Is It Ok To Damage Education For Holidays?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-29744465
i know the holday firms take the *** but surely education is more imprtanat than a jolly? Would you take your saucepans on holiday in term time?

[Zeuhl]

/Really Zeuhl? They are seriously inflated. /

sorry ummm - to clarify: i understand they are now

i was thinking back about 10 years and wondering if it's got worse as schools rules have hardened

[ummmm]

Ah okay...then I think it has got much worse.

It's my sons GCSE year so I wouldn't dream of letting him have time off but I can't wait until next Sep/Oct when we will have a nice holiday regardless of 6th form/college.

[sherrardk]

The price if holidays out if term time have increased hugely since the new rules came in last September - we went in term time (June) but we can't do it this year as boy #1 is doing his GCSE's.

[ToraToraTora]

the travel companies are using school holiday pricing to subsidise the rest of the year. Rather than fineing the parents for taking the bin lids out of school they should do something about the travel companies taking the hit and miss.

[youngmafbog]

I really dont get why people get in such a 2 and 8 about this.

If you move the holiday dates the fridges running the holiday gaffs will simply up shove up the cost outside school holiday's by a monkey so we all get clobbered.

Plus they would loose the grey holidaymaker who can't stand screaming saucepans around them so that another ton apiece.

[youngmafbog]

//the travel companies are using school holiday pricing to subsidise the rest of the year.//

But are they? Summer is prime time whatever, if you want to go somewhere prime time you pay for it.

Hotels and planes have to be run all year round, I'm sure the companies would love to price it the same all year but who goes in Winter?

[Mamyalynne]

This thread shows the danger of taking your holidays when it is English Exam time. ;-)

[sherrardk]

We didn't get fined but it still would have been cheaper if we had.

[Zeuhl]

Mamya
best answer

LOL

[youngmafbog]

Actually I too was privately educated. Private schools have different holiday periods although we never went abroad.

I just know how to have a laugh and I have had the opportunity to mix with folk from all walks of life and so pick up these things.

Lighten up some of you.

[Old_Geezer]

I think the "can't afford it" excuse is totally bogus. My parents were poorer than most and I was never taken on holiday in term time. School summer holidays were long enough as they were, and a caravan hire for the week in a uk resort was not that expensive once a year.

That pointed out, as folk mention, a week out of school is not going to ruin anyone's education as long as specific vital times are avoided.

[jourdain2]

All our 'holidays' as children were taken in the holidays, mostly it was day trips. My second daughter once had 2 days off (Fri. & Mon.) because her father was running in the Paris half-marathon and she was approaching French GCSE (there is a segment on Paris). She accompanied him, learned a bit about Paris and improved her French. That is, I think, acceptable and the Head agreed.

As a teacher, the complexities involved with children taking time off are, I assure you, huge. The curriculum is broken down into syllabuses; which are broken-down into smaller units; which are broken down into even smaller units; which are broken-down into (you've guessed it!) individual lesson content.

An extreme example (which is one I have personal knowledge of) was a Pakistani girl (12 years old) who had been in the UK for almost 2 years, but whose reading age in English was 7 and a bit - we had instigated intensive tuition since she arrived some 8 mths. previously and got her going. (Her family were fairly recent arrivals, spoke no English and she could manage fine in the community she lived in.)

She did not arrive for my intensive 1-to-1 sessions in September and eventually we discovered that she was back in Pakistan. Her parents had taken her back 'for a holiday' before the end of year and she finally appeared towards the end of October. I immediately tested her reading age and she did not even register on the scale at 5 years old.

This is the sort of thing that makes it a farce. Children must be in school. Sorry if you have to have camping holidays as we had to do. Lessons don't get taught twice!

[gness]

I listened to an interview with a chap from a travel company.....we don't put the prices up during school holidays...he said....we put them down during term time.....☺

Is there evidence that education is damaged by missing the odd week or two for a holiday?

[Prudie]

As a parent and an ex-teacher I think some of you vastly overrate what is lost by missing a week of school. Two I admit might need some catch up but don't for one minute think it would affect final grades.

[sherrardk]

Jourdain, that's one specific example and I expect that child would have gone on an extended holiday to Pakistan regardless of the rules.

I'm an ex-secondary teacher and I honestly believe that for a student with good attendance who is achieving their potential (regardless of how low or high that might be) should be allowed time off to go on a family holiday, a holiday that they might not go on otherwise - childhood is short and memories are precious. I have worked with a number of teachers who seem to have a sour grapes attitude towards term time holidays.

[pixie373]

Travelling is always educational- wherever you go. It shouldn't be discouraged.

[factor-fiction]

Has anyone mentioned the added burden to teachers. I am sometimes expected to prepare additional notes and work for the students who miss the learning from the lessons because they're on a beach somewhere, and then i need to help them catch up when they get back so they don't slow down subsequent lessons by saying "don't get it...."

[factor-fiction]

Teachers have to meet targets though in terms of levels of progress and GCSE grades. There may be benefits of travel to the students but these are not measured

[pixie373]

My daughter is at Thorpe Park today with her school. They can't be too worried about them missing lessons. When it suits them.

[pixie373]

Fair enough, factor. Parents aren't only concerned with what's"measured" though.