Selfish Cheapskate Parenting Now Legal.........

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.com/news/education-36277940
In order to get a cheaper holiday it's ok to degrade your child's education. Wonderful. Brainless parents win again. When will our dopey judges move to this planet?

[sunny-dave]

Just a random thought ...

Knowing quite a few teachers ... I think that if they were offered the chance to swap a couple of weeks of their summer hols for a fortnight of their choice, then they would bite your hand off.

That would mean that every school could be staffed at a limited level for a fornight in August - when any child who had been on a termtime holiday could make up the difference.

I know they wouldn't get "the right lessons" - but then they've missed those already, so any extra tuition of any sort would be a benefit ...

... I wonder how popular that would be with kids who had previously had their Disneyworld and eaten it?

[Hypognosis]

@jim360

//it's hardly a valid complaint if you can afford it. //

I can't counter that without details of 1970s air fares, hotel rates and sundry expenses. Also details of my parents' income level, which I am ignorant of, to this day. The only yardsticks I have are family possessions and the things other kids' families had, or did, which we didn't have or vice versa.

Time has taught me that you can't have a holiday experience repossessed. You can also get £000s into debt, take a load of great holidays, then get that debt written off, like magic.

They never taught me that in school.

p.s. You're talking about exceptionalism, in law. Loopholes for "special" people to slip through. This is, I admit, the way of the world and I still maintain that it sucks. Golf ball through a hosepipe level.

[ToraToraTora]

“exceptional” Jim? Well that’s a subjective argument but leaving that aside, for now, when has being a tight fisted selfish id1ot ever been considered “exceptional”? Please tell me why this case was any different to millions of other families?

[whiskeryron]

I usetoo ave oldes from skule regler an it aint afected my edicashun dont no wat all the fus is about

[jim360]

Because he brought the case?

I think it's incredibly disrespectful to talk of all families, or even most of them, who take term-time holidays as "tightfisted" or "cheapskate". Or "selfish". Or as if they are endangering their children's education. A blanket description like that is complete and utter nonsense.

[ToraToraTora]

so by exceptional you don't mean the circumstance just that he argued the toss. What a strange evaluation.

[gness]

Honestly, Dave....a week or two in our education system isn't going to make a jot of difference.....and why the Disneyworld example.....not that Disney isn't a fantastic place......

And what good would it do to have a fortnight in August of very mixed age and ability children taking lessons from a limited staff who need the six weeks to recover from the term before?
Far better riding their bikes, climbing trees, swapping beads.........☺

[gness]

Far better for the children, that is...not the staff....they are shattered....x

[sunny-dave]

As I said - I know nothing and am just musing ... :)

[jim360]

No, I mean that it follows obviously that the only person who is going to win a case like this is the person who brings it. Quite a few people might have accepted the fines because they didn't think it worth the trouble to grumble. One person did, and in the event was correct to do so.

But this now means that a blanket rule can't be applied without due consideration of personal circumstances, and in particular the remaining attendance record.

[gness]

No....you have actually made a really sensible post at 15.56.......it could work.......
I don't agree with it.....but it's a good idea....x

[sunny-dave]

It might provoke some interesting discussions at home :

Parent "would you like to have two weeks off school and go on holiday instead?"

Child "yippee - yes please"

Parent "but you'd have to be at school in August, when all your friends are on holiday"

Child "but that's not fair" - stamps foot etc etc

[Zacs-Master]

If education is so intense these days that children can't have a week or two off, then the system needs changing.

[Hypognosis]

@ToraToraTora

I am mystified why it never occurred to this family to just, you know, *accept* the fact that they cannot afford peak rate and that they are not the big-shots they seem to think they are. (I must side-step the little mystery of how they can afford lawyers).

Who knows, the humiliation of their kids by their richer classmates, for not going abroad, like wot vey did, will be "character-building", won't it?

Hunger for it? Work hard for it!

[sunny-dave]

Another random thought ...

How do Fee Paying Schools cope with this - is the parent always right - or do they just expel the kid "pour encourager les autres" ?

[jim360]

No need to side-step on the "how to afford lawyyers?" issue, Hypo -- their legal fees were crowdfunded.

As to the rest... doesn't that amount to encouraging class envy? How is that in any way an improvement?

[gness]

That situation could provide valuable lessons for the child then, Dave..... starting with why it is fair......and why foot stamping isn't acceptable....x

[gness]

Dave....we just discussed it with the heads of the State school and the fee paying school......never had a problem with either...x

[gness]

Oh and I meant to say......Good point there, Zacs...x

[sunny-dave]

I think the word "discussed" is relevant, gness - so many people these days seem to approach matters from the "I know my rights" angle ... and I include both parents and headteachers in that observation.