Children holidaying in term time.

When my neighbour's children were at school she always took them on holiday during term time. She said even paying the fine it was still much cheaper.

I took mine out for big holidays ( went to Australia 3 times for 6 weeks, when they were at school) ...only got one fine for 1 of my 3 children , once ...£50 at the time....seeing as I had spent thousands on the holiday it was not a deterrant .....my DD had taken my GD ( age 6) out twice as holidays much cheaper in term....not been fined...its just recorded as unauthorised....the holidays have been around 300 per person cheaper...x 4 for the family...that £1200 ....other than that they are always in school...always on time.

Missing school does affect a child's education,and the very worst time is at the beginning of the academic year. The class is in a new situation, new timetable new teachers and new rules; the child who misses the opening week is always slightly out of step with the rest of the class. Timetables are very tightly scheduled, learning something new every lesson; it is difficult to reinforce learning when some pupils have missed out on the introductory stages and catching up with a TA is no substitute for being in at the start of a new topic. The SATs, optional and Key Stage, revealed gaps in learning and understanding that were clearly linked to absences ; I can't remember now the particular topics but it was most evident in maths.
In my last year of teaching (2011) 17 out of 34 children in my class, 50%, had absences of at least a week; several children had three weeks holiday at the beginning of term because it was cheaper.. I had one TA, not full time, who was assigned to a child with very specific special needs, and his parents resented her attention being directed elsewhere than with their son.
Most parents do it, not to save money, but so that they can have longer holidays, and are completely unconcerned with the children's education, and clearly like to boast about it.
This post will be followed by tales of children achieving, wonderful results and amazing jobs. Well, some do, but an awful lot don't.

Education is incredibly important but so are holidays. My memories of holidays with my family are so precious to me.

The way things now despite me having a better than average paid job, I have to make a choice between no holidays or short holidays in term time.

I want my children to have the same experiences of travel and family time that I did as a child. It doesn’t mean I don’t value education, I do, I went to university, I completed my degree, but it’s not the most important thing. It’s one of a few important things.

Very strange, since the school didn't care one bit when my grandson started to miss school.
They said since he wasn't playing truant they were perfectly happy with the situation.

In primary we usually missed the first week of the new school year due to my parents scheduling the annual holiday then. I'd rather have started late after the term break as missing the first week means everyone gets settled socially and in their place in the classroom which you then have to fit into. That sorts itself out though. It didn't hurt my academics at all. We were on beach holidays but, if we'd been visiting different countries, museums, historic sites, I think I'd have learned more doing that than going to school in that week.

I wouldn't do this to a high-schooler. This is when it could make a difference to grades.

Funny you should say that Mandrake. I understand why you’d have wished to be there for the first week.
A lot of parents have that ‘first week(s) don’t matter’ attitude to primary, possibly based on past experience.
Nowadays, most children have met their new teacher before the end of term and teachers have had discussions about good/bad seating combinations. Children where I teach, apart from EYFS, whose first week is settling in and baseline assessment, hit the ground running on week one, maths concepts (new or revision), English focus, spellings, introduction of new subject for foundation subjects and sometimes the “Wow” experience -visit or visitor and contributions or questions from the children about what they know or they’d like to know which go up on the wall to boost awareness of the topic and involve the children.
Coming back in the second or third in might not be such a good idea any more, except for all the genius children we hear about.

It's lucky my boy is a genius, then, because the school's input was zilch.

Is that recent Miss Adventure? If it is then I’d change schools.
What sort of input were you anticipating?

Within the last 5 years, but he has moved onto senior school now.

It would have been nice for someone to acknowledge that the days he missed were spent fending for himself whilst his mum died from cancer.
It would have been nice if he could have managed more than one of his swimming lessons.
It would have been nice for him to have had a bit of support during a very difficult time; but no.

Perhaps if they had bothered to ever even speak to us about it, it might have been a way forward.

They told me they were "perfectly happy", as he wasnt playing truant.
That's ok then.

Miss A you are right to be angry. It Beggars belief.
for you

I’d definitely have changed schools, but with everything else that was going on at such a painful time, continuity was probably a better option. I’m astonished that no one asked if you or he wanted to talk about anything that might help. Not a good advert for the school.

Yes, it's still simmering away under the surface, I'm afraid.
Not that or would make me take a child out of school for a holiday (though I did) but I'm convinced it's a box ticking exercise.

So sorry to read of the lack of support from school for you and your grandson.

As a teacher of French, I recall one pupil in particular whose parents took her out for two weeks in the middle of the year on a family cruise. ( More money than sense?). The father expected me to provide work in advance and to mark it on her return. I explained that much of our time in class is spent on oral and aural work, as 50% of exam marks are for the Listening and Speaking tests in modern languages. I would be teaching a new tense, and whilst I could supply plenty of worksheets to practise forming and using it, she would miss out on the actual teaching, so might struggle with the worksheets. I kept an eye on that girl as I taught her the following year, and there were several instances where she struggled because she had missed that work. Her father was one of those who came to parents’ evenings with “attitude” and thought he knew best.

Obviously there are some instances where missing school can’t be helped and won’t cause problems.
My granddaughter hates missing school, and had to be forced to stay at home against her will when she had Covid.

I was the Headmistress (primary) that parents loved (!!) because taking children out for holidays, provided it was for a reasonable time, was fine by me. We had a lot of services' children whose fathers were marines or away on aircraft carriers and it was important for the children and parents to have quality time as a family. Other children also went on holiday in term time, but it wasn't to do with being cheaper because it was a private school.
I am still of the opinion that more can be gained than lost in terms of an all-round education.

I'm so sorry Missadventure that the school didn't come to your daughter's aid and offer pastoral and academic support.

Thank you.

I must say we only took our children out of school for a week, no more, and only in primary school, we would never have taken them out of secondary school, but DH's work had changed by then.

But for children, like mine, at the time, and others where their father was away from home a lot, or whose leave windows was limited by the nature of their work, at times we were close to being a one parent family. That week away each year as a family, when the children could spend a solid block of time with their daddy was as necessary to their emotional health, mental health and family cohesion, as any week's education.

I certainly would never have taken children out of school to get a cheaper holiday, nor for more than a week, nor once they reached secondary school age

I thought it was important for my boy to spend time with his brother, as they are very close, and were separated when their mum died.
Last year. Permission denied.
.this year, a holiday with his friends family. Granted.

Twenty years ago I worked with a headmaster who was loved by parents for agreeing that they should take their children on holiday during term time.
Whilst his staff were very understanding and accommodating when there were exceptional circumstances (cited by you Joseanne in your second sentence), they resented the additional burden when this was not the case - which it was in the main. He seemed unaware of how hard each teacher was working to devise carefully constructed tasks for and assess the progress of each of our 160 students, the importance of feedback to tailor the next stage of learning, that teaching occupies days then marking plus preparation fills whole evenings every evening. Where did he think we found the time to prepare for and organise a separate programme, to predict an individual’s unassisted progress and maintain their advancement so that it married that of their peers’? The union reps didn’t intervene though they were aware 70 teachers groaned and silently seethed each and every time he did this. Moreover his magnanimity applied to all year groups so there were times when the request for holiday work became an additional workload associated with each and every class on our timetable. Delay in delivery met with persistent and insistent reminders from him.
Teachers are highly accountable, know from SATs each student’s potential in their subject, and are expected to meet or exceed it. Post public examinations they study tables which compare individual students’ progress within a school, within an LA and at national level. Any short falls meet with intense scrutiny and serious interviews of Heads of Department which, naturally, cascade down. It really isn’t fair imo to expect excellent results if a student is taken out of school to save money on a holiday. Gagajo proves my point.
You asked for a teacher’s opinion, Sago. You got it!

Interesting responses.

I have just remembered we did tike our youngest out for a few days when he was about 10, it was for an anniversary of a famous battle in Normandy.

My husband had been invited to attend the service and commemoration as his Uncle had been killed there.
He took our son and they had a wonderful trip, they appeared o. French TV and met Madame Gondres from the cafe at Pegasus Bridge!

Our granddaughter is 7 and hates to miss school, I wonder if Covid has taught a generation to appreciate education more.

??? for mini Sago’s attitude.

When I was a child in the late 1950s and early 1960s there were no holidays abroad because my parents were too poor. They also placed no value on education and actually held me back in ways I never forgave. My father blocked me going to Paris when the school offered me a bursary because he saw it as "charity" and it would give me "unrealistic ideas above my class".

When I was 15 and taking my GCEs my much loved teacher for English became ill with cancer and never returned. We had a series of supply teachers. My friend and I revised together and I can honestly say that we passed the exams by our own efforts.

If children are bright and motivated they will overcome obstacles like being kept out of school for a few days.