Term Time Holidays

[suzib76]

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.

I agree that a holiday isn't essential, however, my dh and I both work very hard so we can afford to have things. It's not about it being essential but I am buggered if I am going to work 20+ years ( if I never took a break from Leah starting to Lana finishing school) without taking a holiday!

 

[Lauraxamy]

When my LO's are at school and I come to find the holidays are stupidly expensive term time then yeah I probably would take them out, I'd probably try and get it so it was the last week of term and maybe weds-weds or something so they only missed a couple of days. It's really not fair that the holiday companies put their prices up a stupid amount in school holidays just because they know parents are forced to pay it.