Taking children out of school for holidays

Would you take your children out of school for a holiday

  • yes

    Votes: 40 57.1%

  • no

    Votes: 30 42.9%
  • Total voters
    70
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joescrivens

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Yes
This will be our last year where neither of our children are in school. Daisy starts school in September.

What are your thoughts on taking your kids out of school for holidays?

We've loved going on holidays the last 3 years in term times where its cheaper but more importantly quieter. I have no quarms about taking my kids ot of school for a weeks holiday - 2 weeks would be not on but while they are young I don't think it makes a blind bit of difference for them to miss a week of school.

The last holiday we went on was really educational, on a farm where they learned all about feeding animals, animal development and even work ethic. You can't feed a lamb in the classroom or find freshly laid chicken eggs every day.

So what are your thoughts are you for or against and why?
 
I don't have any children of my own but when I was younger my parents did that a couple of times with me during primary school and it didn't affect me in any way.

I suppose it depends on the parents though, if you think that your child can afford to miss a few days at school for whatever reason then go ahead but if you think that their learning might be heavily effected I would say no.
 
I was a teacher and I can honestly say that unless a student was missing during exam preparation a week of absense has zero affect in the long run
 
Depends on where your going I suppose but the holiday can be an education.. and enjoyable.. I mean diffrerent cultures.. your learning without knowing :)

I have pulled my kids out of school early for holidays (never close to exams) and I dont think it does them any harm, at all.. in fact a couple of times the same holiday in peak times we just simply couldn't have done it.. so it was the best decision..

Schools can be quite strict with you about it though... but my kids my decision I say :)
 
we are pretty lucky in Leicester as our schools seem to finish for hols a week before most of the country so we get more chance of quieter lower cost hols than most.

I personally am against taking them out of school for anything other than an emergency, missing out on lessons, exam preps, sports team games etc.. even non learning activities such as the last week of school the kids go on trips as rewards for learning progress/attendance all take priority IMO
 
strumstrum said:
I personally am against taking them out of school for anything other than an emergency, missing out on lessons, exam preps, sports team games etc.. even non learning activities such as the last week of school the kids go on trips as rewards for learning progress/attendance all take priority IMO
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what are your reasons david? What difference does 1 week in a whole year make if it's not during exams etc

That one week of lessons can be easily made up with some extra homework/reading
 
Personally (not a parent) I oppose the idea of parents in general doing this - the reason the school term is cheaper is because most families don't go away then - if people start taking kids out habitually to take advantage of cheaper rates then prices will go up.

Also some of us like going to castles, museums, nature reserves, beaches etc without having hordes of horrible screaming brats running arround and / or their ill educated parents accusing anyone with a camera of being a paedophile when the litle scrotes won't keep out of shot.
 
I think within reason kids should be able to miss 2, maybe 3 weeks of school per year provided they're doing "OK", have a good attendence record and it's not during critical points i.e. SATS/exams etc.

I don't think it'd be much of an overhead for "holiday packs" to be produced and these would be given to the kids prior to their holiday and might include keeping a diary of what they get up to etc.

I think spending time away with a family on holiday can provide experiences that are beneficial and the cost of going on holiday outside of term time would perhaps mean parents wouldn't be able to afford to take them at all.

Don't have kids of my own yet but seen the stress/aggravation this causes with others, the wife & I got married on a Friday, my 13 y/o niece was a bridesmaid, 8 y/o nephew shared best man duties with my brother and my 6 y/o niece was a flower girl.

My sister-in-law had to tell a few white lies to get them out of school for the day (a week before the Easter holidays) as they wouldn't allow them to have one day off.
 
joescrivens said:
what are your reasons david? What difference does 1 week in a whole year make if it's not during exams etc
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Not much. Some kids would be off with illness for longer than others taken on holiday during term time. I certainly was when at primary school.


Steve.
 
joescrivens said:
what are your reasons david? What difference does 1 week in a whole year make if it's not during exams etc
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it probably makes no difference at all and just like I could miss a week exercise and make up for it the week after the kids could make up for what they missed, but its just something I stick to. it doesn't have to 'mean' or 'add up' to anything. school curriculums are set for a reason and there are plenty of non school days to do everything else and as already said I prefer to stick to that.
 
Its also worth noting that education authorities are getting tougher on this so it may not be possible anyway.

Also although primary isnt generally much of an issue , in some secondary subjects they really struggle to finish the sylabus in a set time as it is, so missing even one week could be critical come exams
 
big soft moose said:
Its also worth noting that education authorities are getting tougher on this so it may not be possible anyway.
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Of course it will always be possible. Unless they start chaining students to the school desks. There are fines in place but the difference you save more than makes up for the fine

Any child who misses 1 week of school a year for say the first 6 years of their life nothing is going to happen to the parent. No authority is going to put a parent who does this in jail. So it will always be possible
 
I'm not a parent, but I have no problem with it. Two weeks out of 40 are from significant (5% for the hard of mathematics). Once kids are attending secondary school I'd reconsider as the teaching is much more specialised into separate subjects, but before that, no problem IMO.
 
Fortunately we're in Scotland so can work it that we could fly out on the first week of Scottish holidays by nipping down to Newcastle for a flight. It's what we did last year and even taking fuel into account it was still cheaper. Ours is only 2 years old though.

My parents always took us out of school early and we've done quite well out of life.
 
At one stage when we were both poor earners taking our holidays during school term time was the only time we could afford to take a family holiday

In 2005 we went to France for 10 days the first week after the kids should have been back at school after the 6 week break, total cost including ferries was £85 all in, during term time the exact same holiday for a family of 4 was over £500
 
I would not do it these days, especially with older kids. I have done in the past when they where a lot younger, like under 9 yrs of age. They have made it more difficult in recent years, trouble is, hols are so expensive during school holidays, bloody-rip off IMO.
 
Gary Coyle said:
At one stage when we were both poor earners taking our holidays during school term time was the only time we could afford to take a family holiday

In 2005 we went to France for 10 days the first week after the kids should have been back at school after the 6 week break, total cost including ferries was £85 all in, during term time the exact same holiday for a family of 4 was over £500
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and now 8 years on do you think it has had any negative effect on your kids?
 
big soft moose said:
Also some of us like going to castles, museums, nature reserves, beaches etc without having hordes of horrible screaming brats running arround and / or their ill educated parents accusing anyone with a camera of being a paedophile when the litle scrotes won't keep out of shot.
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Absolutely this! :clap:
 
What it does teach children is that rules don't have to be followed. And then we wonder why they don't do what they're supposed to :shrug:
 
Just to add....... I spent 2 weeks in Portugal when I was in year 10 (so 15 years old) my brother and sister also missed 2 weeks of school (aged 12 & 10 respectively).

In fact I think from about the age of 13 I was taken out of school for 2 weeks at a time and it didn't do me any harm, always finished end of year exams in the top 5 ;)
 
f1charlie said:
What it does teach children is that rules don't have to be followed. And then we wonder why they don't do what they're supposed to :shrug:
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Actually I think it teaches them that some rules are stupid and should be broken to live your life in full (y)
 
f1charlie said:
What it does teach children is that rules don't have to be followed. And then we wonder why they don't do what they're supposed to :shrug:
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Or it teaches them to question the rationale behind decisions rather than blindly obeying without actually thinking.
 
onomatopoeia said:
Or it teaches them to question the rationale behind decisions rather than blindly obeying without actually thinking.
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(y)

depending on the parenting it could go either way. Good parenting will result in this outcome though
 
Actually I think it teaches them that some rules are stupid and should be broken to live your life in full
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But the rule that says a child should attend school during term time isnt stupid is it. As rules go, its quite a sensible one really.
 
I was taken on holiday during term time for a fortnight by my parents. When I got back I found I'd missed a school trip to the Llanberis lake Railway/Welsh Slate Museum. I was livid!
 
DorsetDude said:
But the rule that says a child should attend school during term time isnt stupid is it. As rules go, its quite a sensible one really.
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Not entirely it's not.

Not having an allowance for other life experiences under particular conditions makes it a rigid rule that doesn't really make any sense at all.

Fortunately many schools are sensible and grant permission it's only the jobs worths that hand out the fines
 
Alan Clogwyn said:
I was taken on holiday during term time for a fortnight by my parents. When I got back I found I'd missed a school trip to the Llanberis lake Railway/Welsh Slate Museum. I was livid!
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:eek:

where did they take you, i bet it was nowhere near as good as the slate museum
 
DorsetDude said:
But the rule that says a child should attend school during term time isnt stupid is it.
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It depends how dogmatic the headteacher is in its application. If no allowance is made for the needs of the family as a whole when it is applied, then it's stupid.
 
Why should the headteacher worry about the familys needs as a whole? The schools purpose is to educate the child irrespective of what family it comes from or the families "needs". Especially when those family "needs" are really the parents desires to save a few squids on a cheap holiday in term time.
 
If everyone took the attitude that you need not adhere to term times then everyone would be taking their holidays whenever they wanted.
It must cause a bit of disruption in the classes when the other pupils question where so and so is, find out they are on holiday, then start complaining about why they can't be on holiday too!
 
f1charlie said:
If everyone took the attitude that you need not adhere to term times then everyone would be taking their holidays whenever they wanted.
It must cause a bit of disruption in the classes when the other pupils question where so and so is, find out they are on holiday, then start complaining about why they can't be on holiday too!
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disruption is minor.

edit: well not always, depends on the time of year. A badly timed absence whilst doing coursework for example can be a PITA but sensible breaks at sensible times make no dfference
 
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joescrivens said:
Actually I think it teaches them that some rules are stupid and should be broken to live your life in full (y)
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yeah because that's what a school wants - kids thinking they can break a rule if they think its stupid - goodbye uniform and class discipline

Are you sure you were a teacher ? :LOL:
 
DorsetDude said:
:thinking:
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Of course headteachers take the family as a whole. Schools aren't just factories churning out students with grades. Thats why there is pastoral care, heads of house and home link workers.

If a family wedding for example was midweek and the child was to be a page boy as listed bove and the headteacher refused it then how is that head teaching looking out for the best interests of the child. Or in the other example above where a family could only afford a specific holiday outside of term time or not at all. How exactly is forcing that child to be in school better for them in the long run?
 
big soft moose said:
yeah because that's what a school wants - kids thinking they can break a rule if they think its stupid - goodbye uniform and class discipline

Are you sure you were a teacher ? :LOL:
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class discipline isn't a stupid rule

uniform - well the jury is out on that one.

Do you blindly follow every rule you're given you're whole life pete without questioning it ever?
 
You don't think class discipline is a supid rule - but I bet a number of pupils do ( I certainly did when i was 14 )

equally you don't think the no holidays in term time rule is sensible - but i bet the LEA does.

Surely you can see the paralell
 
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