Taking children out of school

Well I feel equally sorry for those who cannot afford the massive hike in prices during school holidays. Those parents who get 4 weeks holiday a year and often have to take them apart. My DS and DDiL have recently just lost their much longed for, October half term holiday with their 3 children and probably won’t get their money back until January at the earliest. Looking at the price of holidays and the fact that the remaining tour operators have hiked their prices even higher I doubt they will afford a family holiday ever again.

But I suppose that would make a few people very happy.

My DGS did not have a regular teacher for the entire year last year (year 4) So many temps and supplies that they didn’t even get to know the children’s names never mind play catch up with anyone who had missed a week.

Personally , I think it depends on the child, the age of the child and what important events are going on in their school life.

I am a big believer in taking family holidays and in my case my husband worked for an organisation for some years where holiday time was mandated and not a choice. So it was inevitable that at some stage we would holiday in term time.

I think there is a huge benefit to foreign travel , learning about other cultures first hand and a lot of things like maths etc can be incorporated if the parent so chooses.

So barring exam times, mock exams etc I would definitely take my children out of school

The rationale that is often given is how much it inconveniences teachers to have a child miss time but no one says anything about the days the school chooses not to operate like inset days . My granddaughters school even saves them up and shuts the school for a block week for these - that seems ok for their education :-)

I think your example is very different Jura and I can see how that seems a different case.

I get to feel very cross when kids are taken on holiday in term time They get so many holiday weeks to then add on more is really bad mannered and a dreadful influence in rule breaking for the kids themselves
I understand that it costs more to go in the holiday time well if you can afford to go abroad, cost that in or holiday somewhere a bit cheaper
It’s disrespectful to the teachers it’s like putting your finger up at authority and what a lesson to teach the children

Yes, so do I.

Feel really sorry for the kids too, if they have special needs.
People I know here had a 5 year old start school with no French at all- a teacher was drafting in, at huge cost to community, to help him acquire sufficient French to cope- and they then took child out of school for a 3 month trip to NZ. Now back to square one- and community expected to pay all over again for very expensive support.