Holiday in school time - what to tell school

grannynise

So when the teacher tells you she's going on holiday in term time and your son won't be getting taught you'll just smile and say ....

meester wrote: »

I doubt a week away from Year 1 of school is going to do his education any damage,...

TITEASCRAMP

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Thank you for putting it so nicely: you have just confirmed what I always thought about the intelligence of people who pay for "independent" education.

The only explanation that makes sense is that the OP does not really care about education, but about ensuring that her son's accent, table-manners and general demeanor will not be tainted by contact with chavs like me (educated from reception to PhD and beyond in state-funded institutes). Hence the mention of the "posh" character of the school involved, which is otherwise completely irrelevant to the problem.

Anyway, no need to worry. The OP is a paying customer of a business, and the school will surely agree to your holiday rather than risk losing the fees that you pay.

Couldnt have put it better!

meester

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Thank you for putting it so nicely: you have just confirmed what I always thought about the intelligence of people who pay for "independent" education.

The only explanation that makes sense is that the OP does not really care about education, but about ensuring that her son's accent, table-manners and general demeanor will not be tainted by contact with chavs like me (educated from reception to PhD and beyond in state-funded institutes). Hence the mention of the "posh" character of the school involved, which is otherwise completely irrelevant to the problem.

Anyway, no need to worry. The OP is a paying customer of a business, and the school will surely agree to your holiday rather than risk losing the fees that you pay.

Why the unnecessary rudeness and inverse snobbery?

I went to a state primary, comprehensive and then state sixth form college, and then a BSc from Cambridge. The comprehensive was useless and I was not pushed at all, which is why I left, to take the opportunity to do my A Levels (8 of them) at a sixth form college. I spent the first 4 years of my education in primary school in the Caribbean, which was run along old-fashioned English lines, and when I came to the UK was very far ahead of my peers. Having a family of my own now, my personal experience left me with absolutely no doubt that my son would benefit hugely from the same start that I had.

My son spent from age 3 - 5 in a (decent) state school, and the difference to now is huge - more attention paid to him, feedback to us about what he needs help with, one-to-one tuition for an hour a week, a broader curriculum, far more rapid progress in his reading and writing, and yes, table manners, using a knife and fork is a necessary life skill is it not?

The mention of the school being 'posh' was perhaps not the best choice of adjective, but was merely intended to convey that they are traditionalist in their attitudes, and generally fairly strict on many things.

I don't know where you get the idea that private schools are businesses: they do not make a profit, and they don't pay dividends, the only difference between state and private is that the private school is completely self-reliant, and cannot go to the government for a bail-out or to fix its roof, it has to plan for everything itself. The school has to attract pupils, nobody will go there if it is not providing a high-quality service, unlike state schools, where children are frequently allocated a particular school simply because all of the other (high-quality) options are over-subscribed.

pinkshoes

I don't know where you get the idea that private schools are businesses: they do not make a profit

Well Eton has 1300 pupils and charges around £22k a year

1300 x £22,000 = £28.6 Million

They must have very well paid teachers and expensive text books!!

meester

pinkshoes wrote: »

Well Eton has 1300 pupils and charges around £22k a year

1300 x £22,000 = £28.6 Million

They must have very well paid teachers and expensive text books!!

Somehow I think that there is more to running a boarding school, including all facilities, food, accommodation, and maintaining ancient buildings than just paying for teachers and textbooks.

It costs over £30,000/year to keep EACH prisoner in prison (http://www.sps.gov.uk/default.aspx?documentid=B08BF1B6-292B-4B39-B850-0EE5A87924BD), I suppose they must be businesses too. :rolleyes:

jem16

meester wrote: »

Why the unnecessary rudeness and inverse snobbery?

Whilst I disagree on taking your children out of school in term time for a holiday, I have to agree on this.

There is nothing snobbish or less intelligent about choosing to send your child to an independent school, especially when the local state comprehensive is less than suitable in terms of education.

Well Eton has 1300 pupils and charges around £22k a year

1300 x £22,000 = £28.6 Million

They must have very well paid teachers and expensive text books!!

So you are saying that this is all a school requires?

That's like saying that all you need to run a car is petrol.

hobo28

Personally I've never seen the logic in the argument that parents cannot take their children on a holiday during term time.

The argument trotted out all the time is that ever day missed is detrimental to the child's education. Well if that holds true, and they were truly SO concerned, why do they have inset days during term times? Surely the logical time to have them is when the kids are on holidays!?!?! Also, what about all the swapping that seems to go on nowadays in schools?? The 2 schools my kids go to here seem to forever be swapping teachers/teaching assistants and supply teachers around. There's always a reason why teacher A is off or unavailable to teach. Again, more training, time off, marking time etc. etc.

The previous school my kids went to, the headmaster was much more enlightened. His attitude was that as long as your overall attendance was good then he had no problems. He only bothered about those families who had poor attendance records.

I think at the end of the day thats what its all about. There are many families out there who simply don't care about their child's education and unfortunately the govt are all too politically correct and/or cowardly to deal with them individually so tar all parents with the same brush. Typical of this government. Target the law abiding citizen's cos its easier than the one's who don't give a toss.

Wow hadnt realised but what a rant!

Dead_Eye_Jones

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???

It would have been my worst nightmare to have been taken out of school as a child. Perhaps not such a prob at 5, but as an older kid I would have hated it. You will always miss important stuff and catching up can be a strain. Sometimes you miss understanding a whole topic which in turn holds you back later.

Its utterly weird how some parents are the first to criticise school failures yet dont think twice about things like this. Get ya priorities straight!



edit: lol at the above poster. "marking time" rofl. You dont know many teachers do you? Marking time = school holidays. Its amazing to think some people actually belive teachers get weeks and weeks off over holidays. This summer, my teacher misses got a whole 2 week to herself. Whats that 10 days? Easter is the worst with course work, Christmas aint great either. She's lucky to even get the 20 days the rest of us have, add in the 100hrs a week she works. And you wonder why the government have trouble staffing?! You have to be a nutter to be a teacher. Just like my misses !

"marking time" - welcome to the real world!

meester

jem16 wrote: »

Whilst I disagree on taking your children out of school in term time for a holiday, I have to agree on this.

There is nothing snobbish or less intelligent about choosing to send your child to an independent school, especially when the local state comprehensive is less than suitable in terms of education.

i have no idea why people are so quick to attack people sending their kids to private school.

I don't see anyone posting replies to people asking for cheap LCD TVs advising them to spend their money on a good book or an Open University course instead.

justmarried06

Unfortunately state v private education is always going to be an emotive subject as has been illustrated by some of the previous posts on this thread.

As jem16 has said, I see nothing wrong with choosing a private education for your children and that is a person's/couple's right as a parent/s.

However, I do not agree with taking children out of school during term time. As it is your choice to opt for a private education, so it is your choice to have children who need an education in the first place. Part of the 'package' as it were of having children is the fact that once they have started school then holidays get more expensive as the travel industry loads their prices in the known holiday periods.

I'm the daughter of a teacher (prob why I'm not one!!!! hehe) and we only had non term time family holidays even though my father was a fireman at the time and that could have been used as 'exceptional circumstances' for us, but not my Mum as teachers don't really get the option of this absence - he's now a school caretaker and even though my Mum has moved out of the teaching profession they are still restricted to non term time holidays now!!