MSE News: Four out of five back right to take kids on term-time holidays

victor2

So all these people who want to be able to exclude their kids from school for a holiday presumably also back the teachers being able to take a week or two off in term time so that they can avail of the cheaper holidays too?

Pincher

They could record the lessons, and put them on a school website.

Murphy_The_Cat

Pincher wrote: »

They could record the lessons, and put them on a school website.

Finger painting, watching DVD's, removing posters and other kill time/make work activities

Yolina

victor2 wrote: »

So all these people who want to be able to exclude their kids from school for a holiday presumably also back the teachers being able to take a week or two off in term time so that they can avail of the cheaper holidays too?

Not just teachers - a friend of mine looks after some IT stuff in several schools, he's not teaching staff but can only book his time off during school holidays.

michaels

As another poster said - I think my children could probably make up the work if they missed a week.

However each time a child misses a bit, when a topic based on what was missed comes up the techer has to back track and recover the old material or the child who missed out will be lost. Now multiply that by 30 kids in the class each taking a different week off and suddenly the teacher has to spend half their time recapping to cach the kids who have missed stuff and has no time left to teach the new stuff.

So sure litle Johnny chav is not going to fail all his gcses because he has a week in florida but unfortunately the whole class will loes a grade or two because they have all taken a week off.

Sorry if this arguement is too complicated for most who took part in Martin's poll for whom two cheap weeks at Disney is more important than their kids long term prospects.

Moto2

In a system where kids are trained to pass tests rather than educated and schools are graded by the results of the tests, I can see why a week or two away from the rote could be damaging for the school.

malkie76

I can't believe parents would risk their child's education just to save a few quid. So selfish.

victor2

malkie76 wrote: »

I can't believe parents would risk their child's education just to save a few quid. So selfish.

It's often much more than just a "few quid", more like one of the many hidden costs in bringing up a child. I agree it is selfish though, and know some people who have done it with the attitude that it's "only the last week of term and they do nothing except play games anyway".
To me, it's all part of their education, and if it's a half decent school, parents should not opt to take their kids out for a holiday purely on the cost basis.

DomRavioli

malkie76 wrote: »

I can't believe parents would risk their child's education just to save a few quid. So selfish.

My OH's little brother (now 17, but at the time was 15 and in full time school) and the entire family took a trip for a family member (who lives abroad, we went to them) wedding 2 years ago. We gave the school 6 months notice, and they agreed (because it was a family occasion with a holiday attached, the wedding was 2 days and we stayed for 7 days) because we were reasonable and he had perfect attendance apart from this.

The difference in price between travelling the week we did, and the week after which was school holidays was £201 per person. There were 19 adults and 7 children, making a difference of £5,226.

Are you going to give me the extra? IF not, pipe down. I have much better things to spend 5 grand on.

malkie76

£200pp is only a few quid. Your example is a very poor one because you had no choice in the dates because it was a wedding. I imagine the family chose that week to get married because it was also cheaper for them, and ignoring it was term time.


It's poor on their part for making you make that choice, and poor on you for risking your child's education.

I won't pipe down because I'm 100% in the right.