Removing children from school to on vacation...

[Amirah]

How do you guys feel about taking your children out of school to go on vacation during the non-peak times of the year?

I was reading in the Walt Disney World Unofficial Guide about this very subject. There were two teacher comments and one parent comment. TEACHERS were saying that parents expect to get a 'nice little packet' of work to send with their children on vacation and get full credit for the class time missed. That person also said it is impossible for children to complete all lessons that is to be done in school on vacation/holiday. The response also said that he/she tells parents upfront that taking their children on a non-holiday that they will not past tests and cannot catch up on the work missed. Students, upon return, ask to be excused from testing because of this. The one PARENT said that it's worth it to take their children during the off-peak to get away from the crowds. This person goes on to say that all you have to do is just tell the school in advance that the family is going on vacation.

Basically, teachers are not happy with this type of parenting method. Is a child's vacation (ease of large crowds during the non-peak) more important than their learning. As a college professor, I cannot relate to elementary or high school teachers level but I believe that they do miss out on some learning activities. [msnembarrased]I admit, I have taken my daughter out of school for a week to go on vacation in the past and I didn't think it was a big deal but apparently it is to some teachers. I thought this was an interesting topic to discuss. What do you guys think about this?

Sorry for rambling...

[Amirah]

I made a mistake in the title...I meant to type "Removing children from school to go on vacation..." Sorry!

[chrizzy100]

quote:Originally posted by Amirah

How do you guys feel about taking your children out of school to go on vacation during the non-peak times of the year?

I was reading in the Walt Disney World Unofficial Guide about this very subject. There were two teacher comments and one parent comment. TEACHERS were saying that parents expect to get a "nice little packet" of work to send with their children on vacation and get full credit for the class time missed. That person also said it is impossible for children to complete all lessons that is to be done in school on vacation/holiday. The response also said that he/she tells parents upfront that taking their children on a non-holiday that they will not past tests and cannot catch up on the work missed. Students, upon return, ask to be excused from testing because of this. The one PARENT said that it's worth it to take their children during the off-peak to get away from the crowds. This person goes on to say that all you have to do is just tell the school in advance that the family is going on vacation.

Basically, teachers are not happy with this type of parenting method. Is a child's vacation (ease of large crowds during the non-peak) more important than their learning. As a college professor, I cannot relate to elementary or high school teachers level but I believe that they do miss out on some learning activities. [msnembarrased]I admit, I have taken my daughter out of school for a week to go on vacation in the past and I didn't think it was a big deal but apparently it is to some teachers. I thought this was an interesting topic to discuss. What do you guys think about this?

Sorry for rambling...

I've always taken my kids out of school to go to Disney early at Christmas...... both when I lived in England and the USA...the schools have always been fine with it..I ask for homework but teachers just tell the kids to have fun....

[florida4sun]

Never did me or my kids any harm. I think while they young no problem. Gets more tricky the older they get. But then one of my children has been of school for 3 months now and will not return till after Xmas. So if we listen to teachers who whine on about the odd week, it means he has no chance of any education whatsover[msnscared].
In practice I have found that good teachers think its a good thing. Those who are not up to the job will make a big deal out of it.

Martin

quote:Originally posted by Amirah

How do you guys feel about taking your children out of school to go on vacation during the non-peak times of the year?

I was reading in the Walt Disney World Unofficial Guide about this very subject. There were two teacher comments and one parent comment. TEACHERS were saying that parents expect to get a "nice little packet" of work to send with their children on vacation and get full credit for the class time missed. That person also said it is impossible for children to complete all lessons that is to be done in school on vacation/holiday. The response also said that he/she tells parents upfront that taking their children on a non-holiday that they will not past tests and cannot catch up on the work missed. Students, upon return, ask to be excused from testing because of this. The one PARENT said that it's worth it to take their children during the off-peak to get away from the crowds. This person goes on to say that all you have to do is just tell the school in advance that the family is going on vacation.

Basically, teachers are not happy with this type of parenting method. Is a child's vacation (ease of large crowds during the non-peak) more important than their learning. As a college professor, I cannot relate to elementary or high school teachers level but I believe that they do miss out on some learning activities. [msnembarrased]I admit, I have taken my daughter out of school for a week to go on vacation in the past and I didn't think it was a big deal but apparently it is to some teachers. I thought this was an interesting topic to discuss. What do you guys think about this?

Sorry for rambling...

[esprit]

Are you allowed to take kids out of school in the US?? In the UK, you are allowed to take 10 days out of school holiday time annually by law but it is getting more and more difficult to actually take it. Since the school league tables started up, you can be made to feel like a paragon for taking your kids out of school and jeopardising your schools attendance position in the league tables, At least that is the way I felt with my last child, I was constantly getting hassled for bringing him to Orlando out of school holiday. I never had any problems with the older two As to whether they miss too much schooling, well it really depends on the age of the child. Older children working towards exams on continual assessment maybe more than young kids. I used to try for the last week of term ( ie just before they break up) as a good bet as these are usually slack periods rather than taking a week off in the middle of term when more work may be missed.

[Carla]

quote:Originally posted by florida4sun


In practice I have found that good teachers think its a good thing. Those who are not up to the job will make a big deal out of it.

Martin

It has absolutely nothing to do with whether a teacher is good at his/her job or not. Taking a child out of school for a 1, 2 or 3 week holiday is disruptive to the child, the class and the teacher. Not once, in the years that I taught, was I ever asked by either a parent or a child for work for the child's holiday!! The parents always seemed to assume that little Johnny would "catch up" when he got back to school!! The older the child, then the more difficult that becomes, to the point where it is almost impossible for many children. For the 14-16 age group with external examinations, the amount of work covered in a 2 week period, in every subject, is great, so these kids have a real uphill task facing them, just because of a holiday. I feel really sorry for kids of this age when they are deliberately taken out of school.

Very few children go through a whole year without any absences for illness, so when you start adding holidays on top, for some kids this can represent quite a lot of missed schooling. Whole topics are often missed out completely because they were covered while the child was away on holiday and the exact skills/knowledge that the child has missed are not readily apparent until either that teacher or the next teacher tries to build on those skills at a later date. Each year is a building block that the next year is built upon and if little bits of the blocks are missing then by the time the child is in high school the gaping holes really show themselves.

The vast majority of children only have a handful of days off each year due to illness and these are generally spread throughout the year. It is the fact that children on holiday are taking a single block of time that is the real problem. The same number of days spread across the year would not have anywhere near the same impact.

Good schools and good teachers have always frowned on parents removing a child during term time but could do nothing about it, so had to make the best of it. Times have changed since you were in the UK, Martin. Now many State schools actively discourage parents from taking children on holiday during term-time and refuse permission and will mark any children who are absent for this reason as unauthorised absentees which is akin to being marked down as a truant. The family could then be investigated by the Educational Welfare Officers. Also many of the sort-after State schools have Parent/Pupil/School contracts and make it abundantly clear before the child joins the school that time off for a holiday is not permitted.

At the end of the day the parents have to decide what is best for their child. However, if it's OK for that child to miss one week of school, then surely two weeks wouldn't be so bad, would it? And then again while going for two weeks, it's going to cost almost the same to go for three weeks.......

At what point, or length of holiday time, do you call a halt??????? Should parents, whose only experience of education is as a pupil, be the ones making the decision???

[Kissyme]

Also if you have a large family then it is quite simply impossible to go on holiday at end of term as the cost is staggering. For my part we only go away every other year and as it is very difficult to get annual leave out of term we do take our boys out of school but never when they have exams

[athurstance]

We have taken our children out of school when they were younger and personally I don't see the harm. We never had a problem with their primary school agreeing to it - usually an extra week added onto the half-term holiday. I do know people who have been refused when asking for more than a week at the same school though.
Now the boys have moved up to their new school though it is a real 'no-no' - the school make it quite clear they don't approve of it and we should take our holidays in the school holidays. Its not absolutely cast in stone though as I do know people who have taken their kids out but it does put the majority off which I guess is the intention. For some people they really do have no choice so you have to have some flexibility.
We are officially going to the 6 term year from 2005 which I think is an excellent idea and should make it much easier to spread holidays.

[fiona]

Due to ill-health my youngest daughter has only attended school for 3/4 days a week most of this term. We have the school's blessing to take her out a week before the end of term to have a good rest in Florida. We have had the uttmost support from the school and staff and they have helped ensure she has got her course work done.

As she has started her GSCE course this is not something we would normally do, but we are hoping a long relaxing holiday will help boost her energy and immune levels so she can cope with normal school next term.

She has a mock GCSE on the first day back at school so there is no question of her not doing school work during the holiday. Some of her tutors also set additional work for her to do during her days at home.

[Beverley]

I think it depends on the age and ability of the child. A child of 5 missing perhaps a week at school, in my opinion, won't cause much harm. However towards the end of the infant and junior years, it will be more disruptive to the childs education. Once the child is at senior level then I think it is an absolute no no. They miss to much.

Having said that my sons miss lessons frequently due to school sports fixtures. During the summer they play cricket twice a week and have athletic meetings for school. During school time.
The school also expects them to be available every Saturday for sports fixtures.
It is the schools responsibility to ensure that the pupil is given all the relevent work that they will have missed during the absence from lessons.
Consequently they frequently have stacks of work to catch up on, which has to be done as well as homework. If they can't cope they don't play.

They both have learned how to plan their time and they cope very well. If we we're to take them out of school for a holiday (which we would not do)I am confident they would be able to catch up.
It depends on the child.