Ok it's just a moan, but really... school holidays

scaldyflash

Carmina_Piranha wrote: »

inlaws were talking about abroad, and their opinion is that a family who can't afford abroad during school hols should go camping closer to home in school hols instead.

as i said it's not my personal opinion, i've never been abroad in term time so i don't know if you're more likely to encounter badly behaved children then.

personally i think that having us on holiday with them meant they were occupied by their grandchildren, and because nobody behaved worse than the grandchildren nobody seemed naughty :rotfl:

how long did you go to butlins for? we go on the day the kids break up, a 3 night break costs around £125 through the sun holiday promotion.

We got 5 days for £75 in a silver plus chalet (self catering) But I have to say that we won't be going again because I was disgusted by the antics of a lot of both parents and children (mostly adults) on two occasions I saw parents telling their child to wee in the pool instead of getting out. I seen children as young as about three being left on their own outside while their parents got smashed in the bar, children being slapped and sworn at by drunken mums and dads.

I realise that these things happen everywhere and all the time but I don't want to be in a position again where I and or my Wife and children have to see it. Maybe we just went there on a particularly bad week, indeed it seemed to me that we accidentally booked a week when there was a convention for the protection of chavism taking place :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Carmina_Piranha_3

lol! it does happen everywhere i think, well all holiday camps that have a bar open all day. plenty of nice people there who've chosen it for the range of activities for their kids, but it's the badly behaved people you notice. we're saying similar things on the pontins thread.

we had a terrible time at haven prestatyn a couple of years ago and vowed never to go back, but somebody else told us we chose a bad week and that the end of august tends to attract the sort of people we would rather avoid.

i sound like such a snob but i'm not. we're common as muck and live on a midlands council estate

Spendless

Glad this topic has been brought back up cos I thought of someone else's circs. My friend's brother had a terminal illness, his life could be prolonged but not saved. He was only well enough to go away at certain times (eg when he wasn' having treatment and had responded well to treatment) and wished to take a last holiday with his family, which he did.

If his 5yo daughter had been at a school which refused all term-time hols would his have been refused too?

Smashing

Spendless wrote: »

Glad this topic has been brought back up cos I thought of someone else's circs. My friend's brother had a terminal illness, his life could be prolonged but not saved. He was only well enough to go away at certain times (eg when he wasn' having treatment and had responded well to treatment) and wished to take a last holiday with his family, which he did.

If his 5yo daughter had been at a school which refused all term-time hols would his have been refused too?

No. These are clearly exceptional circumstances, not just a parent deciding to take a holiday out of term time because it's cheaper.

Carmina_Piranha_3

somebody told me they can justify their child having a couple of weeks off to go to florida because they had chicken pox when they were two which means they won't be taking time off school for it :rotfl:

spendless i have tended to be against term time holidays for my children in the past, but as spud's got older i've relaxed a bit. he had a half day in year 6 and a whole day off last week . i'm a bad mum :eek:

for exceptional circumstances i would do it, and certainly would if a family member was ill.

MonkeySaving?

Education is the pathway to work, no? In that case, 9-5, 5 days a week for children with 28 days holiday per year to be taken at any time except during and perhaps 6 weeks before exams.

Spendless

28 days monkeysaving that's generous;) including bank holidays or not?

I currently have a teenage Canadian houseguest. We were talking about school hols. He finished school June 24, goes back Sept 2. He's then at school till xmas when he gets 2 weeks off, has a week Easter-ish (spring break) and a long w/end in May. He doesn't get the half term weeks we do. What was the reason our school hols were set up this way. Anyone know??

MonkeySaving?

Spendless wrote: »

28 days monkeysaving that's generous;) including bank holidays or not?

Excluding

anonymousie

scaldyflash wrote: »

We got 5 days for £75 in a silver plus chalet (self catering) But I have to say that we won't be going again because I was disgusted by the antics of a lot of both parents and children (mostly adults) on two occasions I saw parents telling their child to wee in the pool instead of getting out. I seen children as young as about three being left on their own outside while their parents got smashed in the bar, children being slapped and sworn at by drunken mums and dads.

I realise that these things happen everywhere and all the time but I don't want to be in a position again where I and or my Wife and children have to see it. Maybe we just went there on a particularly bad week, indeed it seemed to me that we accidentally booked a week when there was a convention for the protection of chavism taking place :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

:rotfl:

my parents have a caravanat butlins (no I don't know why really-actually I do my BIL family re near by...). THe only time would go againis during the ester holidays when all the butlins accomm is used by "spring harvest" for a week thn some form ofhuge pentecostalist gathering. Polite, pleasant prople (esp teens) havinga great time is a good place to be!They change the pool times too, to something a bit more "user friendly" ie it is open in theevenings too.

blue_sushi_cat

"I took mine out of school for a w/end break to Center parcs recently. My reason was my husband has been seriously ill (diagnosed with cancer) and after his surgery, when he was on the road to recovery, I felt the family needed a break due to the stress we've recently been under. When I mentioned it to my daughter's head, she said she could completely understand. I would very much hope that a teacher put in the same position as we hve been, would be able to go away too."

No. I was in that position and I wasn't. As for your second example, in exceptional circumstances schools are usually understanding - it's that we have a steady stream of children off from various classes throughout the year reaching it's peak now. I teach secondary and in my form class alone there will be four children off in the last week of term - average that across school and that's 150 children who will miss 2 days teaching, school trip, sports day and end of term presentations. And while this might not be high on some people's priority list they are an important part of the school ethos and community.

I'm off to Scotland, camping