Fines For Taking Kids Out Of School During Term

[jd_1984]

https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/stopping-school-fines-for-taking-our-children-on-family-holidays?source=facebook-share-button&time=1421177212

Would you sign this petition, if YES - why? and if NO - why?
Could split opinion. My worry is consistency - what happened if a large percentage of parents want to take kids out at the same time, how do you allocate fairly? First come first served?
I have always been appalled at the price increases in holiday times, but didn't imagine anything could be done.

[BlueScorpion]

Maybe I'm being unnecessarily picky but her petition might have more impact if she had checked her spelling (absurd instead of obserd) and used "their" instead of "there". Unfortunately her spelling & poor punctuation detract from the point she is trying to get across.

Having said that, we managed to take our children on holiday without taking them out of school - you just have to be realistic about what you can afford

[bhg481]

No, I wouldn't.
Many subjects are taught sequentially, particularly at secondary level, so missing a week or more can leave pupils struggling because they've missed learning something that they need to know for future lessons.

[bhg481]

Incidentally, I'm in total agreement with BlueScorpion - the grammar in the petition implies either that the writer missed a lot of lessons herself or doesn't put a lot of weight on education.

[jd_1984]

Yes I did notice the spelling mistakes and a touch of irony justifying missing school......

[catswhiskas]

No , I would not sign, purely for selfish reasons, not keen on children and like to take my holidays when they are safely at school, if parents were taking them out of school willy nilly, dont know where I would be .

[zebo]

Totally agree with catwhiskas! As far as pricing, why do parents think that market forces should not apply to them, every other commercial venture reacts to market forces, have you noticed how much dearer flowers are around Mothers' Day for example? We were both teachers so had no choice about when we took our holidays. Would this give teachers the freedom to go on holiday when they want, or would that be detrimental to children's education, especially those children who were not there?

[woofgang]

I wouldn't sign. My parents never thought of taking us out of school for holidays and if they couldn't afford to take us away (caravan in sussex if they could afford it) then we holidayed at home.

[Cloverjo]

No, I wouldn't sign. I am often sent emails from 38 degree, but the terrible grammar, spelling and punctuation in this one would have put me off reading too much of it.
When I was at school we went to Minehead rather than Marbella because that's what my parents could afford, without taking us out of school.

[mikey4444]

I wouldn't sign it either, even if she had taken the trouble to spell check the ruddy thing. Kids need to be in school, and this Mum could do with a day or two back there as well !

[Buenchico]

>>>I have always been appalled at the price increases in holiday times

Try looking at it the other way round. The summer holiday prices are actually the 'regular' prices, with tour operators offering lower prices at other times to try to fill aircraft seats (and hotel rooms) that would otherwise remain empty.

As Bhg481 points out, subjects such as mathematics (which I used to teach) are hierarchical in their nature. If you miss out on item 1 in the curriculum you'll have no chance whatsoever of understanding items 2, 5 and 14 later on (which rely upon item 1 as their foundation).

Further, taking children out of school disadvantages other children as well. I've been faced with a class of children where 8 of them had been out of school (on holiday with their parents) during the previous week, with most of them having been missing for a full fortnight. So I've had to give a lesson to the class in the full knowledge that one third of them wouldn't understand a word I was saying before asking the bulk of class to work through some examples on their own. I've then had to try to give those 8 pupils a crash course in what they've missed during the past week or two, forcing me to ignore pleas for help from some of the pupils with a full attendance record (leaving them feeling confused and with falling confidence in both their ability to tackle the subject and in my ability to help them).

[andy-hughes]

As parents of three children, my wife and I took them on holidays in school holiday time, and bit the bullet re. costs, and went where we could afford.

The emotive language - 'children we have reared ...' and so on does nothing to help her cause, neither does the implication that a foreign holiday is some sort of right for school-age children.

I don't believe that fining parents is the way to prevent term-time absences, except in serious circumstances, and a week is not really included in that scenario.

Asian parents who take their children out of school for six months at a time, and return them having lost their ability to speak English is a different matter, so maybe the sanction should be based on timescales, rather than simple absences across the board.

[Cloverjo]

I know of a girl who goes to two different schools. Which one she goes to on any given day depends on which parent she was staying with the night before. I don't know how they get away with not being fined.

[Mosaic]

I won't sign this petition - I agree with it, but having signed one once I've only just got rid of pestering mithering emails from 38 degrees and I don't want my inbox filling with their rants again.

[Mosaic]

And just to be an awkward rse, I also do not support the industrial-revolution notions that scaffold modern English state education. There is absolutely no need for all children to be physically present at one time, to receive the benefit of education. A serious re-think is needed.