I'll trade my 2 weeks somewhere nice for your 6 weeks somewhere less nice
Who's stopping you?
My contract is quite clear on my holiday allowance.
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.
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.
And if I was to become a pro-cyclist my life would be more to my liking too I'm sure.
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.
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.
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!
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...
My contract is quite clear on my holiday allowance.
As is the contract (law) relating to attendance at school.
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 👿
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)?
Don't try it in SATs week though.
Unless you're expecting Level Ws 🙂
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.)
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.
Do it, but be open with the HT 'cause jnr will tell all on return.
How much [s]school work[/s] 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.
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
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?
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.
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.
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!
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.
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).
[i] ill-deserving overpaid pedantic rsoles for whom affording a decent family holiday is not a problem anyway.[/i]
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 [i]was[/i] 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
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.
So which educational holiday destination are you taking your future binman to then?
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.
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?
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 😉
Southend
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.
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?
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 😉
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?
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.
aracer - 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?
I have exactly the same question. The schools in every country I have either lived in, or visited (and that's a few in both categories), conclude their years at the end of June - and earlier if they are IB schools. So why can't we?
But you ask that here, and you get such inane comments as 'it's about childcare', or 'that's what we've always done'.
[url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1571445/World-rankings-for-reading-maths-and-science.html ]Well, those extra weeks don't seem to be doing any good, do they?[/url]
In spite of the fact that some of the countries on that table start their kids out later in terms of age, spend fewer weeks in school per year, and don't have ministers that come up with new initiatives to 'improve' schools every week or so, they make it into the top ten in all three categories.
Of course, the answer in this country will be to force people into turning their kids over to the schools at an even earlier age, and keep them until August. Or h*ll, why not even all the year through?
And to think I was once told by my kids' headteacher that they didn't have time to teach foreign languages!
I don't doubt, mudpup, that if you explain things to your child, and talk to him on holiday, s/he will be better served there than in a classroom.
why don't the schools just finish term 2 weeks earlier, so everybody can have the extra time off?
Because the issue is with "winding down" (and "up")
Prior to term end lots of things stop such as lunchtime clubs, after school activities, homework (and marking) etc. Which often means during the last few days classes involve a lot of video watching!
Once back from holiday it always takes a unfathomable amount of time before these activities restart! which means missed time before, during and after holidays.
Oh and as for taking work etc on holiday, we always do this so dont tar everyone with the same brush.
By the way I have never taken my kids out of school but nor would I criticise those who do it.
Well it seems to me the obvious answer to all this is to go on holiday in term-time, so getting the cheap prices, and leave the kids at home - best get a relative in to look after them though. Then in the holidays send the kids on some sort of holiday camp. Everyone's a winner....
Depends very much on the head. My mum was a headteacher and would be fairly happy for people to take their kids on holiday whenever - on the basis that for a lot of families, it's the only chance they get, and the knowledge that realistically, 2 weeks extra schooling isn't going to change a kid's educational attainment. There's also the benefit of seeing another culture. FWIW, when she was a head she turned around several schools that were doing extremely badly, so she knows her stuff.
On the other hand, the head may view time spent in school as super important and not allow you to take the holiday.
My partner is a teacher at a secondary school. She leaves for work at 7.30 in the morning and usually arrives home at 7.30 at night, after spending a good few hours after school "closes" preparing lessons, marking, preparing for OFSTED inspections and helping kids who couldn't attend lessons catch up with the work that they have missed.
We don't have a choice as to when we go on holiday - we'd love to go skiing, but can't afford it anymore because prices magically increase during the holidays.
If it's OK by the OP, we'd like a couple of weeks off next January to go skiing - could you please let me know which weeks you'll be available to cover her absences?
Woop. Simple thing anyone considering teaching should do - ask a teacher what it's like. A great deal will tell you that it's a lot of aggro for not enough money...
Rusty Spanner - no offence but i do similar hours (perhaps a bit more in fact) but only get 4 weeks holiday per year. How much holiday does your partner get? Maybe 10 at a guess. How about a part time job in the extra 4/5 weeks or so to finance the holiday?
I am in the same boat re price increases but have significantly less flexibility it appears.
Summer '08 we took our (then) 6 year old out of school for 8 days before the officlial start of the summer hols. The school were ok as we were honest but, as a kind of trade-off, we got him to do a short 'project' on his holiday including stuff about the place, the people, its wildlife & history. He got right into it taking a real interest in everything (and more photos than I thought possible). He learnt a lot, his writing/presentation improved & his teacher was so impressed it ended up in a display of pupils work for the next open day. There wasn't that much work involved & it gave him something to do when he was all sun, sea & sand'd out.
mudpup, yep, you're right, she could.
Problem is, a large proportion of the holidays she gets are also spent preparing lessons and marking.
Anyway, you tell her.
I may be stupid, but I'm not THAT stupid. 🙂
I'm curious - do the inhabitants of stw-world see the annual 2 weeks foreign holiday in the sun as a right?
I never had a foreign holiday as a kid and believe I got a far better idea of the UK because of those domestic holidays. Were my parents bad people for not taking me to a scabby resort and getting whammed on cheap drinks for a fortnight each year? I need to know so I can change my views!
