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

arthur_dent_2

A child when on holiday, will learn far more about the world around them than one week in school.

Becles

something_girl wrote: »

I've never actually considered taking my children out of school for holidays, they get set holidays and plenty of them, so I just obviously work around that. It wouldn't occur to me to be taking them out at other times, as I would never want their leaning to suffer. We used to take our holidays in May when the kids were under school age, surely you just adjust to life patterns. Maybe it's just me.

To be fair I thought like that when I was a single self employed parent and could take holidays whenever I liked.

Then I married a man who works in a job where many people are parents and demand for school summer holiday leave is so high that it cannot be granted to everyone.

This year he wasn't lucky enough to get any time off in the school summer holidays, but he did manage to get May week, so I took them out of school for the week before May week and we had a fortnight in Turkey.

This was the week after SATS and according to the teacher they were having a "de-stress week", so they did a lot of art work, PE and watched films and stuff.

In Turkey they learned all about Muslim culture, ate Turkish food, saw turtles living in their natural habitat, went to a protected area of natural beauty, paraglided off a 6500 ft mountain, learned all about the Lycian people, bartered in a market and generally spent time together as a family.

I think they got a hell of a lot more out of that, compared to "de-stressing" at school.

andyrules

gregg1 wrote: »

Almost_Redundant wrote: »

I think if you present your case to the school as well as you have done on here, you won't have a problem getting the time.

We took our son on an out of season trip of a lifetime to Africa for three weeks. The school was against it but ultimately could do nothing about it. My son gained far more in those three weeks than he would have done had he stayed at school discussing the latest fashions, hairstyles, pop bands etc.!!

If the councils are that bothered about kids missing out on education they should bring teachers in for a couple of weeks during the long summer holiday to help the kids that have missed out to catch up - after all they are still getting paid.[/quote]


here we go again - yet another teacher bashing thread in the making - boring, boring, boring.

So let's get the teachers in over the holidays. Given that most will be in school for much of the final week anyway, when do you think they get their holidays? Term time?:rolleyes:

arthur_dent_2

andyrules wrote: »

gregg1 wrote: »

So let's get the teachers in over the holidays. Given that most will be in school for much of the final week anyway, when do you think they get their holidays? Term time?:rolleyes:

That isn't strictly true, back in the days when my mother was a teacher she only used to get paid when she worked, so her salary of x amount was more per payment but difficult to budget. Later this was changed so that they still got x mount but it was paid as a steady salary.

misty

arthur_dent wrote: »

A child when on holiday, will learn far more about the world around them than one week in school.

That rather depens on where they go and what they do. If they get put in a holiday club for a week, they are going to learn far less than if they are enjoying and learning about another culture.

seven-day-weekend

Here we go again.

I think the vast majority of these 'educational' holidays involve lying on a beach in Marbella.

If you're going to take the kids out of school, at least be honest and admit it's just so you can get the cheap holiday.

I do appreciate there are some families who would not be able to have any sort of holiday together unless they went in term time, and that I think is the only reason for taking the children out. I don't object to it for educational reasons, but just to set an example to children that they can't always do what they want when they want and that they have to honour commitments etc).

That's me done.

onlyroz

I think that parents who take their children out of school just so they can get a cheap holiday are irresponsible, especially if it's done at a critical time (e.g. beginning of term, or close to exam time). I heard of one parent who asked the school to reschedule the GCSE English exams (which are on the same day for each child nationally) because their child would be on holiday in France.

andyrules

arthur_dent wrote: »

andyrules wrote: »

That isn't strictly true, back in the days when my mother was a teacher she only used to get paid when she worked, so her salary of x amount was more per payment but difficult to budget. Later this was changed so that they still got x mount but it was paid as a steady salary.

I can't see what that has to do with my post?

gregg1

arthur_dent wrote: »

A child when on holiday, will learn far more about the world around them than one week in school.

There is aways someone who rolls out that old chestnut - and it never fails to make me laugh!

gregg1

arthur_dent wrote: »

andyrules wrote: »

That isn't strictly true, back in the days when my mother was a teacher she only used to get paid when she worked, so her salary of x amount was more per payment but difficult to budget. Later this was changed so that they still got x mount but it was paid as a steady salary.

pity the hours aren't as fixed as the salary.