100% attendance prizes to encourage kids into school every day. My poor daughter was mortified at this up to year 3, as she had regular heart appointments in a hospital an hours drive away. They only gave appointments 9am-3pm. And didn't have many school holiday appointments as the consultants were on holiday with their families. if she'd had "annual leave" to use up from school, she'd have used it. But she was made to feel bad because she wasn't at school every day.

It's crazy to suggest there is a link between a parent who takes a child on a term time holiday and unreliable employees. Of the kids i teach, i'd much rather have a parent who regularly supports in homework, in reading, in being engaged with school and who has a week's holiday from school tacked onto a half term than a parent whose child is in school every day but is too busy at work to ensure homework is done, or where now daily reading happens at home, or pe kit is never in school, or who makes their child feel rubbish day after day after day as they are consistently late in picking them up.

Great post! :T

k12479

bylromarha wrote: »

It's crazy to suggest there is a link between a parent who takes a child on a term time holiday and unreliable employees.

Is it? There's plenty that links parent's behaviour to their children's behaviour from smoking, to obesity to offending so it's hardly a huge jump to assume there'll be a similar link to attendance.

bylromarha wrote: »

Doesn't take a genius to work out which child will do better in their education.

Yeah, they'll both be outperformed by the child who has strong attendance and strong parental support.

Homeownertobe

meritaten wrote: »

so everything the school does is 'educational' - I beg to differ. but even a holiday to another country with parents can be just as 'educational' as a 'school trip'. I am getting so fed up that parent rights are being eroded here. its ok for schools to waste the kids time - on CHARIDEE events, but the parents cant take the children to another country or even a part of this country on holiday? which surely is educational?


How is 'ski-ing ' educational? most comps take the kids ski-ing. both my kids said it wasn't an educational trip - it was fun. they learned how to ski and !!!!!! all else- don't think that was on the curriculum.
justify that?

It's quite obvious that just getting some of these children away from their parents for a week is enough to justify it by itself.

You seem very angry, have you spoken to someone about it?

FBaby

I wonder whether the parents who take their kids on term time holidays are also the employees who take a sick day to attend an interview rather than annual leave, and whether their children also grow up to become unreliable employees.

Talk about jumping to conclusions! Totally untrue in our case!

ecgirl07

Nicki wrote: »

The state spends on average £4,500 per pupil per year on state education for children in mainstream education without statements. Or about £125 per week. I say the state but I actually mean those of us who work and pay taxes. That's quite a few hours I need to work to earn that kind of money. The fine for throwing that back in the tax payers face is £60 per parent if paid within 21 days.

I just don't get why I should be working hard to pay for a school place for some posters children which they aren't appreciative of and won't use. Don't begrudge the hardworking kids a second of my working time but don't see why I should be paying to keep places open for kids sitting on a beach in wherever.

Utter "race to the bottom" nonsense. "Im paying for your childs education so I get a say in it", no you dont you pay taxes doesnt give you the right to begrudge parents/childrens choices.

As a teacher I see education going hand in hand with life experiences, the more life experiences a child has the better and if the parents decide this will be term time as a result of their informed choices, then good luck to them.

Jagraf

bylromarha wrote: »

Kids don't get duvet days or the option to take annual leave - it's dictated to them, and their families, when they are permitted to be in school and off school. Is your holiday dictated to you in your job? All year? Every year? For 12 years of your life? Without being allowed to change job? Thought not. Granted, home education is a way out of this, but unrealistic for the majority of families.

Most primary schools now give 100% attendance prizes to encourage kids into school every day. My poor daughter was mortified at this up to year 3, as she had regular heart appointments in a hospital an hours drive away. They only gave appointments 9am-3pm. And didn't have many school holiday appointments as the consultants were on holiday with their families. If she'd had "annual leave" to use up from school, she'd have used it. But she was made to feel bad because she wasn't at school every day.

It's crazy to suggest there is a link between a parent who takes a child on a term time holiday and unreliable employees. Of the kids I teach, I'd much rather have a parent who regularly supports in homework, in reading, in being engaged with school and who has a week's holiday from school tacked onto a half term than a parent whose child is in school every day but is too busy at work to ensure homework is done, or where no daily reading happens at home, or PE kit is never in school, or who makes their child feel rubbish day after day after day as they are consistently late in picking them up. Doesn't take a genius to work out which child will do better in their education.

I think its a yesr 10 learner we are talking about. I try to read at night with DD but she's better than me ��. I think kids very often regret gaps in their formal education when they are revising. A week can be a whole topic. I personally do think if I said to her she was taking a week out to go for an informative educational week in Spain, she would think it very odd. But maybe that's just our family.

I think there are a lot of things that can contribute to a poor educational experience for kids. The problem is taking them away in term time, from an school education perspective, is one of them in my opinion. And in year ten, a weeks 'educational' trip to Florida isn't going to help them with their quadratic equations.

Also parents have very little involvement by year ten, and whether a child catches up on what they missed is usually just up to the child. There is no point me trying to understand what has been missed in physics. I have no idea.