Term Time Holidays

[jenny82]

I would do it depending on the type of holiday and the benefit to them. So for a beach holiday probably not, but if it was a once in a lifetime trip to Africa or NZ, then yes. I have no idea how it all works with schools, hadn't heard of the fine until it was on the news last week! But i would continue learning while on holiday (my parents did this with me).

 

[Rachel_C]

For my kids, I don't think it would be a problem to miss a week or two of school but it isn't just about my kids, is it? There are 20-30 other kids in the class too and if the teacher has to spend extra time with my child to help them catch up, that's less time with the kids whose parents haven't broken the rules - hardly fair. It's also more work for the teacher and many teachers are swamped as it is. If the trip was something really special - perhaps a foreign trip to somewhere with a rich culture (and where you won't be sitting on the beach all day or eating in restaurants that serve English food!), perhaps it could be of enough value to the child that the affect on the rest of the class could be forgiven, but I think probably most of us don't take our kids on holidays like that! You'd probably need quite a lot of money to do it so you can probably afford to go in the school holidays anyway. I'm not sure a trip to Butlins or wherever is of any real value you couldn't add by doing some day trips at the weekend or in school holidays.

I don't think it's right that companies can charge so much more during school holidays and I'm all for that being sorted out, but until it is we will either stump up the extra and go in the holidays or not go at all.

 

[Bex84]

For me personally i wouldent do it when lo is at school due to knowing what a pain in the neck it was to try give children time to catch up in things especially like maths as you might only be doing fractions for one week of term, if they miss it as a teacher i had to catch cildren up on 5 days+ of lessons so they wouldent fall behind which obviosly means others in class missing out on my time especially as i had more than one child missing time. Obviosly i can see where holiday would be good especially if your willing to do work with child to catch up, we are limited to holidays in school holidays as hubbie is a teacher and i am to though at mo a sahm

 

[jenny82]

For my kids, I don't think it would be a problem to miss a week or two of school but it isn't just about my kids, is it? There are 20-30 other kids in the class too and if the teacher has to spend extra time with my child to help them catch up, that's less time with the kids whose parents haven't broken the rules - hardly fair. It's also more work for the teacher and many teachers are swamped as it is. If the trip was something really special - perhaps a foreign trip to somewhere with a rich culture (and where you won't be sitting on the beach all day or eating in restaurants that serve English food!), perhaps it could be of enough value to the child that the affect on the rest of the class could be forgiven, but I think probably most of us don't take our kids on holidays like that! You'd probably need quite a lot of money to do it so you can probably afford to go in the school holidays anyway. I'm not sure a trip to Butlins or wherever is of any real value you couldn't add by doing some day trips at the weekend or in school holidays.

I don't think it's right that companies can charge so much more during school holidays and I'm all for that being sorted out, but until it is we will either stump up the extra and go in the holidays or not go at all.

What if you were the parent that made sure they kept up to date with school work and weren't behind on returning? Would that make a difference?

 

[lindseymw]

We will be going away in May for 2 weeks, 1 week being half term, the 2nd week being term time.

DH does not get to pick his annual leave, he is on a shift rota and gets 17 days off every so many weeks.

We went away pretty much every year in term time and never found it disruptive.

 

[RachA]

Can I just say to those who are citing the cost of holidays as their reason for going during term time that unless you are booking from a brochure as soon as it comes out that it's just not true holidays are more expensive

I booked our holiday for this year a couple if months ago. For two weeks to Rhodes, half board and flying from our local airport (which usually makes it more expensive), in a pretty decent hotel we are actually only paying about £200 more than a previous holiday which was for 1 weeks in Crete, all inclusive and was in Sept during term time.
If you shop around you can find amazing deals and it needn't cost much more than term time holidays.

 

[bumpy_j]

We will be going away in May for 2 weeks, 1 week being half term, the 2nd week being term time.

DH does not get to pick his annual leave, he is on a shift rota and gets 17 days off every so many weeks.

We went away pretty much every year in term time and never found it disruptive.

That's a point - what if your job means you can only get holiday during term time?

 

[suzib76]

I take mine out, have done every year and will continue to do so

It has NOTHING to do with the cost of a holiday whatsoever. It is simply because dh's holidays are allocated and he generally doesn't get the school holidays. Asking for a swap is like asking someone to cut off a limb as they all want the school hols.

Potentially I could wait another 14 years for all my kids to have left school before we get a family holiday, how could that be right?

 

[Bex84]

Do people just pay the fine then or say children are ill due to its not upto school descretion any more as they are not allowed to say yes. I am interested, i can see how holidays benefit, mind you saying that i went on 3 holidays as a child, 2 were before i started school and one when i was 9 and only holiday since then was honeymoon and all of them have been uk. My dh went to spain alot though never learnt anything much about a different culture, his family holidays were more of a sit at a hotel pool kind of thing. My parents didnt have the money so we did things locally, i didnt really miss out i think we just did family time at home. We will take lo abroud when shes older

 

[Lucy_2010]

My Lo isnt at school yet but in an ideal world i wouldnt want her out of school during term time but my work does holidays on a seniority basis and there is only 1 staff member allowed of at a time.

Although ive been in my current job over 5 years i still find myself 2nd last with another 10+ staff above me.

For us if its a case of if we didnt take her out of school for holidays we wouldnt get a family holiday at all.

Schools need to look at all cases on a fair basis.

 

[Bex84]

Its not upto schools any more. I know before it changed where i worked was preety good at allowing time for holiday though was abused as we had a percentage who disapeered off for 1-3 months and still expected school place when got back

 

[RachA]

I take mine out, have done every year and will continue to do so

It has NOTHING to do with the cost of a holiday whatsoever. It is simply because dh's holidays are allocated and he generally doesn't get the school holidays. Asking for a swap is like asking someone to cut off a limb as they all want the school hols.

Potentially I could wait another 14 years for all my kids to have left school before we get a family holiday, how could that be right?

This definitely makes a difference. I don't think it's right because we have the option of choosing any time and therefore we should choose school holidays. If you don't have the option of choice then I don't see a problem with it and tbh i don't think most schools would.

I think that unfortunately the few have spoiled it for the rest of us. Most people who be fairly sensible and maybe take them out for the odd day or so. They are trying to clamp down on those who do it all the time-we have families in my sons school who take their children out for two weeks April time and the extend Feb and Oct half terms by a week each-that is a huge amount of time for a child to be off school.

 

[Nibblenic]

Its not upto schools any more. I know before it changed where i worked was preety good at allowing time for holiday though was abused as we had a percentage who disapeered off for 1-3 months and still expected school place when got back

It is up to the school if they report the childs unauthorised absence to the council though. It isnt like the morning registrar is automatically sent to the local council. It is at the discretion of the headteacher to report the absence then for the LA to issue the fine.

 

[karlilay]

Thanks for all the replies. This is not a expensive holiday abroad, it's just a Haven holiday through the sun. This is the only way we would ever get away, even Haven takes a lot of saving for us. I priced everything up, I wasn't originally going to take her out of school, but it was £75 for the holiday, then £120 for the fine, or £680+ for the same holiday in the holidays. It will take me all year to save enough to pay the £195 for the holiday and fine, and a little bit of sending money.
We honestly cannot afford £600+ on a holiday

 

[lindseymw]

We will be going away in May for 2 weeks, 1 week being half term, the 2nd week being term time.

DH does not get to pick his annual leave, he is on a shift rota and gets 17 days off every so many weeks.

We went away pretty much every year in term time and never found it disruptive.

That's a point - what if your job means you can only get holiday during term time?

We lucky that this year his shifts have fallen on one of the half terms, we could of course just go for a week, but why should we fore go a 2 week holiday just because his shifts don't fall right & other families who don't have the same issue can go on a 2 week holiday. For us, the cost difference doesn't come into in. We can afford it either way but we just don't have the luxury of picking & choosing annual leave.

 

[Kate&Lucas]

For my kids, I don't think it would be a problem to miss a week or two of school but it isn't just about my kids, is it? There are 20-30 other kids in the class too and if the teacher has to spend extra time with my child to help them catch up, that's less time with the kids whose parents haven't broken the rules - hardly fair. It's also more work for the teacher and many teachers are swamped as it is. If the trip was something really special - perhaps a foreign trip to somewhere with a rich culture (and where you won't be sitting on the beach all day or eating in restaurants that serve English food!), perhaps it could be of enough value to the child that the affect on the rest of the class could be forgiven, but I think probably most of us don't take our kids on holidays like that! You'd probably need quite a lot of money to do it so you can probably afford to go in the school holidays anyway. I'm not sure a trip to Butlins or wherever is of any real value you couldn't add by doing some day trips at the weekend or in school holidays.

I don't think it's right that companies can charge so much more during school holidays and I'm all for that being sorted out, but until it is we will either stump up the extra and go in the holidays or not go at all.

I agree with all of this.
I just don't see a holiday as something essential, personally. Last year during the summer holidays (when there was lots of deals on everywhere and it was hot) I took a week off work and Lucas and I had a day out every day, it was great. If I can't afford a summer holiday this year outside of term time we'll do it again.

I'd hate to give Lucas the impression that sitting on a beach for a week in Tenerife was more important than his education, whatever his age. And as someone who didn't go on holidays as a child, I (and the rest of the class) was definitely affected when May-July rolled around and half the class would be absent on holiday. In primary school particularly. Some weeks we didn't even do any real work, there was literally no point. I distinctly remember a rather fun week we spent painting balloons in year 5, the teacher told us there were too many kids missing to teach us anything.

 

[Blah11]

Im taking amelie out for the last week before summer holidays start. I won't do it again but this is a special occasion as its a wedding abroad so hopefully head will authorise it. I reckon she'll get more out of the holiday educationally than playing games and drawing for a week anyway!

 

[Ceejay123]

We're going on holiday for three weeks in June, we're taking lily out of school for it. We've never done it before... But the holiday has cost upwards of 15k already for the family... Out of term time would have doubled it!

(5.5k villas/5*'resort) (£2k flights) then tickets for disney parks are £2-300pp in term time and other extras like car rentals and other tickets. It would have cost 25k+ if we'd done it out of term time. Flights go from 650 to 1100. (7 of us)

 

[Erised]

Eleanor starts school come September, and we will be taking her out when we think is appropriate. We wouldn't do it just before exams / tests or whatever, but the period just before Christmas or whatever ... yeah, we will. Truthfully though, we considered home schooling her anyway so we do fully intend on keeping up with what she's being taught in school at the times we're away.

Our main reason for taking her out will be a week to Holland, all my family is Dutch and apart from MIL and BIL all Eleanors family is in Holland. During holiday times the accommodation is simply not affordable for us, and I refuse to give up her seeing my family for years at a time just so we can save up 3 / 4 times the money required in holiday times vs. term time.

Our second holiday we'd take her out for is a Florida holiday. The difference between a last minute DIY holiday during term time compared to a DIY or travel agent holiday during a school holiday is 1000's. We love the place, as does Eleanor... to me that time in a magical place with family is more important than 5 days in a school environment being taught stuff we *can* teach her ourselves.

 

[nugget80]

I wouldn't take mine out of school... but we have no choice but to go in holidays as dh is a teacher and I have just qualified as one but currently a sahm. Prices are higher in holidays but there are deals to be had if you look hard enough. We have paid a little over 2k for family of 5 to egypt at end of july and will probably do a caravan holiday end of august. We did this last year and caravan was 130 for 3 nights including the dog!
If you can't afford something then you go without. Least this is what I was told.
Time off conflicts though are a whole separate issue and should be dealt with as such...
@ceejay america is expensive but we paid way less than that for 5of us a couple of years ago. We went in easter hols... you will have a fab time...