Children holidaying during term time.

M0nica

PamelaJ1 Thats interesting. your experience taught you how to mke friends, my similar experience, taught me how to get on with people and make lots of acquaintances, but not to make friends because in 6 months time you will move on and in a period long before all electronic communication, parting from friends was painful. You would probably not see or hear from them again, so best not to have them.

Monica didn’t you stop moving? I’ve been living in this area for 40years, so I have quite a few friends now that I’ve know for ages.
I still keep on touch with old friends too, we were lucky, we were friends with others who had the same sort of life so we became like families. Still have contact with some.

I took my daughter out of school for 7 weeks. E had the chance of a lifetime. We went with the Head mistress' blessing, plus an exercise book for my daughter to write a diary and English & Maths workbooks to do a lesson every day. On return, my daughter gave a talk to her class about her experiences. Once in a lifetime opportunity.

Rules are rules and I think it sends the wrong message to children that rules can be broken if you don't want to follow them.. If it is deemed absolutely necessary the child should understand its a privilege not an entitlement. Sadly it does have an impact on children not only the child holidaying but their classmates too.
My adult children remember spending time with us during school holidays (We both worked.) For me it was almost impossible to have more than a week off during school holidays but we had day trips out. Camped in the garden. Did treasure hunts. Nature walks. Picnics in the park. Film nights etc Even sleep overs at Grandma and Grampy's were a treat. Hholiday memories made don't have to be during term time to be happy ones.

I value education as do my AC and GC.

Education does not stop at the school gate.

Every family dynamic is different, not all parents are fortunate enough to be able to have their holidays during school holiday weeks.

All of our GC even those who will be starting reception in September have to have access to a computer (tablet or phone) which is compatible with their school IT system in order to complete homework, spellings, times tables along with course work for the senior school attendees. Lesson plans, and work are also available online. There is no need for any school age child to get behind or miss out on lessons wherever in the world they are in the 21st century.

Holiday expectations seem so high these days. We never went abroad in the 80/90’s when the children were at school. A second hand caravan or sharing the cost of a rental property with friends was all we could afford. Children never missed school. I came from a family who valued education and we were taught that we were very privileged to be able to access education after aged 14. Both my mum and dad had had to start work at 14. How time change.

Agree. I think it's selfish and thoughtless Teaching is tough enough without these complications.

And yes, there would be no holiday accommodation if owners had to charge the same all year round!

I suppose NanaTuesday - those of us who were serious about home-education were always educating- not just during "term time".

We had no "term time" so basically, wherever we were, every day was a learning opportunity.

Any reasons why my grandson being off school wasn't considered disruptive?

As a school teacher I would assuredly say that children should never be taken out of school during term time just for a holiday, unless the parents really have no possiblity of going away during any of the school holidays.

Having children out of class for even a week causes a disrubtion mainly when they come back again and every single teacher who has that class has to explain to the holiday makers what the rest of the class learned while they were away.

When I was a child child, butren were not taken out of school for holidays during term time. Of course, parents only had a fortnight's summer holidays then, and few left the country bu t the main reason for term time being term time and holidays holidays was the schooling was considered far more important than it is today, where the attitude seems to be that having a good time away from home is far more benificial to the child and the family as such, as everyone doing their work as well as possible - and children¨s work is after all their schooling.

My husband also worked abroad for much of the time and it was very difficult to find a date in the school holidays that we could safely book in advance.
In the end we bought a small holiday home in this country and used to go there in the holidays whether or not my husband was around. Running costs over the years have been less than many foreign holidays would have been (we have four children) and my children are now enjoying beach holidays with their own families.
I would never have taken a holiday in term-time. In fact my children used to complain that they had to be virtually unconcious to avoid being sent to school!

Took mine out each January for family ski trip. Could not have afforded it any other time. Not ideal, but they have fond and lasting memories of those trips with their mum. Didn’t harm their prospects. Good degrees, now good jobs.

Germanshepherdsmum

The ones which get you through exams tend to be.

Quite.

Joseann

^Private school also have longer holidays, so wealthier parents benefit from this 'perk' too^.
In my experience, parents paying over £20k a year for school fees aren't desperately looking for perks when it comes to booking holidays.

May family spend every single spare penny on their daughter's education, so yes is always looking for bargains despite paying £20k+ a year for my granddaughters education. People do not necessarily need to be wealthy to afford private education, they just have other priorities, and save on everything else.

My DH had holidays allocated to him, no choice. 1st allocation say in May, next year middle, late May. And on it went. Only way it could be changed was if a colleague of equal status was willing to swop. So, we did have children on holiday outwith term times like it or not. Don't know about the rules in Wales but Scotland has no financial penalties for taking children out of school for holidays.

Sago We have booked such a holiday in Wales for summer next year - under pressure ftom my adult children who are delighted.

A few years ago we had a family holiday in one of my favourite places in Italy... I would have been happy with a weekend in Wales and then go to Italy - however my children want to take their children on holiday where I went as a girl and where we later took them.

The fairly basic (but still clean and tidy) Welsh holiday cottages are much more expensive than the luxury villa with 20 metre private pool. More than twice as much - nearly 3 times actually - for the same week in August.
I think this is why so many choose to go abroad. In my day, taking 5 children abroad was out of our budget. We took them to Wales or to visit friends and family.

We were lucky to have had a network of friends across the UK where we could go - and they came to us. Often this involved camping in gardens.

We had to on occasion take our AC out of school to holiday. We struggled to co-ordinate our own leave together due to hubby's inflexible occupation. It was very rare, but yes we did do it. We'd tag a couple of days onto the end or the start of term. Our AC's are physicians now. Admittedly our school was understanding. It was a state school. I think the reasons can so vary. I've heard of children being punished though. A friend's daughter was told she couldn't attend the end of school prom, after going to the USA for her cousin's wedding - aunt & uncle live in the USA. So fined by the council and then punished by the school. Seemed very harsh

I taught for 36 years and never went on holiday out of school holidays! Always had to pay full price !!!!
I don’t know of any teachers who took time off to go on holiday unless they took unpaid leave 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

The irony is that, depending on location, the off-peak times can cost the provider more than the high season weeks. Our out of season self-catering guests expected the central heating, additional logs too, and they stayed in more so used more electricity. Even the tumble driers got used more with wet clothes! So, in a way, the guests paying the higher prices (double) in summer were actually subsidising the others.
We wouldn't have had a business if we had charged the lower rate for the properties all year round.

Ooh noooo!
Not Disneyland.

It's only allowed during term time if it's in a tent.

Ah yes the value of a holiday in Disneyland10 out of 10. The value of education 0 out of 10.
I despair of this country. I watched children in India coming out of one room huts with their sparkling clean clothes and their eagerness to learn and then I look at the scruffy children arriving at my local school if their parents haven’t dropped them off parking on double yellow lines to do so . It’s free so it’s rubbish isn’t it….

Both my parents were headteachers. No chance of holidays in term time but the second day of our holiday we boarded a ferry to France and either did a Home Swap (very unusual in the 60,s) or camped. Answering the question of what do you learn, I passed more time with my parents than I ever did at home, spoke fluent fairly French by the time I went to senior school and experienced a totally different culture. I used my French in 2 different jobs afterwards.

A lot of fuss over absolutely nothing. Individual decision. And as long as it does not detrimentally affect others..

Companies rely on higher prices at peak times - if prices weren’t higher then, they would increase during off-peak times.

Well, if the same holiday, with the same facilities is £3000 cheaper during term time, then something is amiss, i reckon.