Jon Platt Term Time Holidays

[chrismpw]

It means teachers have to use their own time to help these children with the work they have missed.

Totally agree (as a teacher myself) - I have in the past created a bit of a storm when I have suggested to a parents that they were neither paying for private tuition, nor was my course a correspondence course and suggested that they use the money they saved on their cheap holiday to hire a tutor for catch up. Didn't budge - won't ever budge - you make a choice, you pick up the consequences not me.

What I really don't like is that schools take all the flack for these fines, when we're really just collecting a stealth tax for the government. It was nothing schools ever wanted. We just do all the work for it, take the blame, and hand the money on to our overlords. It's like a mafia racket.

I dont like that teachers have training days after having weeks off but thats life

I don't like these days either - but - fact check - these days are days stolen from established summer holidays in the mid 1980s (Thatcher / Ken Baker) and turned into the most dreary dross days any teacher can stomach. They're seldom used for training but for some admin in preparation of an inspection / exams / the latest cure-all initiative dreamed up by some suit in Whitehall. What's more we aren't paid to attend the (initially) voluntary days* - and the week that was stolen means summer holidays are 5 weeks long, not the 6 weeks people still think it is THIRTY years later!

*that's how they started - until nobody turned up to them so they became compulsory.

 

[chazzle_dazzle]

My friends daughter was out of school for 6 weeks when she broke her ankle during dance.

Not once did the school or teacher phone up to see where she was or to give her work. The idea of "catching up" and "missing lessons" didn't seem to matter to them then. My friend had to beg them for work for her because she didnt want her to miss out and be behind.

Don't think its as clear as people think it is.

 

[chrismpw]

What a load of twaddle.

I'm taking my kids out in term time next month. I really hope that annoys you.

As a teacher I have no problem with that .... it's the expectation that schools will make up the shortfall in what they learned that bugs me.

 

[Woolverhampton_Blue]

Children benefit greatly from travel and seeing different cultures

Nuggets and chips at a shabby bar, after a day on the beach getting fried by the ball of fire in the sky, followed by bingo and dreadful karaoke.

Enriching stuff.

 

[The Cowboy]

As a teacher I have no problem with that .... it's the expectation that schools will make up the shortfall in what they learned that bugs me.

My kids are in years 2 and 1. Do you genuinely believe they will be massively hampered by having 5 days out of school?

I can certainly see it is more pertinent in high school, but even then, probably only in years 10 and 11.

 

[chrismpw]

My kids are in years 2 and 1. Do you genuinely believe they will be massively hampered by having 5 days out of school?

I can certainly see it is more pertinent in high school, but even then, probably only in years 10 and 11.

Impossible to say. When I was a kid I missed one day after being hit by a car, and one week with chicken pox - both in 2nd year (Year 8 now we copy the yanks). During those 6 days in my school career, they covered all the stuff in maths that I can't do today. It must have been an intensive 6 days for those involved.

 

[Bungle]

Impossible to say. When I was a kid I missed one day after being hit by a car, and one week with chicken pox - both in 2nd year (Year 8 now we copy the yanks). During those 6 days in my school career, they covered all the stuff in maths that I can't do today. It must have been an intensive 6 days for those involved.

Sorry to hear that mate x

 

[chrismpw]

Sorry to hear that mate x

Awww touched by you I am, Bungle.
It was my own fault. I'd sprinted past the lorry starting off from the lights and had forgotten there were 2 lanes and that cars accelerate faster than lorries.

Obviously these days there would be a smart lawyer who could somehow lay blame on the motorist and his/her insurers - but those were simpler days.

 

[Reidy's Bottle Of Grecian]

It's almost like they were forced into the career and couldn't have done anything else at all, then they moan at getting almost 3 months a year off because they stay late a few nights a week.

3 months ? pretty sure my kids are off more than 12 weeks a year... plus 'inset days' & when the govt shuts the school for 'polling' despite there being 2 other suitable venues within 100 yards like a church & a community centre.

Maybe schools should be the ones to take a more common sense approach to it rather than lobbing fines and warnings at parents and demanding that everyone but them do something to combat the issue

It's the LEA's that issue the fines, but the school aren't allowed to authorise the abscences & have to report 'unauthorised' ones.

It's my understanding that people have challenged this Law because it actually states that you may be prosecuted if you don't REGULARLY send your children to school & that despite have 2 weeks holiday the children do in fact attend regularly go to school.

On price though, we used to get 3 weeks for £500, in the summer holidays it's £1300 per week for the very same caravan.


The are many exclusions from being prosecuted though, 1 being it being a 'cultural' visit i.e. to see family when from countries afar, I thought about if we couldve gone to NZ on the basis that my daughter is from there & would like to experience the countries culture.

Another is 'travellers' but what defines a traveller ? we spent 7 years living, working, travelling around the world so by 1 of the words definitions does that make us travellers ?

Schools outside of the constraints of the lEA's can make up their own minds.

 

[Bungle]

Awww touched by you I am, Bungle.
It was my own fault. I'd sprinted past the lorry starting off from the lights and had forgotten there were 2 lanes and that cars accelerate faster than lorries.

Obviously these days there would be a smart lawyer who could somehow lay blame on the motorist and his/her insurers - but those were simpler days.

This in itself sounds like one of those maths questions. But yeah you should have milked it and got more than 1 day for the car incident.

 

[chrismpw]

This in itself sounds like one of those maths questions. But yeah you should have milked it and got more than 1 day for the car incident.

It was worse than that ... I missed the last day of term, during which it was made clear that we were returning on a Wednesday. I of course rocked up on a Monday, looked a complete idiot to the teachers (who incidentally were, as is common, in during their 'holidays') and lost a day of my holiday getting back home.

 

[Huyton Layne]

A solution would be to bin the summer break. It's been shown to be detrimental to education to have such a long break. Go for 3 or 4 weeks in the summer and have a longer break in the autumn or spring so people can go on holiday then.

 

[Tubey]

Nonsense.

Common sense should be applied. If the family wants to go on holiday, they should be able to. If it isn't a part of long-term regular absence, then as said common sense should be applied.

If the school thinks things are amiss and they're off too often, take it to the courts and let them decide instead of having a stupid, illogical system in place that punishes everyone.

 

[chrismpw]

This isn't a rant .... just putting a point of view to rectify a few points mentioned by others in this thread as it's a subject close to my heart.

I've spent nearly 30 years being pathetically grateful for the summer break. It isn't just a big a break break, as many people think. All the teachers I know spend at least half of it de-stressing and becoming human again. Then you get a fortnight to go away with your family as a normal human, then you spend the last week re-stressing getting ready for the term ahead. What's more there is zero flexibility to have a break when there's a cheap holiday on offer, when the weather's good or have a day off to watch a test match, or go to the world cup etc.

Also - the school holiday is an opportunity for children to explore things other than academic progress - make new friends and do different things. All I remember from my childhood happened in the holidays. Sure I learned stuiff in school, but couldn't rememebr any experiences other than facts rammed down my head. Further, it is an absolute necessity for the mental health of those working in such an intense environment to have a lengthy break. I've seen more teachers suffer from nervous and mental breakdowns than I care to remember - it is always a horrible, horrible event and can destroy their own families. There are those that say that "well they chose the profession" - but the trouble is by the time you realise the demands of it, you are mortgaged up to the hilt.

Furthermore - those who complain about having to have to look after their OWN children at home for a few weeks, should have seriously considered that before going ahead and having a few minutes wriggle pleasure in the sack!

Long ago I gave up justifying the apparent long holidays to those envious eyes as it serves no purpose to do so - talk of how they're needed is meaningless until you've experienced the job first hand. All I'll say is that society gets a very good deal from its schools. It employs some of the most highly trained professionals in the country and pays them around half what you'd pay a plumber, or a garage engineer for an hour. The profession is always under attack from the media and politicians and the implication is that we constantly need telling how to do the job. the reality is that many, many parents look on schools as a free childminding service at its beck and call. Despite the propaganda the govt keep spewing out, there is a recruitment and retention crisis right now - teachers are leaving in their droves. I'm paid less than I was 6 years ago - even before you take into account inflation, for the same work and I'm quitting this summer - 5 years too soon to draw a pension.

 

[Moonlight dribbler]

I think the government should privatise schools. Make the ungrateful parents pay tuition fees then and only then will some realise how good the british education is. I am not a teacher but I live with one and the work they do is non stop. It must be soul destroying to hear that your students' parents only really value the teacher as cheap child care.