Holiday in school time - what to tell school

jem16

shockingmoment wrote: »

Jem16 - thanks. Its been great having this debate with you. We are both firmly entrenched in our beliefs. I appreciate (more) your perspective. Wont change my mind though!

Yes I've enjoyed it too. At least I have managed to get you to appreciate where I'm coming from even if I can't get you to change your mind.

As I previously mentioned - we should not be your main concern. We are, however, the 'low hanging fruit'.

The main concern should be the regular truants - these are the ones who really miss out on a quality education that as a caring (from your views you certainly are) teaching professional you provide. These unfortunates leave school with few, if any, qualifications, and a poor standard of education.

But these issues are the hardest to resolve, take a lot of time and effort but are the most in need.

This is true. However a lot of the time it's the children who are sent to school but no interest is taken in them by the parents that concern me most. The child is almost neglected and the school is seen as a babysitting service.

As you said - 'Agree to differ?'

Yep, no problem.

barnaby-bear

meester wrote: »

I went to a state primary, comprehensive and then state sixth form college, and then a BSc from Cambridge.

Cambridge undergraduate degrees aren't a BSc, they are by some anachronism called a BA.

barnaby-bear

Dead_Eye_Jones wrote: »

its interesting that the early poster drew attention to that this is a private school - why on Earth would the situation be different if good ol' tax payer is paying the bill???

Because it's a private contract, that school can refuse to keep the child. A state school has a statatory obligation and guidelines for these situations. Private schools also do not have to follow the same strategies or curriculums.

Nenen

barnaby-bear wrote: »

Because it's a private contract, that school can refuse to keep the child. A state school has a statatory obligation and guidelines for these situations. Private schools also do not have to follow the same strategies or curriculums.

That’s certainly true and very pertinent in this case. If you either tell the Head about your holiday and s/he refuses permission (then you take him anyway) or lie and get found out, the Head could tell you to take your child out of the school. In reality this would only be likely to happen in the best and oversubscribed independent schools where there are children on a waiting list for places and the school know that if they exclude your child then s/he can be replaced within a term or two. Either that or your child can be used as an example to other parents of the consequences of ignoring school policy.

Something like this happened to a colleague of mine when I was teaching in the State system. Her two daughters were at private school and holidays in term time were banned. As you probably know, private schools have longer holidays than state schools and, up until then, it had always worked out that if the state school we worked in was on holiday then her daughters certainly would be too. On that basis she booked a family holiday one Easter only to find that for the first time the private school her daughters attended broke up two days later than us (went back 10 days later though) and hence they would miss two days of school to go on the holiday.

My colleague wrote an extremely apologetic letter to the school explaining her mistake and asking for permission to take two days holiday in term time. She got summoned to see the Headteacher to ‘discuss’ the matter and was told in no uncertain terms that this would only be granted very grudgingly as her daughters had been attended the school for more than five years with excellent attendance. However, she was also told that should this ever happen again then she had a stark choice… cancel the holiday or take her daughters out of the school.

My own (excellent) state grammar school told parents that should they intend to take their children on holiday in term time then they were ‘wasting’ the place and denying a place that could be given to a child who would take full benefit.

meester

barnaby-bear wrote: »

Cambridge undergraduate degrees aren't a BSc, they are by some anachronism called a BA.

that's true, but I did a science degree so it's a bit confusing.....

duchy

Quite honestly you have those extra weeks-so use them !
My ex wanted to take our son away "in the summer holidays" so he took him the first week of July-as soon as he broke up. He got a better deal than going in the state school holiday period and the flights were less crowded. He MSE'd it and used miles which wouldn't have been available for the later dates as he booked fairly late.
Be aware though that some private schools simply don't tolerate parents taking their kids out for holidays and will ask the children to leave. It might be wise to chat to a few of the parents with kids further up the school to make sure yours isn't one of "those" before approaching the headmaster as it might make a difference how you approach him.
And yes I'm a travel agent by training-although I don't see what on earth THAT has to do with the price of fish !!

dee_mum_of_3

I think most schools will allow days off for education or cultural reasons with the view that it is beneficial to child and to the family who are sharing the experience-we have 3 sons the youngest 2 were being home schooled (through ill health)and the eldest was at secondary we planned a very exciting day trip to go and see a war exhibition (eden camp in yorks) we asked the secondary school would it be ok for eldest son to join us and they were very positive as it was an educational visit-maybe wherever you are going on holiday will have educational aspects??? Australia as another poster has mentioned is a fab opportunity and definitely i would say beneficial to a young child......having said that we are in GSCE mode here now.....no more day trips together(also what happens if you are stopped by truancy officers when u are on term time holidays)

full-time-mum

shockingmoment wrote: »

What rubbish!

So this is something you couldn't / don't do yourself with your child anyway even on holiday? Education is about constant learning - not just school and term time. We always read and play numeracy games with our children. So much depends on the parents away from the school environment.

Our children always take work with them (set by the teacher(s)) for serious study after the days events. They both excell at school and have not suffered in the slightest.

Which is exactly what I would do if I had to take the children out of school but there are a lot (hellava lot of) parents who don't take this trouble and there are a number of parents who see school as a child-care option rather than an educational establishment.

I take my responsibilities to my children very seriously which is why I gave up my career to stay at home with them and can't afford to go on fancy holidays abroad. They read their books with me every night, I stay for book time at school, go in one morning a week to support the teacher so she can get on with the teaching, support them with their projects and homework, take them to places relevant to their classroom activites, we garden, cook, the list goes on. I am also a school governor so please don't accuse me of being a lapse parent.

Going in to school, I have seen some of the problems that are caused by children returning from holidays. Young children in tears because they haven't moved up a reading bar or because the rest of the class can go and paint whilst they have to catch up.

(as an aside, asking the teacher to provide work while you are away, probably isn't actually fair on them. You are effectively asking them to do extra work.)

RadoJo

shockingmoment wrote: »

Hmmm.

If we didn't consider the school, the teacher and the rest of the class we would not request the work packs for our children. We ensure that these are completed to a very high standard during the vacation.

If this is the case then you are very lucky that your children go to a school where this is possible. Plenty of teachers (rightly in my opinion) refuse to set work for children who will be out of school on a voluntary basis. I personally think it is pretty cheeky to ask teachers, who will already have set the work for the class, to spend their time preparing extra work for certain children and then marking it. Whilst this works for you, I wouldn't recommend anyone else assuming that a teacher will do this for you as it is very generous and certainly not normal practice.