Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 92 total)
  • Taking little guy out of school for hols – advice needed please
  • antigee
    Full Member

    hels – Member
    This is a very middle class problem – have you thought about writing to the Guardian Dilemnas Column ??

    is that in the "i need to look at my bellybutton now and write all about it" section which i throw straight in the bin

    zokes
    Free Member

    I would SO love to do this as we can't afford an overseas family holiday in school holiday times…BUT, blow me, I'm the teacher…no choice.

    Wait until it snows again then….

    Apparently shutting because a bit of cold rain falls is acceptable and doesn't affect education, so why would going away for a similar amount of time?

    rightplacerighttime
    Free Member

    My wife is a teacher so not something we normally have to consider – although she is going to try to get a day off in May so that we can get to the Isle of Jura in time for me to do the Fell Race there 🙂

    However, we are thinking of taking the kids (currently 5 and 6) out of school for a year to travel and I have to say I'm not much concerned about that having a -ve impact on their educations as we probably give them as much mental and physical exercise at home as they get at school anyway. I've read somewhere that kids learn about 85% of what they know outside of school.

    If you're a good parent who reads and plays a lot with your kids and takes time to explain things to them, then 2 weeks off school is not going to make much difference, they will still be learning plenty.

    If you're a crap parent who leaves the kids in front of the electric baby sitter all day and doesn't talk to them, then it's still not going to make much difference because you've already ruined their chances.

    mudshark
    Free Member

    I would SO love to do this as we can't afford an overseas family holiday in school holiday times…BUT, blow me, I'm the teacher…no choice.

    I'll trade my 2 weeks somewhere nice for your 6 weeks somewhere less nice….

    My parents took me out of school like this for the first few years but that stopped when I went to a fee paying school…. I don't think it sends a great message to the kids but no idea if that really matters – parentally supported truancy? Also, we moved house to a different area a month before the end of term when I was 14 which meant I missed exams; obviously didn't mind at the time but these days I really think there's no reason good enough for what they did.

    gravitysucks
    Free Member

    Realistically just weigh up the difference between the holidays you could do in term time and out and then workout if the difference is worth missing a couple of weeks of school…

    I wouldn't hesitate taking them out of school to show them some of the world compared to a week in butlins in the school holidays.

    Ask the school to let you know what they will miss out on during the absence and fill in the gaps in the holidays, at 6 years of age I can;t see it being an awful lot though

    rightplacerighttime
    Free Member

    I'll trade my 2 weeks somewhere nice for your 6 weeks somewhere less nice

    Who's stopping you?

    mudshark
    Free Member

    My contract is quite clear on my holiday allowance.

    midlifecrashes
    Full Member

    If it's the best for your family, do it. I've done it before and I'll do it again. Not always on cost grounds but to match up with family holidays so we can go together and our children can spend time with cousins etc. Two weeks at the end of year one are going to be maybe fun stuff, but very likely nothing too academic which can't be caught up. The discretion to authorise the absence is usually with the head, and if you explain your circumstances to them it is often not a problem. If they do choose to authorise it, then none of the league table/pressure from LEA applies anyway, so paradoxically once you have convinced the head you are going anyway, it instantly becomes in their interest to authorise it. Don't try it in SATs week though.

    gonefishin
    Free Member

    My contract is quite clear on my holiday allowance.

    I think the point was that if you were to quit your current job and retrain as a teacher then you'd be able to make that particular trade.

    mudshark
    Free Member

    And if I was to become a pro-cyclist my life would be more to my liking too I'm sure.

    nonk
    Free Member

    my advice to you would be to have more kids.
    you will find yourself to be a shadow of your former self and will value every day that those wonderfull folk called teachers take care of you kids far more than you do now.

    sharkbait
    Free Member

    The primary my kids go to say that you're allowed 10 days authorised absence, beyond that they have to refer it to the LEA.
    We'll be taking ours out for a week in the summer term but this is probably the last time as it's our eldests' last primary year in 2011.

    Junkyard
    Free Member

    ours actually closes for a week in June and then extends its term by one week in the summer so you get a cheap weeks holiday anyway – so do the staff. Seems like a good idea to me – thankfully UK camping never gets expensive anyway!

    damitamit
    Free Member

    My parents did this to me when I was in primary school and I turned out alright! Its only 2 weeks and its only primary school.

    I learnt much more going to California for 2 weeks than at school 😉 Plus my teacher made me write a report (with photos) of it so I could gloat to the other kids when i got back…

    miketually
    Free Member

    My contract is quite clear on my holiday allowance.

    As is the contract (law) relating to attendance at school.

    StuMcGroo
    Free Member

    look at it from another angle, nevermind the kids education, what about the miserable bastard who's getting his last quiet hoiliday in before the kids break up only to be woken early by some little f'cker kicking a ball against his campervan when said child should clearly be at school 👿

    mudshark
    Free Member

    As is the contract (law) relating to attendance at school.

    Is it? So a legal as well as a moral issue (well, only for some it seems)?

    rightplacerighttime
    Free Member

    Don't try it in SATs week though.

    Unless you're expecting Level Ws 🙂

    miketually
    Free Member

    We (sixth form college) get students missing a fortnight at key times of year; they never catch up. It starts at school…

    (I went on holiday during term time pretty much every year that I was at school.)

    john_drummer
    Free Member

    As a non-parent – so I clearly have no idea what I'm talking about – tough.

    1) you know when school holidays are when you choose to have children
    2) holidays are a luxury. If you can't afford them in school holidays, either (a) don't have kids (b) don't have holidays or (c) have the holidays in school holidays and go somewhere that you can afford.

    bruneep
    Full Member

    Do it, but be open with the HT 'cause jnr will tell all on return.

    How much school work playtime will jnr really miss? If they can close schools at the drop of a snow flake without a thought about how much education they will miss.

    Flash
    Free Member

    Not happy with forcing the price of holidays up for those of us without kids, you're now going to start doing the same out of the holidays.

    If not for your kids then think of your fellow humans beings

    Nick
    Full Member

    If they can close schools at the drop of a snow flake without a thought about how much education they will miss.

    Not the same though is it? The entire class is affected so they can plan the catch-up as necessary, plus we're talking about a couple of days, not a couple of weeks.

    Either way it can't make teachers lives any easier, if the school closes for a couple of days because of snow I doubt any drop in standards would be accepted, and if kids are taken out here and there it must be equally difficult trying to ensure that they are all at the required standard potentially by spending extra time with the kids who go on holiday in term time, maybe as parent who doesn't take his kids out of school I should have a problem with that?

    molgrips
    Free Member

    Your kids would have as much fun in a caravan near Skegness as they would on your expensive trip out of the designated holidays.

    At 6, this is probably true. As they get older I am sure that the world will be a great place to learn. I'd have given anything for the chance to see foreign climes when I was a kid, instead of sit in a room doing pages of sums or painting stupid pictures of your house.

    llama
    Full Member

    I took ours out on holiday a couple of times when my oldest was about that age. Not for more than a week though. And then there was the 3 days of every year for a few years to go to glastonbury, all authorised, so how middle class guardian reader is that then!

    I think once or twice while at the school is OK depending on whats going on. I mean, mine spent months doing **** all once their SATs were done.

    StuMcGroo
    Free Member

    molgrips – I am sure that the world will be a great place to learn.

    i'm sorry, we're talking family package tour here not expedition. it's car-airport-plane-airport-coach-hotel-pool then coach-airport-plane-airport-car-home!

    the only thing learnt is that the sun burns and you learn that on day 1!

    anagallis_arvensis
    Full Member

    I often get emails or notes saying, "little jimmy is going on holiday and his parents would like a pack of work to take so he doesnt miss any of his important GCSE work" I usually reply "I bet they would".

    Six years old though, he aint going to miss much is he.

    takisawa2
    Full Member

    I'll bet some of those objecting to this are ill-deserving overpaid pedantic rsoles for whom affording a decent family holiday is not a problem anyway…thought so.

    Enjoy your hols.!!!

    (Of course my deep seated anger is all down to the 2 weeks I missed from school back when I was a child…scarred me for life it did).

    john_drummer
    Free Member

    ill-deserving overpaid pedantic rsoles for whom affording a decent family holiday is not a problem anyway.

    not me. Ill-deserving – of what? Overpaid – nope, I get what the market will pay. pedantic – sometimes 😉

    affording a decent..holiday – well, ok last year was a bit special, 2 weeks in Canada, but it was for my sister's wedding. I won't be going anywhere this year, or next, nor the year after, most likely.

    But I stand by what I said. If you choose to have children, you also choose not to be able to take holidays whenever you bloody well please

    mudpup
    Free Member

    Well guys, thanks for all your contributions – its been a blast!
    Will be applying for the time off tomorrow. My mind is eased by so many agreeing he won't be missing too much at this age/time of year. It was what i thought too. We probably won't do it again though as he will be getting deeper into his education.
    Commercially we will be about £1k better off, Jnr will benefit by having more outings to museums etc and general life learning opportunities. We will try to get some extra homework out of the school so we can catch up.
    I get 2 weeks in the playing in a pool in the sun with a happy family to recharge my batteries instead of a hanging around a soggy campsite trying to tear a bored kiddy of his Nintendo.
    Its all good.

    TooTall
    Free Member

    So which educational holiday destination are you taking your future binman to then?

    ianv
    Free Member

    Its always funny to hear parents explain that the fact they are taking their kids out of school is because they intend to educate them in a far off exotic land (like florida or benidorm). Yeah right.

    Agree totally with john drummer on this one.

    aracer
    Free Member

    The question I have, if they're not missing much in those 2 weeks at the end of term, why don't the schools just finish term 2 weeks earlier, so everybody can have the extra time off?

    john_drummer
    Free Member

    because for those of you who are working parents, that's an extra 2 weeks childcare to sort out, unless you're planning on starting autumn term 2 weeks earlier as well.

    Can't see that going down too well, going back to school for a week and then a bank holiday monday to deal with 😉

    mudpup
    Free Member

    Southend

    langy
    Free Member

    First come clean – it's way easier.

    I'd say that at that age, if you keep up the home reading your are probably not going to have him left behind especially at that time of year – my folks used to do in the lower years of primary school and I never had a problem with school work.

    However, always used to do the "project book" – like a diary of the holiday with photos and stuff afterwards, had to learn a few words of language and use them in restaurants etc.

    When you get to exam time it's all sorts of different though.

    aracer
    Free Member

    because for those of you who are working parents, that's an extra 2 weeks childcare to sort out

    But on all those "schools closed due to snow" threads, people kept pointing out that the purpose of school isn't to provide childcare, so why should that enter into consideration?

    john_drummer
    Free Member

    not my problem 😉

    seriously though; if a child's school is closed due to snow, what are the chances of the parent actually getting to work anyway?

    it does though. Think about it. You work, you have 25 (give or take) days annual leave + statutary hols. You do your best to work around the school holidays, but there are still some days when you have to balance your 5 weeks annual leave against the cost of a child minder or other childcare arrangements for the (6+ at summer, 2-3 at Christmas, 2-3 weeks at Easter) weeks of school holiday.

    Now throw in an extra 2 weeks when the child/children is/are off school

    5 weeks into 10 doesn't go, does it? 5 weeks into 12 goes even less

    but hey, not a parent. I can go on holiday whenever I like/can afford 😉

    aP
    Free Member

    I'm just surprised at the number of people who go on package holidays. I've been on one once as it was an easy way to get to friends wedding. Are there really that many people who go on them?

    rightplacerighttime
    Free Member

    We will try to get some extra homework out of the school so we can catch up.

    Don't bother. You'll just be making unnecessary work for the teacher and saddling yourself with unnecessary guilt when it doesn't get done. 6 year olds don't need homework, but they do need to be read to and to practice their reading. If you spend 15 minutes a day of your hols doing 1 to 1 reading (including discussion about the book/s) then that will probably do.

Viewing 40 posts - 41 through 80 (of 92 total)

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