Term time holidays for kids & parents getting fined by schools...

[benedmonds]

Its all about choice and your kids future. How the parents want to handle it is a matter of exercising common sense and putting your kids education on the front burner. .

 

It's not only the kids who get taken out that suffer, it's the whole class. If the teacher has to give special attention to help little SteveyA out then they have less time to give to the other class. Probably would not matter if it was only one or two children but if it was the norm it would make teaching even more difficult.

 

Personally I think all students should be given two weeks floating holiday (taken from the existing holiday) then all families (teacher would also have the floating weeks) could chose when they went away and this would break the holiday Co cartel.

 

It also would not work in the British school system, that has a fixed curriculum/syllabus with very little leeway. You might be surprised how much a teacher has to cover if they want the kids to pass the exams.

[Kveldssanger]

Let us not act as if one vacation for children will impact their academic development drastically. If it's abused and they're always taken out then fair play, but for one week-long vacation - where's the issue? It's not as if school is the only place a child can learn!

[Kveldssanger]

It also would not work in the British school system, that has a fixed curriculum/syllabus with very little leeway. You might be surprised how much a teacher has to cover if they want the kids to pass the exams.

 

This is the exact issue with schools, and you hit the nail on the head: "to pass exams". That's all it is. A conveyor belt. They don't want kids going out on holiday as there's the off chance it may hurt their statistics. That's the real reason here. Well, that and control. Is a teacher really going to worry themselves with the moral dilemma that little Jimmy might not fully understand trigonometry if he missed two maths lessons to go to Yellowstone National Park?

Edited January 15, 2016 by Kveldssanger

[Mark Bolam]

I lived 25 miles away from my high school in rural Northumberland.

Missed weeks sometimes in heavy snow.

Didn't do me a lot of harm, passed my three r's and that.

I wouldn't take my kids on holiday in term time if I could help it, but wouldn't hesitate if it suited us (and them) once in a while.

[benedmonds]

Let us not act as if one vacation for children will impact their academic development drastically. If it's abused and they're always taken out then fair play, but for one week-long vacation - where's the issue? It's not as if school is the only place a child can learn!

 

One week vacation a year may not affect Jimmy, it might even be positive for Jimmy. But 30 different kids off over 30 different weeks in the year would make it VERY difficult to teach a class to pass exams.

 

This is the exact issue with schools...: "to pass exams". That's all it is. A conveyor belt. They don't want kids going out on holiday as there's the off chance it may hurt their statistics.

 

This may be true and I certainly disagree with the excessive testing at primary age, but is there a better way to examine pupils?

[Kveldssanger]

One week vacation a year may not affect Jimmy, it might even be positive for Jimmy. But 30 different kids off over 30 different weeks in the year would make it VERY difficult to teach a class to pass exams.

 

But what if those holidays for those 30 different kids is beneficial for all of those 30 different kids? Do we have any evidence that teachers suffer significantly as a result of the entire class (assuming 30 is an entire class, which would be very likely) taking a week's break off, staggered, over the course of an academic year? I know from when I was at school taking term-time holidays was rare, though I also know that if it happened it wasn't bad. I also know that the lack of a proper teacher who could convey knowledge and ignite passion for learning was far more destructive to the ability of a student to pass an exam.

 

 

This may be true and I certainly disagree with the excessive testing at primary age, but is there a better way to examine pupils?

 

I would much rather see examinations based on a greater breadth of intelligences (emotional, social, academic, philosophical). School examinations are exclusively geared towards the ability for young individuals to work under pressure and think analytically within the realm of the syllabus, with no ability to substaintially demonstrate knowledge gained outside of the curriculum or demonstrate the desire and passions they may have for subjects outside of the curriculum. Schools limit ability, and they limit choice. Examinations, in their current form, are the cause of this.

[penfold]

iirc the parents only have a responsibility to ensure regular attendance of their child.

[agg221]

This thread is irrelevant to me.

My kids are home-educated.[ATTACH]197006[/ATTACH]

 

Mark, my wife (who is a teacher) says you are doing a great job

 

Alec

[Mark Bolam]

Cheers mate.

I got the tip from my mam (retired teacher).

Stella may be reassuringly expensive, but it's cheaper than Calpol.

[muttley9050]

I'll be taking my kids out of school for the last week before summer. Simply because it saves me 1200 for 1 week away. It's the last year I'll be comfortable doing it as my daughter is nearly 12 and don't want her to miss too much.

My sons school is a joke and the more time he spends out of there the better. The head hasn't been present for 3 months now as he's been trying to get his foot in the door in some regional head job. The deputy head has applied for a head job in a local school and has been away from school on and off am awful lot. The year 4 teacher has left and is taught now by constantly changing supply teachers. My friends year 4 daughter has been called all sorts of things by the teacher most recently in games she was referred to as blonde glasses girl at the back.

All the turmoil at the school leaves my sons y2 teacher running the school and my son taught by various supply teachers whom don't know his name and neither does he know theirs.

And they wanna fine me for a week off when they would be watching videos anyway for the second half. I can't wait to receive the letter. But all is fine to be honest, because the school has an outstanding ofsted report.