What's the general consensus on taking kids out of school for holidays?

[joteddyred]

I know the legalities of it, so I'm not interested in that side of things. I'm just gathering opinions.

For example, taking a 14 night holiday that spans half-term plus one week either before or after.

We went to Florida for 2 weeks over May holiday week and took the kids out of school for the week after.  Oldest son was 8 and youngest 4.  We did have it authorised by the school though, as it was purely down to school discretion then.  It didn't interfere with any assessments or anything and the kids didn't miss anything of major importance.

I wouldn't do it now my oldest is starting at secondary school.

[Sippo]

What about us poor fuckers who are on shitter pay than teachers and can't take holidays in term time?!

And yes it's my choice, but there's hardly an influx of jobs..

[Batch]

Its shit for you Sippo, no arguing there.

[BambooToTheFuture]

People may say easier said than done..... I say...fuck 'em. Take your kids on holiday when you want.  I always went on holiday in term time, the only thing it affected was my mate who sat next to me most the time. Hardly fucking damaging is it? You do plenty more "growing up" and a LOT more LEARNING once you've left education.

This is not to say I don't value education, I respected all (most) of my teachers. When I wasn't there, it's simply that. When I was, give a day, everything ran as normal. No dramas, none of this "you're not valuing your education young man" bollocks.

C'est la vie!!

[Loobug]

Just saw this on the beeb..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33861985

My stepson spent 6 months out of school, while I tried to find him a place after he came to the UK. Since then, I've encouraged him not to miss a day... He's pretty much a top performer, in his year now, so it didn't do too much damage. He's pretty self-motivated though.

[stfc1975]

Not unfair at all, simply supply and demand.

Ok I will bite. That is bolllocks. It is obviously unfair.

[janaage]

Take them out, kids learn so much whilst away. We went on a two week break  to the canaries (not Norwich) this year and seeing the kids mix with dutch and french kids was great. Even on a holiday like that they learn loads. If its more of a cultural holiday then even better.

The fine system is ridiculous. Hopefully our primary school will be reasonable as it'll have an impact on us from next month!

[Reg Smeeton]

Its a fucking stupid rule, Im sure i speak for pretty much everyone on here that when we were kids our parents would take us out of school for a week for a holiday and it was perfectly acceptable then.

Not for me Chubbs. When I was a kid, you had "Trip", when the Works closed down and everybody went on holiday, this of course coincided with school holidays.

Originally Trip was a week, but by the 50's it was a fortnight, and that was your lot for the year apart a couple of festive bank holidays.

My old man would rather have gone without a holiday, than see me miss time off school, as for his generation education was the key to the future....he'd left school at 14, as more or less all working class kids did.

Think it was JFW, who said too many parents see education now as little more than a babysitting service...

[Reg Smeeton]

 Just seen this, and noticed that Loobug posted a similar one from the BBC site, either way it seems apposite to the thread.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/aug/12/increase-parents-england-prosecuted-taking-children-out-of-school

[Batch]

meh, if it's possible just say your child is sick for a week then post your holiday photos on Facebook and hope nobody squeals

[Jamiesfuturewife]

The best one we had was a girl in my class was "sick" then cake back to school really brown and with her hair all braided!

[Panda Paws]

Ok I will bite. That is bolllocks. It is obviously unfair.

How? Lots of people want to do the same thing at the same time, so obviously the price goes up. Explain how that is unfair?

What about charging people to go skiing more in December and January than April? Are peak time train fairs unfair (compared to off peak)? Is it unfair to charge people who want to go the gym outside of normal working hours more than those who go off peak?

No - obviously not.

[Samdy Gray]

My old man would rather have gone without a holiday, than see me miss time off school, as for his generation education was the key to the future....he'd left school at 14, as more or less all working class kids did.

I know you've already highlighted the point of time off accumulating throughout school life, but if it was not regular and when looking at it in isolation, will one week really affect a child's education that much?

Personally I don't think it will have much, if any, affect on my child's learning but I'm sure you have a different view from the other side of the fence.

[Reg Smeeton]

I know you've already highlighted the point of time off accumulating throughout school life, but if it was not regular and when looking at it in isolation, will one week really affect a child's education that much?

Personally I don't think it will have much, if any, affect on my child's learning but I'm sure you have a different view from the other side of the fence.

I said, that one week, will probably not make much difference, and perhaps more especially when they are still relatively tiny.

There are plenty of European countries where they don't even start at school until 6 or 7, which happily end up outscoring England when it comes to achievement at 16.

[ghanimah]

I don't have children myself, so I'm reluctant to take a definite stance on this issue. However to me this would appear to be a classic case of a sledgehammer to miss a nut. There's a difference between an occassional week off here and there and the need to address perpetual absence.

More so when considering that having measles, mumps or chicken pox often takes children out of school for a week at least. Taking kids on holiday can be an education in themselves.