school holidays

[DawnSwift]

I'm a teacher and in the authority I work for you are allowed to take children out for a maximum of 10 days in a school yearbefore it becomes a truancy issue. However you are supposed to ask first and there is a forum for you to fill in. The school will not like it but they can't really stop you but it is important to check that your children wouldn't be sitting any national tests at the time as they can only do them on certain dates.

Dawn Swift

[Nikki D]

Thats very handy to know Dawn. I did'nt know the kids where allowed time off school for holidays. I may start looking at the october hols now as I have always wanted to go then but always thought it was too close to just starting back a new year.[msnsmile2]

[Milly]

Hi

I live in Suffolk and a friend of mine took her kids out of school for one week so they could have 2 weeks in India. She got at letter from the local authority. Her reply was if you can supply my son with teachers in every subject then you have reason to complain but as he has not had a maths teacher for a whole year. I think travel is educational.

I use to feel it was unfair that teacher's with children had to pay so much in the holiday but now we are all having to pay full price as we can't take our children out of school.

The other option if its only a few days is to say they are sick then Tony Blairs figures will still look good!!!!!!!!

Dianne

[Homer]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by Milly
Hi

I live in Suffolk and a friend of mine took her kids out of school for one week so they could have 2 weeks in India. She got at letter from the local authority. Her reply was if you can supply my son with teachers in every subject then you have reason to complain but as he has not had a maths teacher for a whole year. I think travel is educational.[/quote]I have taken my 2 boys out for our last 3 visits and agree whole heartedley with the above comments.

If schools and authority spent more time concentrating on the constant non attendees rather than those who it is known are on holiday we would be in a far better place.

My son had woodwork last year without actually using any wood or tools and so far this year has had metalwork without any metal or any work in fact as they have no teacher.

Schools have rules to suit themselves and as Diane said if they provide the service they are supposed to then it would be better.

[dawn]

The schools in our area are getting much stricter now. You are allowed to ask permission for up to 10 days leave, however they will now only grant one request per academic year, no matter what the duration. They will not grant permission for the first half term of the academic year, neither will they grant permission for requests in the summer term (ie from Easter to July). I can understand the reasoning (start of the new year and exams), but if anything we would ask for one or two days before a school holiday. Now I am thinking we may take them out for a whole week before a school holiday if we are only going to be able to ask once per year, so in theory they could end up being away for longer than we would usually plan.

[Milly]

Hi

I don't think its fair that some schools let you have time off and some don't.

They should say one thing or another really. I am really lucky and my children are in a really good school and I wouldn't like to take advantage, but I still don't like paying extra for flights because you are restricted with the dates you can go.

The only answer is to save longer and WORK HARDER!!!!!!!!!

[Maz]

We used to take ours out when they were at primary school but we haven't since they were older. However in Gloucestershire different schools had different easter holidays this year so if parents had different children at different schools they would have had no choice but to take at least one child out of school to accommodate a 2 week easter break.

[Albert the Frog]

My school days and my now adult children's schooldays are long gone but here's my ha'pen'worth- A trip of a lifetime-2 weeks out of school-exposure to different, albeit, semi-artifical culture-memories that will last a lifetime-no contest-Get them to Orlando!
My daughter is a teacher in Primary and she tells us of kids who disappear for months at a time -with parental blessing-to visit relatives in another country-to me a sensible occasional "missing" of the odd couple of weeks won't make the slightest difference-in respect of Children's education it is an encouraging, supportive environment from parents that care that makes the difference not missing 2 weeks.

[Milly]

Hi

Well said

We have always traveled a lot even when the kids where babies, My kids understand that there is a big wide world out there and to experience some where different is just amazing. We would really like to fly round the world and stop off at a few places, but we didn't really want to go in the summer holidays. Getting time off school would be impossible. Don't know what to think anymore.

[ali-uk]

Hi
I take my kids out of school because my husbands job dictates when we take our holidays my kids are 16 and 10, the schools so far have been very good about the situation, they too grant 10 days-two weeks off, but if they were to change their minds about it we wouldn't have one holiday a year it would be one every two years because we couldnt afford to go in the summer holidays.

We did enjoy florida in last September because it was quite
We are very lucky being able to do this and feel sorry for those who cant do the same, we always make sure that the kids catch up on school work.