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No they aren't. My son's school had an inset day the first week of this term. Ridiculous.
Fined for taking kids on holiday..
- Thread starter Locky
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No they aren't. My son's school had an inset day the first week of this term. Ridiculous.
So did my son, two extra days. Last year we used it to have a really cheap lego land hotel deal
The place was empty.Deleted member 66701
Deleted member 66701
If it's an inset day then it's not the first day of term is it
The first day of term starts AFTER the inset day.
OT - we usually go to Scotland for the May half term as English schools are on holiday but the Scots schools don't have a half term - cheapy cheap cheap
And there are no other kids around - which is fortunate as I don't like children!
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There are 190 days in a school year, teachers are in for 195 days. The inset days make no difference at all to the number of days your child is in school for.
You're problem is with poor parenting. Not taking holidays in term time
Sensible people who value and understand the importance of education would argue that taking your kids out of school for the purpose of saving a few quid IS poor parenting!!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...aughter-7-Disney-World-holiday-term-time.html
Go all the way mate, we are doing this next year at the end of term summer holidays.
My daughter has 100% attendance and 99% punctuality. My fault got up late.
So if we take her away on the last week of term in July, it will save us £800 on a holiday.
Her attendance will then be 97%, which is above government targets.
Go all the way mate, we are doing this next year at the end of term summer holidays.
My daughter has 100% attendance and 99% punctuality. My fault got up late.
So if we take her away on the last week of term in July, it will save us £800 on a holiday.
Her attendance will then be 97%, which is above government targets.
You do know that kids get taught how to watch DVD's in the last week?
The OP's kids will have not missed a scrap of education in the last 3 days.
They interrogate the the kids at my lads infant/junior school.
They literally sit them down and question them if they believe the child hasn't really been sick when it has been called in as a sick day.
All the parents had a letter with the questions that the teachers will ask the children.
Questions was along the lines of:
"was you really sick?"
"did your parents tell you to say you was sick?"
"did you stay at home?"
Etc, etc....
Then goes on to warn the parents not to put this kind of pressure on you child and that it will be forwarded to the education board and social services.
They literally sit them down and question them if they believe the child hasn't really been sick when it has been called in as a sick day.
All the parents had a letter with the questions that the teachers will ask the children.
Questions was along the lines of:
"was you really sick?"
"did your parents tell you to say you was sick?"
"did you stay at home?"
Etc, etc....
Then goes on to warn the parents not to put this kind of pressure on you child and that it will be forwarded to the education board and social services.
I guess the point of the fines is to discourage the minority who used to abuse the system, but as usual it just ends up punishing the majority who are not really harming their kids education by taking them out a few days early.
I can see the other side though, if you were allowed to take your kids out of school a few days early what happens when a third or half or two thirds of the class do the same thing? Where would you draw the line, almost easier and more consistent to just blanket ban it and fine people as a deterrent (as archaic as it is).
I can see the other side though, if you were allowed to take your kids out of school a few days early what happens when a third or half or two thirds of the class do the same thing? Where would you draw the line, almost easier and more consistent to just blanket ban it and fine people as a deterrent (as archaic as it is).
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I'm afraid your wrong.
https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence/overview
Someone has messed up here, and it's not the OP. He should not be paying this fine in accordance with the Government's own ruling on the subject.
Soldato
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Do away with the long summer holidays, allow kids to take X amount of weeks off per year (with certain exclusions, e.g. exam times). Implement a curriculum that takes account of children being away from class, that is if they go on holiday to a foreign country they have set pieces of work to complete regarding said location; alternatively if off for other reasons there are alternative pieces of work to complete.
Not only can holidays be a massive learning opportunity but this setup would also kill off the monopoly holiday firms have on over the top charging.
Not only can holidays be a massive learning opportunity but this setup would also kill off the monopoly holiday firms have on over the top charging.
Would also be much more like life will be in the workforce.
Soldato
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Agree with your post in general but when parents use this line it does annoy me. How many of them are really taking their kids to do volunteer work in an African village or to Mexico to see some Aztec architecture?
99% of them are going to some 'Little Britain' off of the coast of Spain where they'll have a full English every morning, before their parents shove them off to the Kids club (run by a Brummie in a whacky suit and fraternising solely with other British children) so they can go down the nearest mock pub to drink Australian lager whilst watching endless re-runs of Only Fools & Horses. In fact you probably get a better idea of how other cultures live by taking a day trip to pretty much any London Borough than going on a package European holiday.
The "my kids will learn so much if I take them abroad" is a cop out, used to excuse the parent's own natural desire to fly off to a sunny location for a week or two.
I often wonder how many parents whose kids are set to go away with a friend and their family (i.e. when the parents don't get the holiday themselves) use this defence...I'll bet never.
Haha what?
Soldato
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Please elaborate on which point you didn't understand?
Presumably you feel that it's workable to abandon the idea of lesson plans in favour of having kids self-pace their learning and ask questions where relevant. And then you expect staff to tailor their set work to whatever country the family holiday is set in. How on earth would you begin to implement that?
I understand the utopian dream but I can't see any way that it's approaching workable outside of something that costs a serious amount of cash.
If everybody took their children away early for that special deal on holiday prices then it would be chaos.
What you need to ask yourself are you saving more than £240 off of your trip. Only then it would be worth it.
Soldato
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Yes it's a massive change that presents challenges but also offers other opportunities such as children possibly having more one on one time with teachers with other students being out of class.
Regarding teachers having to tailor work for students on holiday/out of class, there are only a certain number of scenarios to cater for, it's not an impossible task.