If £60/parent wasn’t working I’m not convinced this will either. Holidays are so much cheaper in term time that for many they are only affordable then and the fine just gets calculated as part of the cost.
I saved literally thousands on a single holiday by taking my kid in school time instead of the summer holidays. £20 extra isn’t going to change anything.
This won’t make a blind bit of difference, an additional £20 will not offset the savings you can make going on holiday in of term time.
You can also just take your child out for 4.5 days and be fine, we normally tie it in with an inset day so you have 4 days out but get the full week and no fine; works well.
If holidays weren’t so fucking expensive I’d support this. But when parents came to me saying they were taking their kids out of school two weeks before the end of term because they could get a holiday 50% cheaper, I’m inclined to completely support them in that decision. Not every parent has the right intentions but fundamentally schools are not in any position to tell parents what they can and can’t do with their families.
Maybe, just maybe, if schools were better funded and resourced then the quality of learning would be so great that taking the odd week off would make minimal difference. Private schools, after all, have significantly less contact time with their students.
It’s also a well known fact that schools typically have more enrichment activities nearer the end of the academic year, especially in summer, excluding GCSE and A Level students. If a parent feels their holiday will add more cultural capital and enrichment than a sports day and whatnot, then that’s completely their perogative.
I was looking a holidays this week. Nothing super fancy, all inclusive resort in Crete on TUI that caught my eye.
School hols – £1500 per person, there’s 3 of us. Way out of budget.
Moved the date back 3 weeks, £860 per person with a free child place so whole holiday after a room upgrade is around £2k. School hols it would have been £4500!!
It’s ridiculous. Who is paying these prices for Greece or Spain or something. If it was Babados it might be worth it if you can afford it.
Needless to say I will just take the heat from school.
Still cheaper than taking the kids on holiday in term time
Didn’t dish out any fines for teachers when schools were closed during strikes did they?
That was perfectly acceptable to miss multiple days of school for no reason at all
Teacher here. None of us agree with the fine system. Headteachers have discretion but have to really justify it. A couple of weeks holiday doesn’t usually make a difference. There is a problem when it’s longer than that as it does have an impact on learning. Generally, the children will catch up but it can impact exam results and therefore schools.
We’ve had kids go to India for 3 months and come back really behind- to the point where their English has really dropped off.
Some of the excuses parents use to try and get out of being fined are amazing. A kid in my year group has an uncle who has died 3 times.
I think that the government are fully aware that this will make no difference and parents will continue to take out their children during term time for holidays due to the cost advantage. It’s simply another revenue stream solution for local councils.
Whether or not people think it’s “right” to take children out of school for holidays is up for debate.
For me, I think it’s completely fine… I did as a child, and it didn’t affect my education. I still got cracking exam results and went on to have a great career, and more importantly, I have some fantastic memories of family holidays that otherwise wouldn’t have happened if restricted to school holiday times as my parents wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
Secondly, my partner is a teacher and says that for _most_ kids that have a holiday during term time it makes no difference whatsoever. It’s a only a minority that fall behind, and it’s either those that are away for a long time, or those that are _typically_ the kids with low attendance anyway and/or with very little educational support at home.
If this was _genuinely_ about the interests of the child and not more about revenue generation, then they’d apply a threshold (eg fine kicks in if attendance in last 12months <95%) rather than a blanket fine for any kids parents.
I don’t really understand why attendance is such a huge deal in this country/nowadays.
Although I understand that loads of missed days through the year may signal neglect, having a bloody holiday is certainly not. This is a blanket rule applying to everyone that I just cannot fathom. Does this raise workers who just won’t skip??
My fondest memories in my whole life are of my holidays with mum and dad when I was a kid. I think kids need a holiday above anything.
But I have friends who take their kids out of school because they’d rather not pay the premium to go to The Maldives or Disney Land during term time.
But then some families could only afford a camping holiday out of term time.
Pre covid the public perception was that missing school was an terrible thing and social unacceptable.
But then we had points during covid where opening pubs was seen as more important than opening schools. Then we had teachers going on strike (as justified as that was); a local authority closing [all its schools](https://www.deeside.com/councils-blanket-closure-of-all-flintshire-schools-amid-amber-snow-warning-triggers-strong-reaction/) because a small area had a weather warning, despite the forecasts saying most of the country had 0% chance of snow and, finally, a bunch of schools closing because the government hadn’t bothered to keep the buildings vaguely safe.
When I was a kid in the 90s my school was *never* closed. Even when there was 4ft of snow or one block had caught fire they kept the place open. The last five years have created the impression that the authorities don’t value schools being open. Unsurprisingly many parents have taken that message onboard.
I’m not sure that’s entirely bad, in the grand scheme of things.
After the schools closing for Covid I’m not convinced they have any moral right to fine parents taking the odd week to have a holiday with their children.
We’ve tagged 5 days on to May half term to enable us to go on holiday this year.
Cheap Eurocamp jolly to France using the Sun 9.50 holiday offers thing, saved all year for the ferries and spends. STILL going to cost about a grand for the 2 weeks.
We simply cannot afford a ‘school holidays’ holiday, the 1k trip would turn into a 3k trip, so aye, I’ll take the fine.. and my own DS is 7, 5 days out the entire year is a non issue.
We are a standard income family in the NE and have actually budgeted for the fine.
Wealthy parents at my kids school have taken their kids off for a month at a time to go to Bali/ Oz etc..
I’m not feeling guilty for 5 days.
We don’t take our kids on holiday in term time. But even so £80 is nothing when the likes of a week in Portugal can be £2000 more expensive in the school holidays.
I took my Daughter to Disneyland Paris in term time. Saved £1.5K. So go on, fine me, it won’t make a blind bit of difference.
I’m taking mine out in two weeks, I don’t care.. ones entire class will be on a residential trip at the time.. I’m not bothered.
Yes, it is cheaper to take holidays during term time but that is because most families play by the rules and do not take holidays then.
On the other hand, whether missing a week of school during the fag end of the summer term makes any real difference to a child’s education seems doubtful.
On the third hand, it is not just about middle-class parents taking Tarquin and Sameena on educational trips to the Parthenon. According to that story, a quarter of secondary school pupils missed a month or more in a year.
On the fourth hand, that suggests the fines system is not working anyway.
So dunno. Too hard for me.
Schools have offered to pay parents each time they have an inset day during term time or go on strike
Should be a thing where summer holidays are reduced by a week but you can take a week off whenever in the school year as long as it not near exams . This would help poorer families to go on holiday
Here’s an idea: stop holiday companies from jacking up their prices during school holidays. That way you’ll stop people taking their kids during term time
If the punishment for something is a fine, then it does not apply to better off people. Middle class workers are not going to be bothered by this, but £80 is a more meaningful amount of money for someone in a lower income bracket.
Fining people for taking kids out of school for holidays in term times is wrong because it simply allows those with means to accept the fine as par of the cost of the holiday. In other words, you can flout the rules as long as you can afford to do so.
There needs to be proper punishments for this. Perhaps children who are taken out of class in this way should be forced to repeat the year? That would nip this in the bud.
Maybe make school less of a peice of shit so kids don’t hate it
Me and my partner both work in schools so we’re both screwed anyway. We’ve looked at holidays abroad and it’s going to be in the region of £3500 to £5000 for a holiday for a family of five. Then you get told to look at going on holiday in your own country but again prices jump up to crazy amounts during the school holidays.
But private schools holidays are different and a lot break up 2 weeks earlier than state schools for the summer. Funny that.
I’m a teacher and gladly help parents avoid all of this if they’re just trying to organise a family holiday for a week. Go, enjoy, and broaden the kid’s mind with a different experience and bond as a family. Worth much more than another week at underfunded school
Another tax on the squeezed middle. Hate this rule, it’s so wrong. Especially when education didn’t matter at all during covid times – they refused to allow kids go to school for many months, and now charge you for taking your kid off for a week. Disgrace.
And don’t respond with some bollocks about remote teaching during that period please – that didn’t work for a significant number of kids & their parents.
So. We all know the solution. Break up the holidays by different counties so the holiday companies have no focal point.
Now the problem is. I will use Butlin’s as an example.
In summer holiday you are looking at £1500 for a week and constant queues when there.
Outside of summer holidays will cost about £400 and no queues.
So no. £20 won’t make any difference at all
The only person I know who’s ever been fined was a woman who’s daughter ran away from home to live with her older boyfriend. Mum got no help with getting her daughter back home but got fined repeatedly and nearly had to go to court over it.
Just another way to get money really, a week or two isn’t going to do too much damage to the child’s education especially the last few weeks of the school year where you used to do fuck all really.
£80 to save hundreds on holiday deals and all they miss is watching movies and messing about?
Cool
Kids would enjoy school a hell of a lot more if it weren’t forced on them.
I know people who have been finee for taking their kid out of school on the last day of term. When i was a kid you did fuck all on the last day but play games. No learning went on
34 comments
If £60/parent wasn’t working I’m not convinced this will either. Holidays are so much cheaper in term time that for many they are only affordable then and the fine just gets calculated as part of the cost.
I saved literally thousands on a single holiday by taking my kid in school time instead of the summer holidays. £20 extra isn’t going to change anything.
This won’t make a blind bit of difference, an additional £20 will not offset the savings you can make going on holiday in of term time.
You can also just take your child out for 4.5 days and be fine, we normally tie it in with an inset day so you have 4 days out but get the full week and no fine; works well.
If holidays weren’t so fucking expensive I’d support this. But when parents came to me saying they were taking their kids out of school two weeks before the end of term because they could get a holiday 50% cheaper, I’m inclined to completely support them in that decision. Not every parent has the right intentions but fundamentally schools are not in any position to tell parents what they can and can’t do with their families.
Maybe, just maybe, if schools were better funded and resourced then the quality of learning would be so great that taking the odd week off would make minimal difference. Private schools, after all, have significantly less contact time with their students.
It’s also a well known fact that schools typically have more enrichment activities nearer the end of the academic year, especially in summer, excluding GCSE and A Level students. If a parent feels their holiday will add more cultural capital and enrichment than a sports day and whatnot, then that’s completely their perogative.
I was looking a holidays this week. Nothing super fancy, all inclusive resort in Crete on TUI that caught my eye.
School hols – £1500 per person, there’s 3 of us. Way out of budget.
Moved the date back 3 weeks, £860 per person with a free child place so whole holiday after a room upgrade is around £2k. School hols it would have been £4500!!
It’s ridiculous. Who is paying these prices for Greece or Spain or something. If it was Babados it might be worth it if you can afford it.
Needless to say I will just take the heat from school.
Still cheaper than taking the kids on holiday in term time
Didn’t dish out any fines for teachers when schools were closed during strikes did they?
That was perfectly acceptable to miss multiple days of school for no reason at all
Teacher here. None of us agree with the fine system. Headteachers have discretion but have to really justify it. A couple of weeks holiday doesn’t usually make a difference. There is a problem when it’s longer than that as it does have an impact on learning. Generally, the children will catch up but it can impact exam results and therefore schools.
We’ve had kids go to India for 3 months and come back really behind- to the point where their English has really dropped off.
Some of the excuses parents use to try and get out of being fined are amazing. A kid in my year group has an uncle who has died 3 times.
I think that the government are fully aware that this will make no difference and parents will continue to take out their children during term time for holidays due to the cost advantage. It’s simply another revenue stream solution for local councils.
Whether or not people think it’s “right” to take children out of school for holidays is up for debate.
For me, I think it’s completely fine… I did as a child, and it didn’t affect my education. I still got cracking exam results and went on to have a great career, and more importantly, I have some fantastic memories of family holidays that otherwise wouldn’t have happened if restricted to school holiday times as my parents wouldn’t have been able to afford it.
Secondly, my partner is a teacher and says that for _most_ kids that have a holiday during term time it makes no difference whatsoever. It’s a only a minority that fall behind, and it’s either those that are away for a long time, or those that are _typically_ the kids with low attendance anyway and/or with very little educational support at home.
If this was _genuinely_ about the interests of the child and not more about revenue generation, then they’d apply a threshold (eg fine kicks in if attendance in last 12months <95%) rather than a blanket fine for any kids parents.
I don’t really understand why attendance is such a huge deal in this country/nowadays.
Although I understand that loads of missed days through the year may signal neglect, having a bloody holiday is certainly not. This is a blanket rule applying to everyone that I just cannot fathom. Does this raise workers who just won’t skip??
My fondest memories in my whole life are of my holidays with mum and dad when I was a kid. I think kids need a holiday above anything.
But I have friends who take their kids out of school because they’d rather not pay the premium to go to The Maldives or Disney Land during term time.
But then some families could only afford a camping holiday out of term time.
Pre covid the public perception was that missing school was an terrible thing and social unacceptable.
But then we had points during covid where opening pubs was seen as more important than opening schools. Then we had teachers going on strike (as justified as that was); a local authority closing [all its schools](https://www.deeside.com/councils-blanket-closure-of-all-flintshire-schools-amid-amber-snow-warning-triggers-strong-reaction/) because a small area had a weather warning, despite the forecasts saying most of the country had 0% chance of snow and, finally, a bunch of schools closing because the government hadn’t bothered to keep the buildings vaguely safe.
When I was a kid in the 90s my school was *never* closed. Even when there was 4ft of snow or one block had caught fire they kept the place open. The last five years have created the impression that the authorities don’t value schools being open. Unsurprisingly many parents have taken that message onboard.
I’m not sure that’s entirely bad, in the grand scheme of things.
After the schools closing for Covid I’m not convinced they have any moral right to fine parents taking the odd week to have a holiday with their children.
We’ve tagged 5 days on to May half term to enable us to go on holiday this year.
Cheap Eurocamp jolly to France using the Sun 9.50 holiday offers thing, saved all year for the ferries and spends. STILL going to cost about a grand for the 2 weeks.
We simply cannot afford a ‘school holidays’ holiday, the 1k trip would turn into a 3k trip, so aye, I’ll take the fine.. and my own DS is 7, 5 days out the entire year is a non issue.
We are a standard income family in the NE and have actually budgeted for the fine.
Wealthy parents at my kids school have taken their kids off for a month at a time to go to Bali/ Oz etc..
I’m not feeling guilty for 5 days.
We don’t take our kids on holiday in term time. But even so £80 is nothing when the likes of a week in Portugal can be £2000 more expensive in the school holidays.
I took my Daughter to Disneyland Paris in term time. Saved £1.5K. So go on, fine me, it won’t make a blind bit of difference.
I’m taking mine out in two weeks, I don’t care.. ones entire class will be on a residential trip at the time.. I’m not bothered.
Yes, it is cheaper to take holidays during term time but that is because most families play by the rules and do not take holidays then.
On the other hand, whether missing a week of school during the fag end of the summer term makes any real difference to a child’s education seems doubtful.
On the third hand, it is not just about middle-class parents taking Tarquin and Sameena on educational trips to the Parthenon. According to that story, a quarter of secondary school pupils missed a month or more in a year.
On the fourth hand, that suggests the fines system is not working anyway.
So dunno. Too hard for me.
Schools have offered to pay parents each time they have an inset day during term time or go on strike
Should be a thing where summer holidays are reduced by a week but you can take a week off whenever in the school year as long as it not near exams . This would help poorer families to go on holiday
Here’s an idea: stop holiday companies from jacking up their prices during school holidays. That way you’ll stop people taking their kids during term time
If the punishment for something is a fine, then it does not apply to better off people. Middle class workers are not going to be bothered by this, but £80 is a more meaningful amount of money for someone in a lower income bracket.
Fining people for taking kids out of school for holidays in term times is wrong because it simply allows those with means to accept the fine as par of the cost of the holiday. In other words, you can flout the rules as long as you can afford to do so.
There needs to be proper punishments for this. Perhaps children who are taken out of class in this way should be forced to repeat the year? That would nip this in the bud.
Maybe make school less of a peice of shit so kids don’t hate it
Me and my partner both work in schools so we’re both screwed anyway. We’ve looked at holidays abroad and it’s going to be in the region of £3500 to £5000 for a holiday for a family of five. Then you get told to look at going on holiday in your own country but again prices jump up to crazy amounts during the school holidays.
But private schools holidays are different and a lot break up 2 weeks earlier than state schools for the summer. Funny that.
I’m a teacher and gladly help parents avoid all of this if they’re just trying to organise a family holiday for a week. Go, enjoy, and broaden the kid’s mind with a different experience and bond as a family. Worth much more than another week at underfunded school
Another tax on the squeezed middle. Hate this rule, it’s so wrong. Especially when education didn’t matter at all during covid times – they refused to allow kids go to school for many months, and now charge you for taking your kid off for a week. Disgrace.
And don’t respond with some bollocks about remote teaching during that period please – that didn’t work for a significant number of kids & their parents.
So. We all know the solution. Break up the holidays by different counties so the holiday companies have no focal point.
Now the problem is. I will use Butlin’s as an example.
In summer holiday you are looking at £1500 for a week and constant queues when there.
Outside of summer holidays will cost about £400 and no queues.
So no. £20 won’t make any difference at all
The only person I know who’s ever been fined was a woman who’s daughter ran away from home to live with her older boyfriend. Mum got no help with getting her daughter back home but got fined repeatedly and nearly had to go to court over it.
Just another way to get money really, a week or two isn’t going to do too much damage to the child’s education especially the last few weeks of the school year where you used to do fuck all really.
£80 to save hundreds on holiday deals and all they miss is watching movies and messing about?
Cool
Kids would enjoy school a hell of a lot more if it weren’t forced on them.
I know people who have been finee for taking their kid out of school on the last day of term. When i was a kid you did fuck all on the last day but play games. No learning went on