Term time holidays – yay or nay? – Mummascribbles

As you may know, we were on holiday last week and there were several school aged children there, including our Zach. It was obviously term time, and the two schools involved dealt with it very differently.

My Brother in law and Sister in law put in a holiday request for their kids and had it declined, meaning the holiday was an unauthorised absence and they are currently waiting for the fine to land through their door.

And us? We also put in a holiday request and we had ours authorised. When speaking to the others, it seems that we went into far more detail about the reasons we were going away and that may have swung the decision of our head (or it might just be because he is a decent guy).

So what were our reasons?

1. Family birthday celebrations. We were celebrating a tenth birthday and two sixtieth birthdays while we were away.

2. The whole family was going to be there. We are talking 19 people. The boys’ Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and very close family friends.

3. And most importantly – we did not choose the date! We had highlighted to the other half’s Dad that we weren’t exactly happy with a term time holiday, but since he was paying for it, he decided that he didn’t want to spend an extra couple of grand to go a few weeks later in the Summer holidays. His job also dictates when he can and cannot take holiday – he is allocated all holiday at the start of the year. It was a case of this is the date, you can either come or not come! We would have paid the fine, but thankfully school were on our side on this occasion.

But it got me thinking about the whole authorised vs non authorised term time holidays. We were very lucky. But the others weren’t.

I have no doubt that we made the right decision to take him out of school. Had it have been the week before when he had his phonics screening test, it would have been a very different situation. I would never have taken him out. Had there been something else incredibly important at school, I would never have taken him out. But this random week in June, where in reality, not a lot happens (he’s only six) – well I had no problem with it.

But I wondered what do others think? Are term time holidays OK if you know it is just a standard week at school? Have others done it and have they been approved or have they paid the fine? I thought it would be really interesting to hear the opinions of others over such a controversial topic, and also the experiences of others. So I took to my lovely bloggers to find out. Here are the results!

I think if attendance is generally ok, a week or two on a family holiday is fine (I used to be a teacher and I couldn’t see the problem then either). Our LEA is pretty chilled and allow ten days, but not in September for any year group, or May for year two onwards because of exams.

My brother was getting married last May 300 miles away, and we needed the kids to have the Thursday, Friday and Monday off so we could travel there and back – school refused our eldest (y2) but we took it anyway! No comeback on it other than an unauthorised absence in his record.

Coffee, Cake, Kids

I don’t see it as a massive problem. If it’s just an ordinary week (ie not exam season) they can catch up. The family time is important too and it’s hard for a lot of families to either get the time off/afford it during school holidays.

We’ve just had an unauthorised holiday, but we booked it for a week where the Monday was an inset day to avoid being fined. The teachers were fine and didn’t have a problem with it, but our school has a blanket rule of not authorising holidays.

Mama In Progress

We take term time holidays.

We make sure it’s not around anything important during the school year so stuff the kids can catch up on easily.

The school pop it down as an unauthorised absence but never fine us, and are happy as long as the attendance is good for the kids.

I personally think everyone should be given 1 week holiday a year to combat the prices out of term. Obviously there will need to have some ground rules around exams etc.

The Family Ticket

I think that the family time and the travel benefits children so much that it should be allowed as long as it’s not at a critical time of the year or that it isn’t every other month.

We have taken the kids out. The last few days of term 2 only and although not authorised, there wasn’t a fine. I would do it again and if we had the opportunity I would take them out for longer.

Travelled So Far

I get really infuriated about not being allowed some discretion in term time holidays. I understand it entirely but I think that its naive to assume that learning stops once they leave the classroom. A holiday out of term time can be the difference between a family being able to afford to go away and not. That being said, I don’t blame the schools. I feel like the fault lies with the travel companies hiking up the prices – it simply shouldn’t be allowed.

The main reason for a holiday in term time is the significant difference in price. I’ve taken my son out a couple of times –  they were all unauthorised but we received no fine. His attendance is good and he is thriving at school, and if that changes then I wouldn’t take him out. We aren’t planning on taking him out again but it does still annoy me.

Soph Obsessed

I took my son out for two weeks in February so that we could visit my husband who was working in Japan for three months. The school authorised it, but if they hadn’t we would have gone anyway, and it would just have appeared as unauthorised on his record as we don’t have fines (think Scotland has slightly different rules from England?). We took some extra homework with us – at our request – to work with him on his weak areas, but his teacher said not to worry about completing it as the cultural experience was more important and invaluable. A very sensible attitude I think.

The Bear And The Fox

As a teacher in a high school, I hate it. The parents have plenty of notice when the holidays are. Teachers are always left to catch the child up with the work, increasing their already massive workload.

Craft With Cartwright

The thing that really frustrates me is when my eldest comes home and says we spent the afternoon watching Disney films or something.

There are certain times I will refuse to take the boys out, around testing, trips and anything rather important that I know about. However toward the end of each half term and term, I am rather relaxed. The boys are taking Friday and Monday off as we are on a press trip. I think they’ll learn more exploring a different part of the country than they would at school watching Disney.

The Mum Diaries

We take our eldest out of school (he’s only just turned five) and tell the school in advance because I can’t face paying the huge amount extra during the holidays.

We would pay £2,000 more for four of us for the same holiday in August as we’re going on during the term, which is ridiculous.
The way I see it, school isn’t the only place children can learn, and I make the effort to teach him other languages and about other cultures while we’re away.

Baby Holiday

I think as long as there is benefit to the child, such as family time, going rock pooling, learning about new places etc, then we should be totally justified to take our children away during term time. I wish they would grant each child two weeks per year or something so we can choose to go on a regular priced holiday in quieter times if we want to. I have done it before and expected a fine which never came. Paying the fine still would have saved us a fortune and as my children are only small, they wouldn’t have missed a great deal. When the kids are older nearing GCSEs though, I wouldn’t do it as I know how much missing a week or two could affect their learning at an important time.

Waffle Mama

I wouldn’t take my son out of school. We just book holidays in our budget or we’ve group booked this August to bring the cost down. He learns so much every day. I wouldn’t want him to miss anything, plus illness eats in to time as it is!

Yammy Mummy

We have taken my kids out of school two years in a row. Last year we took them to India – we were advised that we’d be reported to the local authority and to expect a fine (we weren’t). This year we took them on a road trip in the States that meant they had an extra 6 days off on top of the Easter holidays. This was authorised by the head. Who knows what rhyme or reason they apply to these things.

Live Laugh Go

We went to Florida in March which I tried to explain was an exceptional circumstance as my husband was going for work so we all had the opportunity to join him. I hadn’t ever planned to go abroad in term time but this came up and my son is only in reception so we decided to go for it. None of us had ever been to the US before so I just couldn’t say no. The school classed it as unauthorised and we were fined. I thought it was very unfair considering they’d also set him homework and he took in a project of what he’d got up to, which included a lot of very educational activities, but I would do it all again because he got so much out of the trip and we had an amazing time.

Emma Reed

There’s so much more to education than sitting in a classroom. We have taken the children out during term time and will continue to do so. Their general attendance is very good and I wouldn’t do it during or prior to exams. We did it for our 10th wedding anniversary last December when we had a family trip to Disneyland, and the memories will last us all a lifetime.

Mighty Mama Bear

So there we have a range of answers, but for the most part – term time holidays are ay ok!

As some of the people above mention, my decision over these things will probably change a lot as the boys get older. I do totally agree that the older they get, the harder it gets for them to catch up. But while they are young, I think that if the benefits of a holiday far outweigh the time in classroom, then I don’t think I would hesitate to do it again as Zach’s overall attendance is pretty darn good (albeit a couple of genuine sick days).

North East Family Fun wrote a fabulous piece on the reasons why she will continue to take her kids on term time holidays, along with some solutions to the problem us parents face! Go take a read!

Have you taken a term time holiday? What was your experience?

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