A question about keeping children off school in term time: to take them on holiday.

fizz

OP, no-one can answer your questions because you are just going on an ill-informed rant to try and justify your point of wanting to take your kids on holiday during Term as it's cheaper!
My child was granted time-off in Primary twice-1/ to attend the Moors and Christians Festival in Spain (educational) with one day missed 2/ to see my Dad who was very ill and lived overseas and that was 2 days missed.
I never had days off in Term-time but then my parents had a caravan in Wales.
Do your kids a favour and take your holidays at the designated time like the majority of us parents do!

Georgiegirl256

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Grades and standards are not the same thing - in many ways rather the opposite.

Edit: Already replied, didn't realise my other post had gone through.

Georgiegirl256

fierystormcloud wrote: »

and people who CLAIM to be teachers,) ?

Who is claiming to be a teacher? I don't think anyone is going to say that they are if they're not.

Tigsteroonie

June 1981, the summer term of my first year at secondary school. Top set (we were streamed early then!). I think almost every child in the class had a week off during that one month I don't remember school frowning on it at all; I do remember having to go to the school office, fetch a green holiday form,and get my Mum to complete it.

Maybe it was because we were all sooooo brainy, there was no problem with missing part of the curriculum, we were capable of catching up.

I was lucky to have parents who considered holidays abroad to be educational - we didn't just sit on a beach, we visited local historic sites, tried to speak the language, ate the local food. I can still ask the way to the toilets in Italian.

Jagraf

Never had time off for holidays when I was a kid.
Never let mine have time off for holidays now.

Mrs_Soup

Pretty certain we never had term time holidays when i was at school. More affluent families may have done occasionally but I don't remember it. mind you did not have an abroad holiday until I was 18 so July August are actually the best times weather wise to take a UK beach holiday which is what we did mostly. I now have two school age children and have accepted that during term time they should be in school- wouldn't occur to me to take them out for a holiday. I even did school holiday holidays when I didn't have children as I holidayed mostly with my sister who is of course a teacher!

peachyprice

fierystormcloud wrote: »

1) How come up to around 6 years ago, it was OK to take your children out in term time, and was in fact widely accepted (and even encouraged, as the schools were pleased the children's horizons were being widened; ) but now it is not? Who suddenly decided - 6 or 7 years ago - that parents should be punished for taking their children on holiday in term time, when for years and years, it was OK?

2) How come the standards and grades in schools - overall - have slipped over the last 5 to 6 years? (Since they stopped allowing you to take your kids out in school term time?!) In the days where people kept their children off for 2 weeks to go on holiday (and it was widely accepted,) the school's performances were better. So if it has such a HUGE effect, keeping children off for one or two weeks a year, then how come since this 'YOU CAN'T KEEP KIDS OFF IN SCHOOL TIME' ruling came in, standards and grades have fallen?

I don't know where you've been schooling your children but it's NEVER been ok here to take children out of school for a holiday in any of the schools my children have been to.

LilElvis

peachyprice wrote: »

I don't know where you've been schooling your children but it's NEVER been ok here to take children out of school for a holiday in any of the schools my children have been to.

The really funny thing about this thread is that the OP doesn't even have any children :rotfl:

Cash-Cows

If the fines were made say £200 per child per parent then taking children out wouldn't take place. Too many parents are just taking the hit so the current fines are obviously not high enough.

duchy

Andypandyboy wrote: »

I think it was quite rare for kids to be taken out of school up to the early 1990's, certainly, in my school days I can't remember my parents or anyone doing it. You just didn't book holidays in term time, end of.

The reason it is now legislated against is that it started to bcome too prevalant with parents thinking it was ok.

If you could post up the stats that back your assertions OP they would be an interesting read.

My parents used to take my brother and I out of school in the seventies . They would always tack it onto May half term so we only lost a week of school. It wasn't that uncommon - we certainly weren't the only ones - This happened every year for my family until I left secondary school .


My son's primary school found a solution to this. They extended May half term to two weeks and broke up a week later in July to make up the lost days. Most parents were very happy with this as it gave scope to have a cheaper holiday without losing school time. Unfortunately two parents who had children at other schools complained about it as they wanted all their children's holidays to match up once their kids had left primary. The LEA insisted the school went back to one week at Whitsun again - Needless to say those parents weren't very popular with the other parents .....or the school as the school went back to half empty classes the week after half term.


I do think part of it is the increase in package holidays - Most people wanting a beach holiday in the UK want to go in the summer whereas overseas holidays have a longer season (and more scope for cheaper holidays in May June and October). Package holidays didn't really "take off" until the mid seventies.
Also when we were more of a manufacturing nation many people *had* to take their 2 weeks to coincide with factory annual shutdowns and most of the town would be away that fortnight as it was the only time available for a family holiday.