We have a son who is autistic and holidays with him in the past were not holidays. We did put him into respite care on 3 occasions so that we could take our other 2 children away for a proper break. Respite asked us not to put him in during school holidays so we had no choice but to take other kids out in term time. Both the High School and Primary School were very understanding and authorised their absences. But I have to say that authorised or not if I want to take my bairns out of school for whatever reason I would do it. I have always been honest with the schools and I think they appreciate this so never really had any problem with any requests but again I think it depends on the schools and the relationship you have with them. Anyhow Local Authority have decided that Holiday Respite is not essential and have cancelled this luxury so now we take our son, who is alot older and has more of an understanding, on holiday with us. Am a good girl now because we go in the school hols.

I don't think finding reasons (or little lies) is as difficult as actually trying to book time off for a holiday!! I work for a small company and we can run ok with 1 person off at a time , one of my colleagues wife is a teaching assistant so she can only have school hols off, another has kids at school so wants the same sort of time off , another has a husband (post office worker) whos holiday is allocated throughout the year so she wants the same weeks as him , anothers husband works in a factory which has closedown for 2 weeks in summer and 2 weeks at xmas so she wants the same weeks every year, basically everyone wants the same weeks , not everyone can have 2 weeks summer school hol which causes arguments, but rather than dictate we all try to sort it out amicably, but its difficult to keep everyone happy as they try to book their 28days holiday allowance, then i saw a piece in a paper the other day and it said that 42% of workers don't take their full holiday entitlement each year and it reveals that 3.8 days per person are wasted, The most common reason for not taking holiday was we are too busy at work to take the time off.

I know its slightly off topic but do any other workers have similar problems trying to get certain weeks off , or fitting in their allowance?

I sort of work with the head of my kids school (once a month meetings with my office) and he said at a recent meeting the school didn't have a problem with family holidays, but did have a big problem with the local mini rugby tour ( of which my kids are going on ) Last year my kids were marked down on an educational visit for the 2 days -well they did play rugby and meet alot of new people aswell as visit a different country (England).

As for our hols, I tell the school that we are going on our family holiday. The school allow upto 10 days off term time for this.

We're going off on holiday the day before school stops for the summer. If I felt that they were going to learn anything in the day and a half that they are missing I wouldn't be so quick to go off in term time but I'm not paying another £500 on an £1100 holiday so that they can sit and play games all day. Hubby's job means that we have to go midweek to midweek rather than weekend to weekend so booking holidays if difficult anyway. This is third year we have had the school holiday problem and I have always just written a letter to the teacher to say that we're going on holiday so they won't be in school for those 2 days.
One of my older daughter's friends is adopted from Asia and every 2 or 3 years is back to his country of birth for a holiday. He always misses school because of it but the head is very supportive of this as he feels that it is very important that this child doesn't lose touch with the cultures of his place of birth.

My brother and his wife are both teachers and they told me during july the exams and test are finished and scholls are winding down with no real lessons going on. My youngest daughter comes during the last 2 weeks of the term saying they watched video's or were taken to the park.

My other daughters year head said there is not a problem with september as well because lesson don't start in full until october and the teachers are still preparing for the new school year.

Some schools have taken advantage of a change allowing them to fine parents to bring in revenue. The sums of money were large on the previous year and the amount of fines issued went up 3 fold at least on the previous year. Who does the fines hit the hardest, the least well off and the people who can only afford term time holidays.

Where I live its very multi cultural and children with roots in africa, caribbean and asia, ie india take 2 or 3 months off to see family. What is about this nothing, but if one of us took our children out for 2 or 3 months we would be dragged over the coals.

As a teacher I can see fully why some people take holidays during term time as the price hike is ridiculous
can't think of a username, I agree somewhat about July but not so sure about September. If that is the case, I'd really like to work at their school
Depending on the time of year when parents take children out (and how frequent it is) it really isn't the teachers/Heads that have the problem with the holidays, but the LEA's who haul us over the coals for allowing it.
Going back to the original post, definately tell the truth

Likewise sunaholic. September is probably the busiest time for teachers as we are busy learning the names of new classes and establishing rules etc. I also agree that once the SATs are over for yr 9 nothing much is happening and the last fortnight of the Summer term is a bit light on teaching as well. (plenty going on, but just not traditional teaching). Also a child that misses the first fortnight of a new year (in September) will have a blot on their attendance record for the whole year. It will take nearly 3 terms of full attendance to get the figure back over the 95% magic number for the LEA.

The problem in secondary schools especially in years 10 to 13 is that many GCSE/A level courses and their equivalents are modular with lots of mini exams throughout the year. A child taking a range of subjects at GCSE could well have a critical assessment every fortnight in one subject or another.

But I'm with Sunaholic, I have no problem with kids being out of class on holiday as long as any shortfall in their results because of it is not blamed on me!

Quite agree with Hi de Hi and Sunaholic beginning of September is a definite no no. It is the LEAs who are getting very strict and I seem to remember seeing a circular recently from the department of education and schools that was definitely pointing towards a real clamp down, probably could not find it now, am drowning in paper at the moment, thank gooodness its half term. Personally I don't have a problem with children going on holiday in July, even late June but we just have to do what the powers that be tell us to.......

Reading this makes me wonder what we'll do when we have kids?? It's bad enough now trying to get my holidays and partners at same time...

I can't have January at all or the 1st to approx 12th of any month.
Partner can't have December or Easter and preferably needs to start hols on Wednesdays!!!

Dont worry about it. If you like your holidays, trust me you will find a way.
Its nice going back to place that you went to before you had kids and then revisiting them and showing them to your children nd hoping that you instill in them your own love for travel.

Wow phildo74 your holidays situation does sound tricky Good luck when you do come to book your hols!
Nels, I do remember seeing/hearing something about a clamp down on hols too. Not quite sure how they're expecting it to be enforced though

Hi
Just in response to how Local Authoritys would enforce sanctions on parents.
It is true Local authorities are trying to stop term time holidays, Some schools allow 10 days holidays in term time, some do not and if the parent still takes the child out of school they can request a fixed penalty notice be issued through Local Authority, this will result in parents being fined.
It all depends on the head teacher agreeing or not.
M

Hi all
I am going back a couple of years now ( well about 6 ) and i was told by the head teacher that TA were working with the schools to bring down the price of holidays in term time, NOT TRUE I am still waiting. I myself always ask permission to take my kids on holiday in term time as we just cant afford to do it school holidays Otherwise i would opt for this ( i dont do it just to be arkward towards the school) My two boys started a new school last yr due to a long period of bullying and we had no other choice but to move them so i dont really know how the land lies with this new school. I booked a holiday for may and was absolutely delighted with the price, only after paying the deposit i woke up the next day to relise that i had book smack bang in the middle of yr 6 SATS so i had to cancel as that was a complete no no. Without relising i booked for the 7th of june which is the exact date they go back after half term. I am gutted that i have pulled them out but i have no other choice as we just cant afford the prices. Also my sons school have interduced the 2 weeks off in june and they advise you to take them in the 2 week if you need a family holiday and guess what? Yes the TA have already cottoned on to this one and bumped the prices AGAIN. So basically families with low income just cant win. My husband works hard all year round and we have to scrimp and save for our one holiday a year.
So basically i have one question to ask, What happened to the price reduction that was supposed to be happening 6 yrs ago from the travel agents to work with the schools to stop us having to take out kids out of school FAT CHANCE!!!!!

We are going on holiday 1st March and taking the family with us including our 10 yr old grandaughter and we informed the school well before Christmas however they would not agree to it so it is classed as unauthorised absence. We have arranged to take homework away with us as well.

Hi, I'm Mrs Chivas. I just saw this thread and thought I'd add my tuppence worth.

In the LEA I teach in schools have been told that they are not to grant holiday absence for any pupils. We have to mark it down with a registration code "annual family holiday not agreed". We are then scrutinised on our attendance by the LEA. Where pupils are taken out of school and they have a poor attendance record anyway we have to pass details on to attendance officers who can fine parents. This has been our situation for last academic year and this one to. In the school I work in I know of one parent who was fined - prior to the holiday attendance was below 90% (min acceptable is deemed as 95% by LEA) - they were fined as it was felt they took the mick with the holiday; not a case of can't afford anything else as they owned the holiday home they went and stayed in for a few days before half term, half term and a few days after half term.

In my experience any child who misses a week or more of Y10, 11, 12 or 13 is going to find it harder to get their target grades than a child who is there all the time simply because of the amount of work covered in GCSE and A Level syllabi. I understand that people may miss this time through illness but when kids are taken for holidays they can then have the illness time as well which increases the time in class missed. To be brutally honest the vast majority of pupils who are off, for any reason, simply don't bother to catch-up on any work missed even though it is their responsibility to do so; ergo the more class they miss the more work they miss, the more gaps in their subject knowledge when it comes to revision.

Going in June or July sounds great in theory but in an increasing amount of schools the year changeover occurrs then. For example in a school local to me once Y9 SATS are over the pupils all move up a year and begin the new year's work so in June Y7 will become Y8, Y8 become y9, Y9 start Year 10 and all the GCSE stuff that goes with it. The idea behind this is that there is no wind down and perceived wasted time in lessons so pupils have no excuse for wagging or other crazy follies they like to get up to. It also allows an extra few weeks on GCSE coursework which is always a bonus.

With schools being increasingly target driven I am not surprised that heads are saying no to holiday requests. We have so many targets to achieve from within the school, the LEA and the government that they are very pressured and the more we see kids the more we are likely to hit our targets (attendance is one of them!). I don't believe it is right and some holidays do benefit kids in a way that a week in school would not. However, in my experience, the majority of pupils that do go out of school for holidays spend those holidays on the beach or around the pool, some never leave the hotel complex, which is not going to give them any educational benefits although the "stress" relief for them must be nice!!!

hi, as the original poster, I would just like to thank all of you who posted comments. I realise that this is a very emotive subject and respect the comments of other parents and teachers. I would like to add that personally I feel that in many families lives we don't get enough quality time with our kids due to work commitments and indeed our kids social lives ! ( brownies, swimming lessons, parties, and such ) so any holidays that we take are so important to the family unit and also educational to the kids. we don't spend hardly any time on any complex we stay on as we like exploring and my daughter can practice her spanish with any new found friends and learn about nature and history.
There are many reasons why parents choose to take their kids out of school in term time, mainly flight prices and work commitments, but I certainley wouldn't do it if it was detremental to my daughters education, so until to's and airlines put holiday prices on an even keel, parents will always do it.

Hi

I totally agree. 99% of parents don't think" great lets take the kids out of school to go on holiday ". We don't get much choice and as a family of 5 we are no exception to this.

My son unfortunatly as just had a bad bout of suspected glandular fever and had to be off school just over a week. We are going away end of May, holiday starting in the school hols but he still is having another week off. My step son now lives in Scunthorpe and he has different holidays which has made it extremely difficult as we value the time we all get together which is not as often now he as moved!!

For easter he has good friday and easter monday off school, whereas my son has 2 weeks off at easter. My stepson doesn't break up till April 7th when my son's go back to school

So we cannot win no matter when we go unless in August we would have to take kids out of school. We like to try different countries and we are going to Turkey which due to weather is a no no in August.

My opinion is that as long as you are not taking them out at crucial times it doesn't hurt them, they have alot of years of learning!!!!!!

Also I have a government letter stating by law you can take your child out of school for 10 school days providing its not in the first half of first term ie; sept/oct and no holidays will be authorised in May ie; SATS ( which in effec teachers are campaigning to stop as they don't think they are benefitial to children ).

Its like everything else in this country the people at the top or the ladder are more intersted in performance targets and what they look like written on league tables

Jo