Parents taking children on holiday in term time.

My daughter started a new State school when she was about 7 years old and we had just arranged a 3 week trip away on business for Mexico, Guatemala and Mexico. I spoke to her new head and asked for his permission. He was so enthusiastic about the amount she could learn out of school whilst travelling. I offered to make her do a diary, teach her about calculating the exchange rate, etc but he was sure that the experience would be enough so not to stress too much. She kept a diary (I still read it every so often) and she did worksheets (Ok, I was a teacher, I couldn't help myself) and had a great trip.
As teachers have lesson plans for weeks ahead, it is not beyond the imagination that there could be a contract between the parents and school that this work must be covered with evidence produced for absences. It's what you do at Private Schools.

But with kids everywhere! No thanks! I much preferred September, despite the coachloads of Saga trippers.

A child at my son’s primary school was taken away for a two week caravan holiday before the end of the summer term, every year. Her parents were unlikely to be up to teaching her anything much.

We never took our children out of school for holidays. We couldn't -
I taught modern languages in a secondary school. Often we camped in grandparents' or friends' gardens, saving money for ferry and campsites in France or Germany the next year. One April, when they were teenagers, we had a week in a flat in Florence. We never had a beach holiday abroad.

icanhandthemback

My daughter started a new State school when she was about 7 years old and we had just arranged a 3 week trip away on business for Mexico, Guatemala and Mexico. I spoke to her new head and asked for his permission. He was so enthusiastic about the amount she could learn out of school whilst travelling. I offered to make her do a diary, teach her about calculating the exchange rate, etc but he was sure that the experience would be enough so not to stress too much. She kept a diary (I still read it every so often) and she did worksheets (Ok, I was a teacher, I couldn't help myself) and had a great trip.
As teachers have lesson plans for weeks ahead, it is not beyond the imagination that there could be a contract between the parents and school that this work must be covered with evidence produced for absences. It's what you do at Private Schools.

icanhandthemback As teachers have lesson plans for weeks ahead, it is not beyond the imagination that there could be a contract between the parents and school that this work must be covered with evidence produced for absences. It's what you do at Private Schools.

Perhaps this is why I don't understand. Nuns handed us the plans/papers/books - we took with us, the children did their schoolwork.

……… and over the year it adds up to 12 weeks (of school holidays) where getting leave might be a problem

We didn't have holidays when I was a child as my father was in the army and my mother had little money, so I find it hard to understand why it is so essential to some people to go abroad now. I agree it is nice but think of it as a privilege rather than a right, if you see what I mean. By the way, this isn't criticism so much as bemusement.

Beetlejuice

Teachers have already been on strike for 5 days this year, with a further 2 scheduled for July. That's 7 days schooling lost to their pupils. Not so worried about those are they?

All the children would then be absent at the same time, so the teacher would rejig the lessons so that the curriculum was still covered for all children simultaneously.

However, if each child of a class of 24 or more was taken out of school for a diffferent two weeks of a 12-week term, there would be two or three children missing for every single lesson, different children each time, and each having to have two weeks of lessons in multiple subjects explained to them individually before they could progress to what the rest of the class were now doing.

Exactly when would the teacher give those two weeks of individual full-time tuition as well as the full-time usual lessons for the rest of the class?

This is a part of the reason that teachers leave the profession because of stress, and part of the reason that they are driven to strike.

SewnSew

We didn't have holidays when I was a child as my father was in the army and my mother had little money, so I find it hard to understand why it is so essential to some people to go abroad now. I agree it is nice but think of it as a privilege rather than a right, if you see what I mean. By the way, this isn't criticism so much as bemusement.

It isn’t just holidays abroad - holidays in the U.K at caravan parks etc have skyrocketed in price during school holidays.

4allweknow "Perhaps schools should run all year with pupils and teachers taking their alloted holiday entitlement when they want. The curriculum would be spread out, be less intense so there would be less to miss when absent."
The school where my daughter works have changed to from three terms a year with a long summer holiday, to four equal shorter terms, with shorter holidays in between them. This gives more choice of holiday timing without encroaching on the school terms. . It has worked well

My daughter and son in law are taking my 6 year old grandson on holiday to Orlando in July which is going to mean taking him out of school for 2 weeks. The flights when they go will be £3000 but if they wait until he breaks up for the school holidays the flights will go up to £6000 !! Ridiculous!! Its cheaper for them to pay the fine. The airlines should be taken to task for this. The've been doing this for years and getting away with it.

Germanshepherdsmum

But with kids everywhere! No thanks! I much preferred September, despite the coachloads of Saga trippers.

The members of staff I was thinking about who moaned about others taking all the school holiday leave were mostly single under 30s - they preferred to take their holidays during peak times as they loved the razzmatazz crowds/noise etc. But being an older member of staff I still wanted to take the odd day off during peak times which could sometimes prove difficult to get although I preferred my main holiday out of season.

when i was in infant and first year junior school, i always missed the last week of term in the summer as my dad's place of work always closed for the last two weeks in july to fit in when the august bank holiday was at the begining of august this only changed when the bank holiday was moved to the end of august.

I never took my children out of school and think it makes more work for the teachers helping the children to catch up. However at the end of term the children seem to spend a lot of time on "performances" and other activities which really don't help their learning so I probably wouldn't say that taking them out just before the end of term is a problem.

Elegran

4allweknow "Perhaps schools should run all year with pupils and teachers taking their alloted holiday entitlement when they want. The curriculum would be spread out, be less intense so there would be less to miss when absent."
The school where my daughter works have changed to from three terms a year with a long summer holiday, to four equal shorter terms, with shorter holidays in between them. This gives more choice of holiday timing without encroaching on the school terms. . It has worked well

That sounds like a really great idea. I'm sure the shorter terms are better for children and teachers and cheaper holidays must be a real bonus.

Do teachers get fined for strike days or when they close schools because of inch of snow….I don’t think so!

I used to take mine out of school for one week every year when they were in lower school because my ex husband was not senior enough to be able to take his holidays during school holiday times. Luckily, by the time they were in middle and upper schools he was deemed important enough to be able to chose his holiday dates. Not everyone has this advantage and I think family holiday time is very important now that most parents are at work everyday. We used to go to France and they all learned a good smattering of the language as we made them all ask for food etc in the shops and restaurants. Unfortunately, all this seemed to do was to give them a dislike for the language and none of them took it as a GCSE which was rather disappointing!

I took mine outa school regularly for holidays ….my husband couldn’t choose his holiday dates….they were allocated!
Anyway ….I figured it gave the rest of kids in class a chance to catch up ….. and it did mine them no harm ….(a doctor and a children’s psychiatrist) …..my daughter also had 34 hospitalisations between 12 and 15…..so she lost at least a years schooling!!! I rest my case.

Saggi , ~Teachers lose pay when on strike.If a school has to be closed because of bad weather then they do not, as that is not the teacher witholding labour.
Please support your teachers. They deserve it .

Saggi I have just read your second post and would like to ask for clarification, what exactly is your case.

In my DGCs’ secondary schools, during the last month before summer holidays, each year (apart from 6th year, of course ) start their next year’s courses, so there isn’t much ‘ wind down’ time, for holidays.

Ex primary school teacher here.
So, I have an imaginary class of 32.
A child misses a week of school. He writes a diary of his activities. Great. What's not so great is that the rest of his class has covered some basic but important maths. When he returns to school, how will he catch up with that? Am I expected to give up my break and lunch time to give him some private tuition? Or does he skip it and it affects his future learning (I also tutored children whose maths had suffered because they'd missed an essential 'building brick'). Now imagine - each of the 32 children taken a week out of school to go on holiday. That's 32 times I have to give 'private' unpaid tuition to. And then, to add insult to injury, I have to pay premium prices to take my own children on holiday in holiday time. The word 'furious' doesn't quite cover my reaction....

And I was so cross that I didn't preview my previous post and it's littered with mistakes! Grrrr!

Saggi

Do teachers get fined for strike days or when they close schools because of inch of snow….I don’t think so!

Teachers don’t get paid on strike, any more than other workers do.
I don’t know about the close schools because of an inch of snow, because where we are, many staff and children can’t get in because of deep snow and road conditions when it snows.
Gone are the days when most teachers lived near enough to walk to the school where they taught. I live over 8 miles from my school at the top of a steep hill. They do grit the road, but when the snow is bad, even the buses don’t come up and down the hill.
Mind you, many of the children and parents who have to live in the catchment area to get a school place, can’t walk the short distance to school even in the summer.

Sagging- perhaps missing school didn't do your children any harm because their poor teachers had to help them catch up on their missed school work when they should have been having a break from teaching their classes!