School Holidays

[Dupnica]

 There is a lot of publicity just now about taking children on holiday during term time. In my opinion if anyone needs a holiday it is the hardworking
 parents of young families.
 When our granddaughter was in infant school we took her to San Stefanos every year,sometimes twice a year. Do I think she suffered from missing
 a few weeks of schooling,not a jot!  She experienced a different culture,she made friends,her daily playmate was the little son of our Greek hosts
 and when she was two and a half she could even speak a few words of Greek.
 She enjoyed the food,her favorites being Pastitsada and Stifado and she loved drizzling her bread with olive oil. Her social skills were developed as she mixed with people of all ages and nationalities. She saw oranges and figs,peppers and melons growing outside in people's gardens. In Corfu town she
 was surrounded by Venetian architecture.I could go on and on.
 Things changed when she went on to junior school,lessons became more important and holidays had to be taken when school broke up.
  Did her education suffer? I don't believe so,she did well in all her exams and is now in her first year at University. I rest my case.

[D@G]

I completely agree. Spending quality time together, on holiday, as a family can do wonders for young 'uns confidence and social skills. My daughter is 4 and I would happily take her out of school if needed, my problem is the wife works in a school too!

The problem is that there will always be people out there that will take their children out of school during important times like GCSE years etc.

[Lesley]

Now there is a debate on Travelmole regarding this - reading it through I can understand that if they changed school holidays or another criteria the only to benefit would be yet again the tour operators as they would just increase what are now the shoulder months so who gains again !!!!! its always going to be price pending demand.......

[Woodman]

Our son will be 5 in July. He started school last September, so now we're 'restricted' to taking him in school holidays.  As I posted last week, we don't want to take him in August when its too hot, so we're travelling in May half term. Don't tell anyone though  , but we are going in the week before hand, so he'll miss 4 days of school.  I don't think his education is going to suffer...!!  Of course, when he's a bit older, we'll have to think about it more and make a much more informed decision.  

[RedroseMax]

Our son will be 5 in July. He started school last September, so now we're 'restricted' to taking him in school holidays.  As I posted last week, we don't want to take him in August when its too hot, so we're travelling in May half term. Don't tell anyone though  , but we are going in the week before hand, so he'll miss 4 days of school.  I don't think his education is going to suffer...!!  Of course, when he's a bit older, we'll have to think about it more and make a much more informed decision.  

If anyone in the system hint that these 4 missed days could be extremely detrimental to his education ask them if the same applies to Teacher inset days,school closures when the teachers think the weather is to inclement for travelling and strikes!

[stressed0506]

As a teacher of 39 years experience I can fully endorse the idea of taking children to visit other countries and cultures. I feel wholeheatedly that during the last week of the summer term in particular it seems like a good idea to take children out of school and frankly, if I had not been a teacher when my own children were young, I would have taken them out. I think that parents should be given the opportunity to take their children out of school for a fortnight a year if they so desire and if their child has reasonable attendance overall. Most teachers that I know would agree with this.
I do understand that nobody understands the ins and outs of various occupations until they have walked a mile in someone else's shoes... but training days are not the choice of teachers! They were imposed by the government some years ago. Some  training days that I have attended have been useful and helped me to develop as a teacher in many ways. Some have been a complete waste of time, but whether useful or not they are not my choice. I would often much rather have been teaching rather than listening to some half baked idea about the latest idea in teaching.

With regard to inclement weather..... In all of my years of teaching I have had a total of 7 days off school because of the weather! Most of these are in recent years when because of us being on a split site the health and safety "experts" have been out in force and prevented us opening in case some child falls over!
Please don't bash teachers over this ruling ... Look at who you vote for.

[dibully]

Something that is never really mentioned is what if peoples holidays are not in the school holidays where my husband works his holidays are done on a 7 year rota basis this year is the first time in 7 years that his holidays fall in the school holidays (although it doesn't matter to us as our children are grown up)and there is always people panicking trying to swap so they can have the school holidays are they can't go away not everyone can get time off then in the school holidays. This is why my Daughter,Partner and my Grandson are able to come with us to the village this year as it could be  another seven years till it could happen again although fingers crossed it depends on the success of my operation 

[loftyscot]

We take the opposite view and respect the school holidays. So far we've been able to do that, but something might change that in future, you never know.

If I was Head Teacher I would insist that if the kids finished 5 days early, then they must start 5 days later when they come back after the holidays ;-)

[RedroseMax]

As a teacher of 39 years experience I can fully endorse the idea of taking children to visit other countries and cultures. I feel wholeheatedly that during the last week of the summer term in particular it seems like a good idea to take children out of school and frankly, if I had not been a teacher when my own children were young, I would have taken them out. I think that parents should be given the opportunity to take their children out of school for a fortnight a year if they so desire and if their child has reasonable attendance overall. Most teachers that I know would agree with this.
I do understand that nobody understands the ins and outs of various occupations until they have walked a mile in someone else's shoes... but training days are not the choice of teachers! They were imposed by the government some years ago. Some  training days that I have attended have been useful and helped me to develop as a teacher in many ways. Some have been a complete waste of time, but whether useful or not they are not my choice. I would often much rather have been teaching rather than listening to some half baked idea about the latest idea in teaching.

With regard to inclement weather..... In all of my years of teaching I have had a total of 7 days off school because of the weather! Most of these are in recent years when because of us being on a split site the health and safety "experts" have been out in force and prevented us opening in case some child falls over!
Please don't bash teachers over this ruling ... Look at who you vote for.

Thats why I referred to somebody "in the system" opposed to teachers, have two family members who often pull their hair out due to educational decisions made by a third party,who often have no reaching experience whatsoever.

[Gavlah1973]

I dont have a problem with it until kids start high school.
Thats when the hours/days they put in start to count.

Don't think you can also really bring Teacher Training days into it as all kids miss school those days so there is no loss of learning. If you take your child out during classtime then it all carries on without them.

Like I say though..... dont think it's relevant until high school

[Tredegar Boy]

I wouldn't mind the government going on about parents taking their kids out of school if they actually did some learning when there. I'm talking specifically about the first 2 weeks of July before they break for the summer. From my experience, I have a 20 year old and a 16 year old, the first 2 weeks of July are spent preparing for and participating in sports day (often at least 4 times due to the postponments), the school fete and end of year plays for those leaving and going to the next school up. I've had discussions with various teachers and asked them for details of what my children will be missing and they struggle to answer. So we went.

I don't think taking my kids out of school as we have done since 2004, has had any detrimental affect on their schooling. My eldest left school with 8 GCSEs and 3 A levels and is in full-time work and making his way in the world (he wasn't interested in university). The youngest is preparing for his GCSEs this summer and is in higher tier for most of his topics and seems to be in a good postion to do well (according to his teachers). Neither were or are top of their class types and would be the kind of kids the government reckons would suffer by missing school for 2 weeks. I'm yet to be convinced.

 

 

[debra]

Pressure is put on schools by the government for attendance - low attendance can bring an early Ofsted!  I know its tough

[tonyco1]

Politics ... There's the problem...
And the holiday companies rip-off price rises for "captive audiences" who can only go in term time...

[sunshinegirl]

This is a difficult one because if parents were allowed to take children out of school during  term time what would happen if teachers were allowed to do the same thing – the parents would not be happy..so there has to be a rule for both
.
My daughter is a teacher (special needs) in a primary school full time.  My two nieces are teachers one is a science teacher at high school and the other a primary school teacher.  They are not allowed to take time off as and when they want to.  They have to take time during school holidays just like the children do. My niece had to miss her brother in laws wedding which was in Mexico because it was during term time and my daughter also had to miss another very special occasion due to it being in term time as both were refused the time off. They even had to fit their weddings into school holidays which cost a fortune.

Last year we took our grandchildren on holiday and it cost us twice the price as we had to go in school holidays. This problem wouldn’t be so great if the airlines, hotels, theme parks etc didn’t increase their prices during school holidays

[D@G]

This is a difficult one because if parents were allowed to take children out of school during  term time what would happen if teachers were allowed to do the same thing – the parents would not be happy..so there has to be a rule for both
.
My daughter is a teacher (special needs) in a primary school full time.  My two nieces are teachers one is a science teacher at high school and the other a primary school teacher.  They are not allowed to take time off as and when they want to.  They have to take time during school holidays just like the children do. My niece had to miss her brother in laws wedding which was in Mexico because it was during term time and my daughter also had to miss another very special occasion due to it being in term time as both were refused the time off. They even had to fit their weddings into school holidays which cost a fortune.

Last year we took our grandchildren on holiday and it cost us twice the price as we had to go in school holidays. This problem wouldn’t be so great if the airlines, hotels, theme parks etc didn’t increase their prices during school holidays

But teachers get 12 weeks holiday per year so allowing them time off during term time would be ridiculous. (My wife teaches special needs too so I would love her to be able to take extra time off but it's not realistic imo)