Term time Dad loses in the Supreme Court

Weststander · Apr 7, 2017

Our kids former primary school allowed term time absences for holiday right up to the time circa three or four years ago when they were forced to finally abide by the national rules. Until then, with the head's permission, we took our kids skiing for a week out of school, each time saving possibly thousands. Since then, our children have missed up to two days a year for us going on holiday a little earlier to grab far cheaper flights to The Alps.

So I'm not arrogantly patronising the parents who still take their kids out on long holidays in term time.

But let's be honest. Kids may adore their holidays in the Alps, Orlando, Med, Australia or wherever, and will remember these for the rest of their lives. But it's utter tosh that they learn just as much or more on holiday, than in a packed school week. The 'university of life' excuse'. Each lesson is a carefully planned building block to their year's education. Multiply that by a week of more in lessons, and they have lost the moment of professionals imparting those vital skills.

SK1NT · Apr 7, 2017

Notters said:
I couldn't disagree more with this and am surprised at the attitude of people on here. Maybe it's just based on the sort of holiday you take. When we go on holiday we might go to a historic site one day, a museum the next, a hike in the mountains the next and a day on the beach the next. This combined with ordering food in a foreign language etc. A child is going to learn far more on such a holiday than they ever would at school. I can understand it being a problem during say GCSEs and A-Levels but at primary school!? Come off it.

Such a lame argument. Yes the child may learn something from a holiday abroad however hardly anything that will be required as part of the national curriculum.

Plus they can still learn everything u mentioned during their holiday time.They can still go to a museum, go for a hike (not sure how this helps them at school) and hear foreign languages etc during the holiday. This doesn't stop when kids break up.

Weststander · Apr 8, 2017

SK1NT said:
Such a lame argument. Yes the child may learn something from a holiday abroad however hardly anything that will be required as part of the national curriculum.

Plus they can still learn everything u mentioned during their holiday time.They can still go to a museum, go for a hike (not sure how this helps them at school) and hear foreign languages etc during the holiday. This doesn't stop when kids break up.

Agree with that. I used to take our kids out of primary school when it was permitted by the Head, but I wouldn't give it the false justification that they're learning so much on holiday. The lessons lost in a tightly packed school curriculum, would outweigh anything 'learnt' in museums, theme parks and restaurants with parents.

alofbrighton · Apr 8, 2017

hopkins said:
That last comment ! Do you live your life by 3rd world standards ? Never waste anything ? Patronising tool.

Be nice mate....it's infectious I promise you

The Clamp · Apr 8, 2017

whitelion said:
Ooh the irony...

Typos and bad English are two very different things. As well you know.

The Clamp · Apr 8, 2017

mooey said:
Maybe you need to go back to school with your scraming.

At least you knew what I meant regardless of my typo. Your post was a mess. Being poor at English ( which you clearly are) is forgivable, "text speak" is I'm afraid, irredeemable.

darkwolf666 · Apr 8, 2017

Simster said:
I agree with the ruling but don't understand why the government don't do more to attempt to stop this stitch up where we are all at the mercy of 50-100% mark ups for taking holiday in the 6 week break. Why isn't the holiday season staggered across the country? I'd like to see what happens to prices if the six week school holiday varied 2 weeks either side of the status quo, based on the school you were at. I should imagine prices would eventually fall a little, maybe 20% across all ten weeks.

I guarantee that rather then having a 6 week window of high prices you would end up with a 10 week window instead... the travel companies ain't stupid and they are greedy!

The Clamp · Apr 8, 2017

It's not a right to go on holiday. It's a privelege for the hard working.
Just as free education for all is a privilege. Not to be abused. People have managed for decades to go on holiday during HOLIDAY time.
It's a sad indictment of modern parenting. Increasing examples of "me first" parenting. People actually marching and protesting because they didn't get first choice for school places.
I think parenting is heading in a very lamentable direction. The school system isn't going to change. Holiday company's aren't going to change. Suck it up buttercup. You are not special and neither is your child. A child that would rather be with his mates in the playground than stuck somewhere with his parents.

whitelion · Apr 8, 2017

The Clamp said:
Typos and bad English are two very different things. As well you know.

The Clamp said:
It's not a right to go on holiday. It's a privelege for the hard working.
Just as free education for all is a privilege. Not to be abused. People have managed for decades to go on holiday during HOLIDAY time.
It's a sad indictment of modern parenting. Increasing examples of "me first" parenting. People actually marching and protesting because they didn't get first choice for school places.
I think parenting is heading in a very lamentable direction. The school system isn't going to change. Holiday company's aren't going to change. Suck it up buttercup. You are not special and neither is your child. A child that would rather be with his mates in the playground than stuck somewhere with his parents.

Very true. :thumbsup:

Thunder Bolt · Apr 8, 2017

The Clamp said:
It's not a right to go on holiday. It's a privelege for the hard working.
Just as free education for all is a privilege. Not to be abused. People have managed for decades to go on holiday during HOLIDAY time.
It's a sad indictment of modern parenting. Increasing examples of "me first" parenting. People actually marching and protesting because they didn't get first choice for school places.
I think parenting is heading in a very lamentable direction. The school system isn't going to change. Holiday company's aren't going to change. Suck it up buttercup. You are not special and neither is your child. A child that would rather be with his mates in the playground than stuck somewhere with his parents.

The school system has changed. It was ok for decades to have holidays in term time, but in an effort to clamp down on truancy, the schools have found a way to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
As I posted earlier in this thread, some councils punish everything like Suffolk with over 600 cases, and some ignore it, like Kingston.
It doesn't apply to any private schools, nor to Wales or Scotland.

The whole thing is a dog's dinner.

The Clamp · Apr 8, 2017

whitelion said:
Very true.

Sigh. You really cannot tell the difference between shitty iPhone auto-correct and plain bad English? Well, my phone does it all the time and I'm not going back to edit so you are going to be in for a busy time of it if you are planning on marking all my posts!

The Clamp · Apr 8, 2017

Thunder Bolt said:
The school system has changed. It was ok for decades to have holidays in term time, but in an effort to clamp down on truancy, the schools have found a way to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
As I posted earlier in this thread, some councils punish everything like Suffolk with over 600 cases, and some ignore it, like Kingston.
It doesn't apply to any private schools, nor to Wales or Scotland.

The whole thing is a dog's dinner.

Personally I don't think a 120 fine is that bad.

drew · Apr 8, 2017

SK1NT said:
Such a lame argument. Yes the child may learn something from a holiday abroad however hardly anything that will be required as part of the national curriculum.

Plus they can still learn everything u mentioned during their holiday time.They can still go to a museum, go for a hike (not sure how this helps them at school) and hear foreign languages etc during the holiday. This doesn't stop when kids break up.

Such a narrow minded view of what an education actually is. I can understand that schools focus on the national curriculum because how they meet that is probably how they're judged and how they then appear in league table.

Your second paragraph is only relevant if a family can afford the same holiday out of term as they could if they took advantage of cheaper prices during term time. This point is not relevant to the recent court case because it seems, quite clearly, that the father could easily have afforded to take his kids on holiday outside of term term as he is now considering sending them to an independent school!

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Term time Dad loses in the Supreme Court

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