Do you have some views on the current practice of taking holidays outside school time?

Your Views and comments so far

I'd really like to comment on Mikes thoughts, What a load of rubbish, how on earth can taking your children out of school for two weeks a year be selfish, children are great at making up for lost time and usually catch up within days not weeks. On the understanding that it would be silly to take your children out of school at a critical pre exam stage then fine but not at any other time. The majority of comments on this site regarding this matter lead to the main issue being the cost of holidays in school holiday times then the Travel industry needs to address this. Make holidays the same price in and out of school holiday periods. I for one will continue to take my daughters out of school for our holidays.

Mark

I have just priced up some flights to Geneva during Feb 2007 half term. To fly out on Sat 10th Feb would cost £1287 for a family of four. However, if we took our children out of school and went a week earlier, the cost of the flights would be £326.00! The difference means that the £50 vouchers we have been given are just a joke. I agree totally, the government cannot start penalising parents until it sorts out the travel operators.

Carole

We got to go in school time beacause my husband is a chef for Centre Parcs and he can't get time off

Alison C

My understanding is that your child can have up to 10 days holiday during term time as long as their attendance it good the rest of the time. Fortunately so far my children have only had a couple of days off school due to illness so far this school year. I am trying to book my holiday for next year. We want to take the children away in April. If we go over the Easter holidays for a week it would cost us as a family of four around £2,200 whereby if we go either just before or just after the school holiday it would cost around £1,300. I would rather take my child out of school because of the price but regret having them miss out on education and having to catch up. If travel agencies sorted out their prices and gave incentives to families travelling during school holidays they would get more families booking holidays.

Alison

I have taken my child out of school for family holidays on a few occassions . However this is due to a rotational holiday rota within my workplace which is not flexible the next couple of years arent a problem as I'm on July this year and August next year if I can I try to take term time holidays to coincide withweeks off at school or in service days to reduce the impact the absence may have where I am being flexible I feel the school makes no effort to help reduce this impact by refusing to give homework to cover absence I understand some lessons are taught in such a manner the teachers should do it, but reading and english in general shouldn't be a problem . As I work in a physically demanding line of work on a shift basis the well earned 2 week break is beneficial to my family wellbeing these weeks should not just be designed to suit those in the teaching profession or those lucky enough to be able to take holidays during school holidays

John and Sheila

It would appear that the government, schools and - by the look of some of the opinions on this site - other parents seem to assume one fact: that all parents have the choice to take their annual leave to tie in with school holiday dates.

It would never be my decision to take my child out of school for a holiday trip. But, given the option of either spending my annual leave on my own at home or taking my child out of school to enable us to enjoy a family holiday, what am I expected to do?

Amanda

I believe taking your children out of school during term time just to go on holiday should be banned by individyal schools. I appreciate other people's remarks on this but I think that for the other kids in the class it sends out all the wrong messages and I regard this activity as extremely selfish.

At my daughters school a parent has taken their daughter out of school to go skiing and to make matters worse they are meeting up with a former member of my daughters class who was very popular but who moved permanently abroad last september. The rest of her friends feel really bad. How inconsiderate. The school has just appointed a new headteacher who would not of aware of the link between the children. I think these parents should be ashamed of themselves in manipulating the system in this way. what do others think?

Mike

Our Somerset primary school is saying that it is following DfeS and LEA guidelines, no holidays will be authorised and we are threatened with a report to the social workers and a thousand pound fine if we do go.

We feel the school is trying to intimidate parents with empty threats and lies about wording of the legeslation. We have just returned from two weeks in Tenerife (mid Jan) and are awaiting the reaction from the school.

Richard

Question, What would happen if all the people in the UK with Children took their Holidays in August, Well it would cause major problems with the running of the country, for me education is number 1 for my children and am always onto them how important it is, but sometimes it is not possible to go in the school holidays especially if you work for a small firm with 10 employess or less and do not have major choices of dates. Common sense has to be applied for example i will try to take my 3 children out of school say the last week before xmas when some schools are winding down and does not effect education too much.

Finally I read an article earlier on about a trip to Egypt costing one price one day and a higher the next, I myself have just been doing the same by pricing up a trip for 5 to Florida on the 15th it is one price and one day later when the children are on xmas break the same trip went up £3,000. What are we to do? Happy Holidays!

Keith

Hi My son is 4 years old. He started school(Reception) in Last September 05. Is possible to take him out of school for 3 months so we go on traveling few places around the world. Also what age does it become compulsory to send them at school?

Anon

As I understand matters, guidelines to headteachers suggest that they are obliged to allow holidays in term time up to 10 days per year. There is no doubt that taking children out of school disrupts their education. In today's formulised school arena once a child misses lessons then there is no easy way to make up the lost ground. My view is that the government should actually legislate to ban parents taking holidays in school time and introduce penalties that make it more expensive overall to go on holiday in term time rather than in school holidays. However, the government seem reluctant to actually govern for fear of losing a few votes at the next election and continue to have a confused and contradictory stance. The basic laws of supply and demand mean that holidays in term time will be cheaper. Indeed, if the government introduced effective deterrants to taking children out of school for holidays, the price differential might increase."

As a travel company (car hire broker) we see this problem from a different angle. Our suppliers have to provide so many more vehicles during the school holidays, which then have to stand for the rest of the year. They actually make a loss on these cars throughout the winter in order to keep as many running as possible. This is the reason why it is so expensive during the school holidays, unfortunately as more people know the cause of the problem, vacations during school holidays will become even more expensive! It is much fairer to everyone if children were allowed to take more time out of school term for holidays.

Rory

"I would be willing to take our holidays in school holiday weeks if the holidays weren't so expensive.....this year we paid £350 for a week's holiday from 27th August as my daughter started school this September....the week after the same holiday would have cost £180 ...... and we didn't want her to miss her first month of making new friends etc......we usually go on holiday for 2 weeks in September....at August prices we couldn't afford going away for 2 weeks......April - Beginning of August I suffer from hayfever & my asthma worsens then...so I can't go between those months either.......but if prices were more reasonable end of August I would definitely book for then....hence that is why September is really the only month we can go on holiday"

Nev and Bernie

Questionnaire

Firstly many thanks to all of you who took the time to fill in our Holidays in School Term Time Questionnaire.

136 people took part in the survey that asked whether parents were willing to pay the premium for Holidays during school holidays or whether they took their children out of school for family breaks.

Of the 136 respondents, the overall split was fairly even, 55% of parents said they had taken their children out of school for holidays and 45% said they had not.

Of the 55% majority, the average time out of school, per trip, was a week or less. However, 85% said they had taken holidays during term time between 1 and 4 times.

A vast majority of parents said their children's schools would approve a maximum of 10 days term 'holiday' leave per year, if written notice was given.

One thing everyone agreed on....

The outrageous abuse of parents by the Travel companies in charging such a premium during school holidays.

Many parents gave examples of the hike in holiday costs:

"I am going to Egypt for a week leaving December 17th and paying £1500 for a family of 5. If we left on 18th December it would have been £3,600."

And many said paying the £100 potential 'fine' for taking children out of school would not stop them, because the savings so far outweighed the cost of the fine.

"If the government is going to introduce fines for parents they should also be lobbying holiday firms to reduce their prices during school holidays."

OK at Primary school age? - Some parents specifically stated that while they felt relaxed about doing this at Primary school they felt it was damaging to their child's education to do so, now their children were in secondary education.

However, the introduction of Primary school SATS tests was raised by a few parents who had been encouraged by their child's school to not take them out of school in Years 2 and 6 (SATS years).

One issue that frustrated several parents was the fact that it was sometimes not possible for 2 parents to get time off together during school holidays and so there was no option but to take time off school:

"I am at the bottom of the holiday list and so all the school holiday slots were already picked before I got my say."

Holidays are educational - Several parents highlighted the fact that holidays in term time should not be seen so negatively and that there were real educational advantages:

"I feel justified in taking my children out of school to go on holiday as they get just as much educational benefit from that week as they would at school."

Some practical proposals:

"As a teacher, I would obviously prefer children not to go on holiday in term time but I would say that that last few weeks of the summer term are 'winding down' weeks and so the child misses less formal education - the worst time is the start of the new school year in September."

"What about kids having a small project to do during the holiday that would be fun but contribute to their learning and one they could share with the classmates when the returned."

Finally, though, the overriding feeling was that Travel companies were the real villains and that the government should look at the issue of price hiking during school holidays before they start penalising parents.