School holidays, fines going up for absence

[Blue Maverick]

This was a conservative thing put in place and not the current government, it’s going upto £80 then £160 then you got to court for the third offence. Now I get targeting persistent absentees but now they are coming up with bollocks about it harming your earning potential later on in life, sorry but for a couple of days it really isn’t. We all know the last week of term especially in summer the square route of fuck all is done in a school. Maybe it’s time for schools to be able to pick their holidays and maybe splitting up the stupidly long 6 weeks may help.
I remember Oldham Wakes where we got two weeks off in June went back to school then had 6 weeks off, why not bring something similar back but cut down the 6 week holidays to 4 and allocate two weeks somewhere else within the academic year. If this is done by local authority all schools could coordinated, this would help with if you have kids in different schools. My daughter is now leaving a trust that allocated an extra week in October I don’t know how they did that whilst other schools don’t have it.
The pricing of holidays is rapidly rising and many will probably never go if they don’t go outside of term time, the fine is a pittance compared to the savings which can run into thousands of pounds but now the threat of court etc seems extreme, maybe if you have exemplary attendance for the year then it should be done on a case by case basis.

 

[MCFC Wirral]

Holidays will be supply and demand. We’ve seen it on here when budget airlines to Madrid or Munich multiply by six after a Champions League draw. Manchester hotels for Oasis too.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

This was a conservative thing put in place and not the current government, it’s going upto £80 then £160 then you got to court for the third offence. Now I get targeting persistent absentees but now they are coming up with bollocks about it harming your earning potential later on in life, sorry but for a couple of days it really isn’t. We all know the last week of term especially in summer the square route of fuck all is done in a school. Maybe it’s time for schools to be able to pick their holidays and maybe splitting up the stupidly long 6 weeks may help.
I remember Oldham Wakes where we got two weeks off in June went back to school then had 6 weeks off, why not bring something similar back but cut down the 6 week holidays to 4 and allocate two weeks somewhere else within the academic year. If this is done by local authority all schools could coordinated, this would help with if you have kids in different schools. My daughter is now leaving a trust that allocated an extra week in October I don’t know how they did that whilst other schools don’t have it.
The pricing of holidays is rapidly rising and many will probably never go if they don’t go outside of term time, the fine is a pittance compared to the savings which can run into thousands of pounds but now the threat of court etc seems extreme, maybe if you have exemplary attendance for the year then it should be done on a case by case basis.

I think we should start targetting persistent absentees from the House of Commons first Those absent from Commons or constituency business should receive the same treatment they want to dole out to the rest.

What will happen to those families who have scraped to get a holiday and go in June 'cos it's half the fuckin' price of August and spend their last peseta on an ice cream for the kids in the airport and couldn't afford a fine as an alternative to feeding their kids. Are they going to court and then off to jail? Surely Ange wouldn't see that happening.

 

[fulabeer]

We ran into that problem most years when it came to holidays.
However, two years ago, we booked for Florida which meant going on a Wednesday before half term break.
The price was £6999 for the villa and flights. Going on the Saturday was £11,999.
We would have just paid the fine.

So we wrote to the school explaining it was the difference between going or not. And that all our children had 100% attendance records over many years. That we took education seriously, and would happily take "homework" packs with us for them to do while away. (which we did)
We also mentioned no holidays during covid.
Amazingly we got the all clear!

We know others have done the same thing, so maybe it depends on the school and the head etc.

 

[Blue Maverick]

Holidays will be supply and demand. We’ve seen it on here when budget airlines to Madrid or Munich multiply by six after a Champions League draw. Manchester hotels for Oasis too.

But if you move holidays around they can’t scalp as much, just going two weeks earlier than end of July can be around £2-3k.cheaper, if you are willing to travel half terms are different around the country you can save a lot by flying from Edinburgh sometimes as their half terms are different and vice versa.

 

[Dave Ewing's Back 'eader]

The nonsense about harming future earnings is pure bullshine. Take our hardworking MPs. They fuck off from the Commons and segue into some other highly paid remuneration whilst collecting their nigh on £100k for EmPeeing!

 

[bluetonium]

We've never taken ours out of school for holidays, but now even with the rise in fines, I would absolutely consider it. I think a few schools would also understand too, most are parents themselves, in the case of good students with a good record.

We now have one at primary school and one at secondary school. The holidays don't match up in some cases so we have to take time off for one but not the other, and when they do synchronise the cost of holidays is so high we just can't go. It's not just higher demand because it's summer, it's literally a four to five week window you can go away, which you then have to shuffle around and fight with your coworkers for a week of leave, plus you've already used up a load of days taking time off for the one child when the other was still in school anyway, which means you either pay the price for a certain week or just don't go.

We didn't go away this year. Or last. Or 2022. We just can't or won't pay the asking price. There is not enough value in it for us to pay several thousand pounds for a week away in Spain or Portugal. Next year we may do something bigger but again it depends on costs, and absolutely we would take them out of school a few days early and pay the fine, no question. As fulabeer says above, it's thousands of pounds different to go just a few days outside the summer holidays.

I absolutely would never want to compromise giving my girls the best future and I'd not easily take them out of education, I do believe that almost every school day is a huge educational opportunity. But they do rely very much on fear mongering and, effectively, emotional abuse, to enforce these rules. Yes there are problem cases , but the majority of parents would not wish to ever compromise their child's upbringing.

What I do feel is massively under acknowledged by the education system as a whole is the value of actually spending quality time with family such as holidays. The bonds formed between child and parent, child and siblings, should not be constrained by cost or lost to a compulsory week or watching Ice Age 2 in class with yet another substitute teacher who has been drafted in as cover and doesn't have a lesson plan because they had no idea they'd be needed to teach 5, 8 or 14 year olds that week.

 

[hammocity]

This was a conservative thing put in place and not the current government, it’s going upto £80 then £160 then you got to court for the third offence. Now I get targeting persistent absentees but now they are coming up with bollocks about it harming your earning potential later on in life, sorry but for a couple of days it really isn’t. We all know the last week of term especially in summer the square route of fuck all is done in a school. Maybe it’s time for schools to be able to pick their holidays and maybe splitting up the stupidly long 6 weeks may help.
I remember Oldham Wakes where we got two weeks off in June went back to school then had 6 weeks off, why not bring something similar back but cut down the 6 week holidays to 4 and allocate two weeks somewhere else within the academic year. If this is done by local authority all schools could coordinated, this would help with if you have kids in different schools. My daughter is now leaving a trust that allocated an extra week in October I don’t know how they did that whilst other schools don’t have it.
The pricing of holidays is rapidly rising and many will probably never go if they don’t go outside of term time, the fine is a pittance compared to the savings which can run into thousands of pounds but now the threat of court etc seems extreme, maybe if you have exemplary attendance for the year then it should be done on a case by case basis.

In Scotland their summer break runs from the end of June until the middle of August, this is factored in and Airlines put their prices up.

I'm sure some parts of Lancashire, Rochdale, Preston, Blackburn etc did the same a few years ago so families could get cheaper holidays but the Airlines just moved with them. Years ago it was just the brochure price but it's all generated by Algorithms now.

It's really unfair and typical of the world we live in, squeeze as much out of people as they can.

I hate that Trivago advert where the bearded guy says "I got the last room for £140" but someone else says "I only paid £110" ffs, £770 a week just for a hotel. When we used to go on golf trips to Spain and Portugal (only pre Covid) our total budget including flight's, transfers, villa and golf was around £500 for four nights, it's well over a grand now.

 

[fulabeer]

Homework packs are the answer.
Even if kids miss two weeks of education, teachers can see if they need a little help after the holiday. Depending on how they did with the homework packs, teachers can them help them catch up.
Although this does mean a little more work for the teachers, kids taking time off anyway without the packs are even harder to see where they are at.

We had a problem with our three boys being at different schools due to their age(s).
So one school didn't have the same term times or lengths as the others. That made booking holidays tricky!

Schools could still implement "red times", where no leave will be granted. There are unique activities at school where kids shouldn't miss etc.
They could even only allow "term time holidays" every other year, to try and encourage people to still have holidays during term breaks. I wouldn't have minded paying a small fee to help towards any overtime needed to assess the homework packs.

With the above and splitting up the summer holidays, it could actually end the profiteering problem happening in the first place.
With so many people being able to pick times that suit them, travel companies won't be able to hike prices. It would also probably suit them too, as they could better utilise their accommodation/flights better...win win

 

[Blue Maverick]

We've never taken ours out of school for holidays, but now even with the rise in fines, I would absolutely consider it. I think a few schools would also understand too, most are parents themselves, in the case of good students with a good record.

We now have one at primary school and one at secondary school. The holidays don't match up in some cases so we have to take time off for one but not the other, and when they do synchronise the cost of holidays is so high we just can't go. It's not just higher demand because it's summer, it's literally a four to five week window you can go away, which you then have to shuffle around and fight with your coworkers for a week of leave, plus you've already used up a load of days taking time off for the one child when the other was still in school anyway, which means you either pay the price for a certain week or just don't go.

We didn't go away this year. Or last. Or 2022. We just can't or won't pay the asking price. There is not enough value in it for us to pay several thousand pounds for a week away in Spain or Portugal. Next year we may do something bigger but again it depends on costs, and absolutely we would take them out of school a few days early and pay the fine, no question. As fulabeer says above, it's thousands of pounds different to go just a few days outside the summer holidays.

I absolutely would never want to compromise giving my girls the best future and I'd not easily take them out of education, I do believe that almost every school day is a huge educational opportunity. But they do rely very much on fear mongering and, effectively, emotional abuse, to enforce these rules. Yes there are problem cases , but the majority of parents would not wish to ever compromise their child's upbringing.

What I do feel is massively under acknowledged by the education system as a whole is the value of actually spending quality time with family such as holidays. The bonds formed between child and parent, child and siblings, should not be constrained by cost or lost to a compulsory week or watching Ice Age 2 in class with yet another substitute teacher who has been drafted in as cover and doesn't have a lesson plan because they had no idea they'd be needed to teach 5, 8 or 14 year olds that week.

My daughter finished primary school this year, after her Sats at the end of May, for the next 6 weeks it was wind down to finishing school, they had a play to produce for leaving etc, almost zero learning was done in the grand scheme of things. Now we wanted her to enjoy her last few weeks so went on holiday at the half term but one girl just basically left two weeks before school, finished and went on holiday a damn sight cheaper and in 10 years she will remember that holiday but probably have not be arsed about primary school in the slightest. She won’t get fined because they’ll not record that last two weeks anyway.