Rupert_Baehr Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 how are they going to enforce this ban ?will they be kidnapping your children on the day you want to go away? like someone said if holiday companies didnt push up the prices this wouldnt be an issue. will parents be able to claim for child care costs when the school has a training day ? Probably by taking the parents to court. The government will do it - not the school. See the post above re 'training days'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Ultimately, of course a child's education is more important than a holiday. There are a couple of "buts" though. First of all, the school needs to be providing quality education, right up to the last day of term. That doesn't always happen, in my experience. Standards can slip in the last few days of a term. Lots of parents know this and opt to go away during the last week of term. I can't say that I blame them. We also need radical reform of the school year. A six week summer holiday is bad for everyone, especially kids and especially kids who get little parental input. A rejig of the school year, making sure that we don't standardise term times across the country, should spread out demand and therefore bring holiday prices down. As a bonus, it will also spread out the workload of students and teachers. What's not to like? If the school summer holidays were shortened, would you have GCSE's and 'A' level exams in the middle of the summer term? - If they were moved to the end of term (perhaps running into early August), who would mark them and when? When would the results come out? I'm sure you've encountered the problems in 'motivating' year 12 students to work right up to the end of term after their exams. "You're half-way through a two-year course. You can't afford to sit back just because you've finished the first year's exams!" (Yeah, right ) If the exam dates stayed the same and the term went on for longer the problem would be even bigger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 20, 2012 Author Share Posted February 20, 2012 A school that I know well has a simple policy to avoid this problem. If parents take a child out of school for a holiday, the parents are responsible for making sure that the child catches up on the work missed. No input from the teachers. No exceptions. It works too. That sounds fair. Would you know if that school notices a correlation between the children that are taken out for holidays in term-time, and the ones who have parents who take the trouble to get them back up to speed? Or do the children just fall behind? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Graham Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Really? How much did a 52" flat screen Colour TV cost 40 years ago? How much was an I-Pad? or a cell phone? Or a PC? How much was the round-trip air fare to Florida 40 years ago? Or to the Maldives? Or to Thailand? All way out of the price range of most teachers or their parents (even if those items existed.) 40 years ago I suspect that for most children in Sheffield (and elsewhere), a summer holiday was a trip to Skeggy or to Blackpool - and I wouldn't be surprised to find that accommodation charges at those places increased during the summer holidays, too. The airlines and the ferry companies have a fixed number of seats available. They can't afford to leave a ship tied up at a dock or an aircraft sitting on the pan, so it's hardly surprising that they offer cheaper flights/ferry tickets when the demand is lower. 'Package deals' tend to be sold earlier than flight/ferry only tickets and there are fewer bargains available at peak periods. Similarly, hotels and guest houses want to optimise their occupancy rates, so they too are likely to offer discounts at off-peak times. It is annoying that prices rise when most people want to travel, but it's a fact of life. Sibon suggested that schools could adjust their term dates. - That would help - if some schools started the holiday 2 weeks earlier than others (not a problem for primary schools, but could be more difficult for those schools which had GCSEs or A levels up until July.) Another option might be for 50% of schools to have a single 2-week half term during the winter term (and none during the Michaelmas term) and the remainder to have a 2-week half term during Michaelmas and none during the winter term. - That way half of the children would have 2 weeks off in autumn and half would have 2 weeks off in late February. - That would mean that those children whose families wanted to go skiing would get 2 weeks off in February (Schools could alternate the 2-week period) and those parents who wish to travel to 'sunnier climes' (like Florida ) would get far better weather! (The temperatures here in October and November varied between 25-32'C and this month [although there are cool days - Like 20'C] the temperature is usually in the low to upper 20's - which (IMO) beats the crap out of 35-38'C, with humidity figures of 85% or more and thunderstorms - Florida during the rainy season - when most Brits go there. It's not that long ago that we had two weeks at Spring Bank Holiday but some bright spark changed it to one week. We always went away in May because it was cooler and cheaper then. In mid summer it is just too hot in most parts of Europe. Now it's only a week it's not enough for a proper holiday. If Christmas holidays started on Christmas eve we could have Christmas at home and then go away afterwards when the prices are cheaper. But, as with all public services, education is an unthinking bureaucracy more interested in making people comply with the rules that benefit the providers rather than supplying a service that benefits those who use it and pay for it. Sibon is right that little work is done in schools after May. When they were younger before exams came along I used to pack my kids off to relatives in the tropics well before the end of the school year. They didn't lose any education, they now speak another language and they have experienced people and cultures they would never get in Europe. This year we are driving across America in mid summer desert heat because it's exam time and it's the only time we can get 3 weeks off. IMO education, particularly in Sheffield, has little to offer bright kids. They need be stretched and inspired to achieve. Some schools are so lazy they just plonk the kids in front of DVDs and make them watch them. The message they get from schools in this city is we teachers don't care about you and "Don't bother trying, it's all a waste of time anyway". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truman Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Yes to staggered term times and an end to the holiday peak prices. Yes to shorter, more frequent holidays. All that would happen in this case is that holidays would be expensive all the year round.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchresearch Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Over here the LEAs have started to stagger the holidays. One LEA was off last week, one this, one next. They've also moved the Easter fortnight holiday away from the Easter weekend. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
llamatron Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Is education more important than holidays? Yes. Is a single week of education more important than a holiday? No. completely agree, there might be any reason you have to go on a certain week weddings, birthdays etc and occasional week off is no problem. I had both holidays and days off during term time and it was all part of the adventure of being a kid. It does rely on the parents deciding whether the kid can cope with missing a week based on their ability and work ethic and I guess therein lies the problem! As I was just bored at school it really wasn't an issue, a lot of my time in school was a waste but my holiday time wasn't. I don't think I ever concentrated at school until my A-levels. I think adults should be putting more emphasis on holidays not forcing kids to put less emphasis on them. They are one of the most important parts of my life! I think your poll is a leading question! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxforcefive Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 Is education more important than holidays? Yes. Is a single week of education more important than a holiday? No. I'd definitely agree with this. There's more to education than sitting in a classroom and for parents who can't afford the hiked up prices, the alternative is that their children don't get to experience a family holiday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cyclone Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 I agree with the statement that an education is more important than a holiday, but I don't agree with the premise that having one week off will harm that education and so I don't believe that agreeing with the statement leads to the conclusion that children shouldn't have holidays in term time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max Posted February 20, 2012 Share Posted February 20, 2012 If schools set the children sufficient homework to keep them busy over the period they're away then this could possibly mitigate their absence. It would allow the parents to visit the cultural drinking dens whilst away happy in the knowledge that their children were gainfully employed and not missing out on their education. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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