Taking the kids on holiday before the end of term? Post Reply

[outnumbered]

Interesting piece here following the news that fines issued to parents for truancy or taking their kids out of school to go on holidays are on the up.

On the holiday question, would you or wouldn't you (do you or don't you!)? It's up for debate in our household and it would be interesting to hear what others think.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/mother ... -some.html

[HikingGirl]

I am not sure why parents would even consider this. In the past people have fought so hard for education for all, not for holidays for all. It sounds attractive but what kind of message are you giving your children?

- School is important, but not when you can save a few pounds?
- School is important, but holiday is more important?
- School is important, but time with your brothers and sisters on holiday is more important? (for all those parents that have children in different schools, and decide to take them all out 3 weeks, rather than the 2 that overlap)

School is important, but not when you are ill. Yes, I get that one. But none of the above seem to hold true to me.

For VERY special occasions I think it is different. Let's say grandpa is turning 100 and all the family from New Zealand are here, and you will be missing 1 day.

But missing a full week of school, just to have cheaper ski-ing?? What kind of values does that convey? Unless you are prepared to do home-schooling for a week and make up for missed classes.

All this is different for nursery schools, pre-schools and reception, which are more about social skills, and I wouldn't worry about those at all.

It's also completely impossible on the teachers. Although, apparently there are now schools in Europe that are trialling random holidays for everyone. So, all kids can just take their X days whenever. Apparently it works.

[schoolgatesmum]

I'm with you Inge. It really annoys me when people do this. And it seems to me that the people who do it at my school (state) are the ones with loads of money anyway! Let's face it, if you can afford a skiing holiday at slightly cheaper prices , you can probably afford a skiing holiday any time. The original reasoning behind fining parents was to get parents to make sure their kids didn't play truant. It seems that it's now being used to fine parents who are actively encouraging their kids to play truant!

[AbbevilleMummy]

I absolutely would if I could.

But then, as a child, I was always pulled out of school to go on holiday so clearly the bad message has been passed down by my parents!

I don't think it does kids any harm to miss a couple of weeks of school per year in order to travel. Travelling is good. It exposes kids to different cultures, new skills etc. I genuinely don't see a problem with it.

I do take the point that it may be difficult for the school to manage and as private schools also come down quite hard on parents taking their kids out to go on holiday, I guess that the disruption complaint must be a genuine one and not just a government initiative.

Also, I don't necessarily agree that people want to do it just to save money. From my perspective, I want to be able to travel whenever and wherever I choose, with weather conditions and work commitments guiding my options, not just kids holidays.

[tooting_mummy]

We are doing it this year although we are 'only' missing the last two days of the summer term.

My partner is Kiwi and (because we can't do the three weeks needed to go to NZ at a decent time of year) we are meeting his parents and brother, SIL and their twins in Koh Samui. However, other than Christmas, there is no overlap between our holidays and my niece and nephew's - their winter holiday literally ends the week before our summer holidays start. They are going out the week before us and are going to take a week off school so we can overlap by a week. If we left when school breaks up we would only see them for a couple of days rather than almost a week that we have planned by leaving on the Saturday before.

I guess everyone has an excuse but I don't see any other solution to our predicament. We don't even save money - if anything, by leaving on a Saturday, our fares are more expensive.

[Wandsworth1]

My Mother is a governor of a Primary school and gets very annoyed (as do all the teaching staff) with parents who take their children out of school during term time for holidays because:

Pupil absences during term time increases absentee rates monitored by Ofsted so if everyone does it then it could severely damage your child's school Ofsted rating (i.e. could mean the difference between good and outstanding)!

Also if you take your child out of valuable classroom teaching time it not only affects them, but deprives the rest of the class too when your child returns from holiday and has to play catch up/requires more teaching attention.

Doesn't seem fair just so that you can enjoy a cheaper holiday!

[Goldhawk]

It just goes to show how meaningless the Ofsted rating is

How does kids being away = poor teaching ?

[MrsAmanda]

My elder son's in Reception year so this is the first time we've had the dilemma.

I completely see why people would take children out of school during term time for a holiday. The cost of some holidays triple during school holidays. My children love Center Parcs and Butlins (don't snigger!) but it's way beyond our reach when not term-time. It's also much more crowded and rowdy with older children.

He will be missing the last three days of term in July. There won't be much 'learning' happening that week and it's an exceptional circumstance.


I do think there should be a bit of give and take. At my son's school, a fellow parent asked to absence her daughter for two days so she could be flower girl at a family wedding. (The wedding's on a Friday, the other end of the country so they needed the Thursday for travelling). It was refused.

I also don't understand why the fine is 'per parent'.

[supergirl]

"Fine per parents"? I think it is to make sure both parents take tge responsability and to make it more expensive.

Before the like of ryanair, easyjet and all the other lowcost way of travelling, going on holidays abroad or not was a treat that people would save for, and new parents knew that as soon as the kids would start school they would have to travel during school holidays at the peak...

Now, everybody feels entitled to their holidays.

A day here or there is debatable but a whole holiday term time is wrong. For each to their own if people who do that wants to send their kids the message that school is less important.... But i do very much care about the disruption it causes to the rest of the class. The teacher has to go over again the stuff learnt. How fair it is on the children and teacher alike?
For me it is showing disrespect.

But each to their own. Im old school so we pay the premium to go when school break or we dont go if we cant afford it.

[schoolgatesmum]

So if it's alright to take your child on holiday in term time is it alright to not bother making sure your child goes to school and letting them play truant? Is one acceptable but the other not acceptable? And the reason that schools are judged according to attendance is that there is a direct correlation between attendance and academic progress.

[AbbevilleMummy]

There is absolutely a difference between a child playing truant and a child not going to school in order to travel with family for whatever reason.

Of course there is. The difference primarily being that an adult is making a rational decision, as opposed to a child just not feeling like going to school.

An adult is able to make a judgement as to the pros and cons of attending school vs a child not really thinking at all, and just not wanting to go.

A child playing truant is probably wandering the streets aimlessly without any supervision.

It is not black and white and the issues that are faced by a school due to truancy, and those due to parents going on holidays need to be separated and currently the statistics don't do this.

[Chocomum]

I really can not believe there are people out there that think 2 weeks out of say a 6 year old's education is going to be catastrophic. Any missed information can very easily be caught up. There are many families that simply can not afford to take their children on holiday in school holidays. It's not just the ski set. It could be the chance to spend quality, fun, relaxed time with both parents that almost never happens when families are at home distracted by daily chores and routines. Also, if you go away in July, August and other peak times, tourist attractions, restaurants, beaches, hotels etc are packed and it can also be way too hot.

Going on holiday is not a 'right', but why should it be the preserve of those that can afford the school holiday rates? As those that can smugly suggest. I have a friend who's a teacher who agrees, so not all teachers think it results in unmanageable chaos.

When children are at key points in their education, which covers most of their secondary education, then of course it is not advisable, but responsible parents with their children's best interests at heart should be trusted to do the right thing.

[schoolgatesmum]

I was being provocative so yes I can see the difference between condoning truancy and going on a family holiday. However they still both amount to the same thing - a child is being told that it's okay to miss school if the parents have decided that's okay. What about taking them out for the day to go to Chessington - would that be okay? Or say getting them to take a couple of days off school to help out at home - would that be okay? How about keeping them at home to look after a younger sibling so a mother can work - would that be okay? You can see what I'm getting at. Where do you draw the line? It's okay to take children out to go on a lovely family holiday (which let's face it is an absolute luxury for some if not even an impossibility) but other reasons aren't okay. One rule for some, another for others?

[AbbevilleMummy]

Isn't that just parenting?

There is definitely one rule for my kids and another rule for the adults in my house.

As I am an adult, I am able to make decisions on what is best for my kids. I don't expect them to necessarily understand why sometimes in one set of circumstances I would do one thing, yet in a different set of circumstances I would do something else.

Life isn't black and white and we need to make judgements and I'm old enough to do that, they are not.

My kids are young enough to accept that, when they are older and they challenge me, like I used to challenge my parents, I will respond in the same way my father used to "whilst you're living under my roof........."!!

[supergirl]

I have fond memories of lovely staycation with my parents because we couldn't afford to go anywhere as it was school holidays and it was too expensive. we had lots of family quality time, my parents were off work so were relaxed and they made sure we would feel on holidays so the usual everyday chores didn't exist. It is do-able to stay put AND have fun

I don't believe that an agreement will be reached anyway. The reality is that there is a law, if you break the law you get a fine. end of.