..is it moral ?

my missus wont hear of such a thing...

shes taken her work holidays in august, the most expensive time of year to go anywhere...i say lets do september..it's half the price to go anywhere, take the kids out of school, but she wont have any of it.

would you take your kids out of school for 2 weeks to go on holidays ?

there's probably a law nowadays preventing you doing it...like if your kids are absent 14 days its a criminal offence..i think.

i know my missus is right though...just when you compare prices between the two months it would save a packet.

Young kids...no problem.
Older one's (teens)who would have a fair bit of catching up to do on return...no.

You get fined for it now thought don't you?

Primary..yes and did so..
Secondary... no...

couple that with the fact my Holidays are allocated, on a Rota - we have 1 person off at a time - and a period of leave is 3 weeks - we are stuffed for the next few years!!

I've just taken both of mine out for a week - one from priamry and one from secondary. I had to fill forms and get the holiday approved and both were accepted without question. I certainly wouldn't make a habit of doing it but my parents were kind enough to pay for a holiday abroad for them, their first ever, so I didn't have a problem doing it.

The schools where my kids go to primary and secondary you have to fill forms in so their holiday is approved, but as soon as they get to year 10 they won't approve it. school policy. (Mind you i don't have that problem as we don't go on holiday.)

I think if your kids are out more than a week here, you have to "homeschool" them while away, so basically, they get a packet of work from the teachers and have to do it while on vacation...

Wee tip. ( though it might not help Doug In Ireland.)

English and Scottish schools get different holidays. Normally there is a 2 / 3 week difference in when the schools split up and return.
This is where you can save some money. I am travelling to Florida on the 4th July at a greatly reduced price from "Newcastle". Reason being, English schools are not on holiday when the Scottish ones are.
If anyone can get to one of the scottish airports once the Scottish schools have returned, then you should save yourself some money.

For the record never took my daughter out of school for the holidays, but with Caz working in a school we are governed to schools hoildays with her as well.

I'm not keen on removing children from school at any age or at anytime for more than a few days. From my childless high cloud, any time out of school provides disruption. But perhaps September is the worst time to take kids out of school; athough it's the beginning of the school year and it could be seen that the least is missed, it is the time when introductions are made, classes are set and feet are found.

The simple truth is that hoilday firms should charge a similar price irrespective of date or time of year, it's not just parents who have to take their holidays at high season, it's teachers (and teachers partners) and they don't have the option of opting out for a few weeks out!

Sorry!!!

Primary school is fine, but secondary NO.
They have too much catching up to do.

And I've been given a 12 month conditional dischargeand fined for just simply lateness, not absence.
They are really cracking down on this at the mo, sorry but NO.

All depends on a lot of things.

In my opinion, I doubt it'd have too much impact in the last half-term - in other words between now and the summer. In UK-speak, the only kids I wouldn't do this with is kids who are borderline for whether or not they get 5 A*-Cs including English & Maths.

Secondly, you alomost certainly won't get fined. It depends on the scxhool, but if your kids are good attenders, and the school has an EWO chasing numerous genuine bad attenders, this is the least of their worries.

Again, in the UK, the figure that schools are really worried about is PA (persistent absence). In government-speak a school is PA if more than 6% of its pupils are PA. The pupil is PA if their attendance is less than 80%. In real terms you need to be off for 40 days to drop below 80% - that's 8 weeks.

A piupil who has had 5 days or less off sick won't even cause a worry.

Steve W

I did in primary school (just for a week....told the school and we were given work to be completed), haven't in secondary school...but saying that the amount of kids that are on holiday at any given time is quite mad.

W've never tken the kids out of school for holiday,not for any other reason apart from the fact we holiday in the uk so there is no point really.
The reason i quoted BROXBURNJAMBO is the fact that this year we are getting 8 days for the price of 7 due to the overlap between the English and Scottish holidays.We are going to Scarborough and using it as a base to go round North Yorkshire.The kids love it,including my 14 year old daughter ,because it creates a bit of adventure as we don't tell then when and where we are going.
If you want to remove your children from school for holidays s,then fair enough,thats your choice,but hoiday firms are milking it for all it's worth.A bit like florists on valentines day

The past 3 years I always took my lad out of primary school at the end of september for a 2 week holiday. This year we decided to book in the six weeks holidays and go 21 August but it is a huge difference in price - we got a bargain last year and paid just under 600 pounds for the four of us to Zante, this year in August we've paid just under 1400 pounds to go to Bulgaria!! I've booked next years holidays back to Zante again and go on 20 August for 2 weeks and thats cost us just under 1700 pounds!!! Its ridiculous! Plus I've had to take a risk with next years hols as we don't get back until Friday 3 September and officially the kids are due back on Wednesday 1 September so he may have to miss the first 3 days but I'm banking on them having 3 days teacher training!! (which is what they've done this year) I've got an excuse for next year though as we're going away for my 40th birthday! To go 4 days earlier would have been an extra 380 pounds so we're talking stupid amounts of money!!

Lisa

Thanks Davie,

We have just booked up for next year's holiday and because of your suggestion we are flying from Manchester during the Scottish School holiday's but not the English holiday's and are saving almost £1800.

I think I owe you a drink or two. Cheers.

james

Our primary school go with the guideline of up to 10 school days authorised leave, and we have occasionally taken the odd day with that ruling for the boys, last weekend included when we had to travel on the Friday for Snowdon Rocks. Next year may be an issue, as Calum will ba at high school by then. Saying that, I'm sure that under the circumstances, the powers that be there should be ok considering what the trip is for. We will have a chat with his high school SENCO when we go for a meeting there next week. Keep your fingers crossed, as we don't want to upset the apple cart..

So as the "Majority" who have posted, I would go with Primary yes, Secondary no (unless in extreme circumstances, which can find mutual agreement)