School Holidays

[Sunnie]

Illegal to take holidays whenever you want? I thought this was a free country?

[Sunnie]

Got to go. Got kids to think of. Rewarding.

[THECORBYLOON]

I'm on the 'phone at the mo telling the bus company to get a bus to leave its regular route so it can pick me up outside ma house....

[Oneeyedvic]

"Oneeyedvic You decide not to have children then it is your problem." Not sure why you say this - I have two step children

"I dont have any sympathy for people like you who interfer with family matters." -ah only other parents can reply - may I suggest that you don't 'ask a question' in news but in parenting then. (and are only people who have been victims allowed to talk about crime & punishment?)

"Children are not like cars either." congratulations on pointing this out.

"You are selfish for not caring." I do care, and that is why I say that children should be kept at school and not encouraged to abscond / play traunt.

"Money obviously does not matter to you." Am I meant to be glad that money means more to you than your children's education?

[spacechimp]

Nicely put oneeyedvic.

[Drusilla1S]

When I taught I never minded children being taken on holiday whenever the parents chose to do so, particularly if they were going somewhere interesting. I remember kidding one child she could only go on holiday during term time if I could go with her. Bless her heart, she did ask her Mum and we had a good laugh about it.

However, I always refused to set or mark special holiday homework and that upset some parents, which baffled me slightly.

[bernardo]

It is compulsory for parents to ensure that their children go to school, and they are not allowed to bunk off just because holidays are cheaper during term-time. If yoiu are a parent with school-age children, then you have the responsibility to have your holidays during school holidays. If you can't afford holidays during school holiday times, then don't go on holiday.

[spacechimp]

Or have a holiday half as often, assuming a holiday in term time is 50% cheaper.

[randomsasha]

It's never been brought up as a major problem before, that children go on holiday during term time. I worked in a school for 2 years, and there was never a major problem with having to catch up. Nearly all parents ask in advance for the work that would be done in class, so that it can be done for them returning. Children going on holiday during term time has been going on since I was at school, and I've never seen anyone complain about it, until a couple of years ago. Why has it became such a big issue now, when nothing has changed from then? It's not as if there is half a class away on holiday at the same time.

I also agree with the point that even with a years notice there's no guarantee that parents are going to be able to take there holidays during term time.

[gary baldy]

General misconception alert!
"Its only missing a couple of weeks - they can catch up"
Wrong!
Since the introduction of the National curriculum the school year is very structured and a certain topic can be covered in a couple of weeks. If a child misses two weeks of school they could miss an entire topic and when it comes to exams they will have no idea what to do. There is too much pressure on teachers to help the kids 'catch up' with individual tuition.
A whole topic worth of missing knowledge could be the difference between a pass and a fail and could effect not only their school career but also their future career.
Of course if you think a couple of weeks in majorca is more important then take it away.....!

[noxlumos]

And there is where I have a massive problem with schools generally. One of the main reasons I withdrew my kids from school was SATS tests.There is no way I am either then or now willing to inflict the kind of stress that I saw being placed on children of a very young age, with the end result of them being labelled sucesses and failures at 7 years old. No wonder our society is so monumentally mucked up.School should be about learning and knowledge and the creation of decent human beings not passing tests and not being able to go on holiday in case you can't.

[spacechimp]

I don't remember finding KS1 SATs, KS2 SATs, or even KS3 SATs stressful at all. It's good to have an indication of how well children are performing across the country.

[laurence2]

sunnie, i'm with you on this, i won't be dictated to by this goverment to when i take my kids out of school, i'm of to the u.s.a in september with or without the schools permission, they should concentrate on getting prices down in the 6 weeks holidays.

Another point i,m a shift worker like thousands of others and my 2 weeks summer leave is rostered in september. the so-called 6 week period is fully booked with other drivers, i feel the goverment have slip up with regards to shift workers.

Besides that Why should i pay �600 more for the same holiday, they can Fine me if they like it won't bother me and seeing september is the start of the school term will not effect my boys schooling

[spacechimp]

So Laurence2, you're saying you won't obey the law...? I think there's a word for your sort, criminal.

[laurence2]

space, if that makes me a criminal fine, i'll sleep well tonight

[laurence2]

oneeyedvic, i don't no if you drive a car, but if you do i'll bet anything says you gone above the speed limit at some point which in turn makes you a law breaker, i will go further and say anyone{me included} has gone above the speed limit, so now with my view on the school holidays that now makes me a serial criminal?

[silly moo]

Why can't you just do what I always did and not go on expensive holidays overseas?
We camped about 3 times per year in the Uk.
We also took 3 capming holidays in France over a 5 year period.
First ever proper holiday was when my children were 15 & 16 yrs old. (they are now 26 & 27 so it's not that many years ago.
The children only ever had 1 week off school - the last few days of the summer term.

[Oneeyedvic]

lawrence2 - yes I do drive, and yes I have / do speed. That said - I do it, knowing what the penalties are for breaking the law - and if I get caught and fined / points / imprisoned (never go at that speed) etc, I don't come on answerbank saying how unfair life is and how I should have a right to do something which is against the law.

[andy-hughes]

Interesting debate - I have had a vested interest in the argument because my wife was a Head Teacher, so we never had the choice of taking holidays in school time, so we paid up and accepted it.

The thrust of the debate so far seems to assume that all parents may take their children out for two weeks of the summer term. My wife was Deputy Head in an inner-city school with a majority of Muslim pupils, and their parents thought nothing of taking the children out of school for four, five, even six months at a time - maybe this is one of the reasons why the Government are making a stand.

And just to pick up on spacechimp's point about SATS - they are either baffling or stressful for a lot of children, and they prove nothing useful at all. OK, so your child's school is performing 'poorly' compared to a school five hundred miles away - and you can do what exactly?

The same argument applies with police forces. When our house was burgled - we live in Staffordshire - I asked if the Devon Constabulary could investigate please, as their 'lcear-up' rate was higher than our own county force.

There is only one place for a target, that's on a shooting range.

Continuity of education is important - but, and let's not forget this - most schools have, and use discretionary powers based on parents' ability to schedule holidays outside term times - as laurence 2 pointed out.

Education is a hugely emmotive subject because we all have an opinion, because we;ve all been to school. It always has, and always will be a political points-scorer for successive governments - and that is the basis of this policy.

[spacechimp]

What do you mean they prove nothing at all? They show how good children are at taking tests / how cognotively intelligent children are.

[spacechimp]

The inability to spell cognitive does not prevent me from being cognitively intelligent