Children holidaying during term time.

LizzieDrip

You’d be surprised at the number of times I was asked by parents, taking their children out of school for holidays, for me to do the following:

Print ‘worksheets’ for them to take.
Put together a ‘work pack’.
Give them ideas of activities.
Go over any work missed with the child on return.

That’s just a few examples! When I said this wasn’t possible, stating the reasons I posted above, many parents thought I was just being awkward! If parents want bespoke teaching & learning for their children, I suggest they pay a private tutor … maybe using some of the money they’re saved on the holiday

Oh, how very unreasonable of you… NOT!

We took our boys out of primary school two years running for one week each time. On both occasions the week was added on to a half term to give us two weeks in Florida.

We didn't ask for work to be provided while they were away, and didn't request or expect for their teachers to provide additional support on their return.

Was two weeks visiting the theme parks and enjoying the wonderful weather educationally beneficial? Not at all. Did we all have a great time? Absolutely. Do we regret it? No. Did their education suffer as a result? No, as we were certain it wouldn't do.

The Head was aware of the reason for their absence and was perfectly happy to give his permission.

I don't know of any jobs these days where people just put in and are granted two weeks annual leave.

Most jobs have rules about when people can take time, and how much at any one time.

For the attention of the School Bursar."
However. It soon became obvious that the only reason holidaying in school time was an issue was that the local authority could fine headteachers if the attendance figures dropped below a certain level. Without exception all the teachers did not believe that a couple of weeks out would make any difference in the long term learning outcomes of the children. In fact one part time teacher always took her children away the week before exams because, as she says, if they don’t know it now they never will and at least they’ll be relaxed.

I would be interested to know the name of that school.
In forty years of teaching in different schools and authorities I never met a teacher who agreed with that that. Possibly they were more concerned with the short term impact on them in having to spend valuable time teaching children vital components of the long-term curriculum which they had missed, and which prevented them in progressing further until they experienced and learned them.

Wow Lizzie - what a cheek!
I was really thinking - we will be looking at linear number sequences or ^ using the subjunctive form^ or whatever!

Lots more children are home schooled now as well. My 2 granddaughter's included, they do their work online , so can do it anytime. Just took them away for a few days in Devon, it cost £195 for 4 days, it goes up to £950 for the same caravan in May half term

I never asked a teache to do anything to help my children keep up or ctach up in the two years I took them out for an annual holiday.

Having myself missed over a years schooling in various ways due to hospital admissions, travelling between locations and so on and always managed to catch up without any extra involvement by teachers. I just assumed that my children would cope, all they ever missed was a weeks schooling - and they did.

eazyber
I would be interested to know the name of that school.
In forty years of teaching in different schools and authorities I never met a teacher who agreed with that that. Possibly they were more concerned with the short term impact on them in having to spend valuable time teaching children vital components of the long-term curriculum which they had missed, and which prevented them in progressing further until they experienced and learned them.

I’d like to know that too. There certainly wasn’t the stress that OFSTED and league tables caused, but children being absent causes problems for teachers and affects other children.
I’ve never met a parent yet who wasn’t convinced it wouldn’t harm their child but who wasn’t quick to complain if their child’s report was not as expected, and they simply never considered either the teachers or the other children.

My teaching staff weren't overly pleased when I told them we needed to set work for children taking holidays.
However, we found a solution by just sending home the grammar workbook which had clear explanations, then loads of exercises. My staff then initialled every page in the exercise book as "done", but not checked. It kept the parents happy!

mollygo. It was the headmistress, who told me that it wouldn't harm my children if they missed a week and I never complained about poor reports, because she was right and they weren't and there weren't any.

Not to worry M0nica, I obviously haven’t met you, so when I said
^ I’ve never met a parent yet who wasn’t convinced it wouldn’t harm their child but who wasn’t quick to complain if their child’s report was not as expected, and they simply never considered either the teachers or the other children. I don’t know if it could have applied to you.
Head teachers are rarely teachers involved in dealing with the effects of children missing work.

To be fair Mollygo, I actually agree in principle one shouldn't take children out of school for holidays and we would never have done so just to get a cheaper or better holiday, but on several occasions the nature of DH's work made it impossible to holiday during the school summer holidays. One year we had our annual holiday in the Feb/March half term to avoid taking the children out of school, but on 2 occasions, taking children out of school for a week was the only way for us to have a family holiday with DH present.

How do people manage without their ‘annual holiday’ I wonder? Does life depend upon it?

Germanshepherdsmum

How do people manage without their ‘annual holiday’ I wonder? Does life depend upon it?

No idea. We always had to take holidays in school holidays. One part of our family’s holidays are always at home because that’s what they can afford.

Holidays are valuable to families to "re-set", refresh and rebond Even a couple of days. Mental health is improved and the sense of well-being and rejuvenation continues afterwards.
Lots of research supports this - and the benefits start before you even go away - as you anticipate it and feel pleasure and excitement.

I agree with you, NotSpaghetti, and the fact that these holidays are "annual" means that there is a purpose reward for a year's hard slog! A time when families can unwind, enjoy days without routines and stresses, eat favourite foods and play and laugh together.
I felt privileged to provide holidays for families for several years, and watched the dynamics with interest. After a 24 hour settling in period it was a delight to watch the way the family units found a good balance between connecting together and being independent, between being active together and chilling alone. The holiday environment meant that everyone was on neutral territory and everyone had a say in how to spend their day.
The biggest proof in the pudding was that several families returned year on year to repeat the experience!

I was thinking, (to myself!), if the average earn is around £40k, often x by 2 parents, £80,000, then an annual holiday spend of say £4,000 is fairly easy to budget for, isn't it?

GSM I think that every family should have the opportunity to have one week a year all together in each others company, doing things together. It doesn't even need to be other than all together at home.

When, like some families, of which we were one, you have one of the parents whose work takes them away from home, and their children, in particular, for a large part of the year, then I consider that one week a year spent together, is more essential than a weeks schooling.

Obviously this week should be taken in holiday time if possible, but the more a parent is away, usually the more their leave time is constrained and the more likely that on occasion leave will nee to be taken in school time.

I also think many people are grossly over estimating how deleterious a weeks absence from school will be for a child of average ability or above. I went to 10 schools, highly disruptive in itself, where I went from a school, which, for example was about to teach us long division and multiplication, to one that had taught it. I quickly got the hang of it, without any extra time from the teacher.

I also lost, in total 3 terms of schooling because I spent several extended periods in hospital. Again, I just slotted back into, usually, a new school, without being given extra tution and help.

As I said, I do agree children at the lower end of the ability range may suffer, but the majority shouldn't.

Joseann Dream on. In 2023, the median salary in the UK was £35,000. www.statista.com/statistics/416139/full-time-annual-salary-in-the-uk-by-region/ That figure drops to £27,500 after tax.

Median means that half the population earns less than that, so many households with children, where one person may well work part time puts many families with children a long way below your imagined £80,000 income. Then of course there are housing costs, which, especially in the south east, are likely to be around £2,000 a month for a family home, whether you rent or have a mortgage.

Reality means that actually the average take home salary after tax and basic housing cost of your mythical 2 earner family is likely to be well under £40,000 and from that comes all the costs of life; community tax, food, clothes, energy cost, transport costs, insurance, work cost etc etc.

The amount available to pay for holidays, shrinks and shrinks.

Yes, I realise that is pre-tax salary, but if 2 working parents set aside just 5% for a holiday they could still afford a £2k+ holiday which is what the lady on the cruise budgeted for her family in the OP. I'm not being snobby, but the description of her sort of placed her in the average category?

The majority of families get that ‘one week together’ over the Christmas period MOnica.

When I was a child we had one week away during the summer holidays, for which my parents saved all year. When I was a single mother with little money to spare we had odd days out during school holidays.

Joseann

I was thinking, (to myself!), if the average earn is around £40k, often x by 2 parents, £80,000, then an annual holiday spend of say £4,000 is fairly easy to budget for, isn't it?

Don't forget that there are likely to be considerable childcare fees to pay if two working parents have school age children.
Their family disposable income won't be the same as the sum of their two salaries.

One size does not fit all, in an ideal world all parents would be able to take holidays during the school shut down periods.

Unfortunately we are not in an ideal world and parents have to do what is right for them and their families.

I posted upthread that schooling/learning is totally different to what it was 10 years ago. Even in reception and primary years the class work, spellings, maths is available on the schools Google Classroom which means that there is should not be any need for teachers to set an individual child extra catch-up work.

There are enough metaphorical sticks to beat parents with (particularly mothers) not sure that they need the added pressure of being made to feel guilty because they can not get time off of work during the school holidays.

Can I just add that the benefits of "holiday" is mainly when you are not at home.

A stay-at-home holiday is better than nothing of course but to get away from the "daily" is really best. It doesn't matter if it's only a village away - it's still "away"

Another thing to note is that different countries have different school holidays so seeing children around when you are away might not mean they have been taken out of school. Our main holidays are December to February, July and September plus Easter. The UK ones are completely different. Probably other countries in general have different ones. Our school year starts in February.