School Holiday Fines

tlise · 4 November 2015 at 8:14PM

Our holiday days used to be the last week of term. Infants watch dvd's, Secondary do compulsary activity days, where they either do things in school or go on trips to Alton Towers, waterparks etc. Where is the education in that? Where is the education in day trips at random points through the year? Or collapsed timetable days, for random events, like my youngest childs keep fit day this week.
I am sorry that my child doesn't truant, other than the 5 days off a year, was only ever off for illness and then rarely. Only got A's in most of her exams (apart from drama which she isn't one for being in the spotlight and B in art, the art teacher hated her) my youngest son is now in secondary and has been going on holiday every year since 1 year old. He is only in top groups in everything. My eldest two didn't do so well, no. They hated school, made no effort yet have gone onto better things since they left.
I am also sorry for those of you who had to stay with relatives rather than go on boring holidays while the parent would have had to drag you around. Luckily for my children, we never had boring holidays, ours were always centralised around the children. Pretty much the idea of a family holiday. I suppose it was much better than leaving several under 10s together on their own as we have no family/friends to leave them with. Obviously everyone else in the world has a support network. My eldest daughter is now doing A levels, youngest daughter is in infant school, yet its only my youngest son's school that will cause any problems should we decide to chance it again.
After all as every parent knows. Its much more fun going on holiday to the seaside when you are an adult rather than a child. No education or life experience can possibly be gained from going when you are a child. And seeing as the fact that their children are unlikely to be able to have the fun my own did, they might as well start being mini adults and have all sorts of fun stopped now. After all with continual talk about longer school days, and then having to do homework when they get in, heaven forbid our children should have time to run, play and enjoy being children. And what about parents who cannot get time off in holiday time? If all parents had their time in school holidays time there would be a lot of closed businesses. Why do adults have time off from work if children don't need it?
Yes every child is different. In which case I cannot see why a case by case scheme couldn't be adhered to. If your child has below a certain amount of time then no, they would be refused. They could even have work packs to do so they don't miss much. Although if parents picked their times, they could do it on slower weeks anyway. Perhaps it would encourage those reluctant to go to school, knowing there was a reward at the end of it. Yes education might be the law, doesn't mean that every child appreciates it until its too late.

tlise · 4 November 2015 at 8:20PM

Just out of interest as well, I have a friend who homeschools her children. Follows the rules, yet her children do not have to have to have the same amount of hours as schools do. As long as they are getting the full education (double checked on the website). Should it not be the same for all?

johnphastie · 4 November 2015 at 9:33PM

Whether it is or isn't right to take your child on holiday, during term time, I think we are missing the point.
Why are holiday firms allowed to charge ridiculous amounts, during holiday time ?

Tigsteroonie · 4 November 2015 at 9:37PM

bylromarha wrote: »

Have I missed any?

You missed mine!

- Special Needs schools are annoyingly subject to the same rules, but a fortnight's holiday will make very little difference to our son's inability to pass any GCSE's later in his life.

ACE1 · 4 November 2015 at 11:03PM

I write as a school governor. I and all my fellow governors are taken to task if school attendance falls below certain levels. If it does, it's reflected in the OFSTED report which is taken into account by parents selecting schools. If they want a school with a good OFSTED rating then part of the deal is that they abide by the rules - including those related to attendance.

johnwnormington · 4 November 2015 at 11:13PM

A couple of suggestions. If you get fined take the issue up with the Head, they don't like confrontation with the "good parents". Non cooperation is a good place to start. If they lobby Ministers to change the rules, they might listen to them..
I used to be an Attendance Officer, and did see both sides of the argument. Some hard working parents could only afford to take time off in term time, because of the cost. Some parents did abuse it, though.
I understand that you can only get fined if you take off 5 days holiday, you will need to check this. If that is a the case you can take the 4 days in a broken week, ie, training days and Bank holidays.
Hope this is useful.

phillw · 5 November 2015 at 1:17AM

johnphastie wrote: »

Why are holiday firms allowed to charge ridiculous amounts, during holiday time ?

Because there aren't enough spaces for everyone to go on holiday where they want to, when they want to. If all holidays were £1 then still not everybody would be able to go. The only solution is to make sure that not all children are on holiday at the same time. Although this can cause problems for people with more than one child if they go to different schools.

It would be very difficult to introduce a law that says you can't increase the price of products when there was increased demand, it goes against the ideas of the western economy. I'm sure you'd be happy if you bought something cheap and sold it on ebay for a ridiculous profit because two people kept bidding.

Without free pricing of goods then you can't have money saving.

jackieblack · 5 November 2015 at 7:48AM

johnphastie wrote: »

Whether it is or isn't right to take your child on holiday, during term time, I think we are missing the point.
Why are holiday firms allowed to charge ridiculous amounts, during holiday time ?

"Allowed"?
1. Supply and Demand - a basic economic principle
2. Holiday companies say they don't increase prices during peak times, they reduce prices during off peak periods

ViolaLass · 5 November 2015 at 8:27AM

johnphastie wrote: »

Why are holiday firms allowed to charge ridiculous amounts, during holiday time ?

No one's forcing you to go.

tonyE1951 · 5 November 2015 at 9:09AM

The recent case thrown out by magistrates on the Isle of Wright is being appealed by the LEA - the issue is what constitues "regular" attendance so they are seeking a ruling.
When I was a governor anything below 95% triggered an intervention and anything below 90% became a serious case. If there is to be a definative ruling it needs to be looked at from the other way around - i.e. a percentage of unauthorised absence as this will take children with long term medical issues out of the equation.
Remember also that when children return the class teacher has to divert their attention away from the rest of the class to help the absentees catch up. As a parent I have no problem when such children have been sick but taking children out of school for a holiday is a willful act so why should the teaching time to the rest of the class be diluted? Perhaps the answer is for children returning from an unauthorised absence should have after school sessions to help them to catch up - in our local secondary school pupils are expected to make up for any lost time after school (that includes truants and holiday makers).

School Holiday Fines

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