mykeyb Posted March 27, 2014 Share Posted March 27, 2014 Or during peak times holiday firms charge the full price for holidays and reduce prices to stimulate demand when there is less. Not sure many holiday firms are actually making huge profits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 (edited) Go off sick for a week and little Johnny can catch up on the school work But it seems take him to Barbados for a week during school time and his life is all but over Edited March 28, 2014 by tonyh29 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykeyb Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Or take of him of to Barbados for a week and then he is off for a week sick and that is over 5% of his academic year missed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted March 28, 2014 Moderator Share Posted March 28, 2014 Go off sick for a week and little Johnny can catch up on the school work But it seems take him to Barbados for a week during school time and his life is all but over Sickness can't be timed for school holidays, holidays can. That is a pretty weak argument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Go off sick for a week and little Johnny can catch up on the school work But it seems take him to Barbados for a week during school time and his life is all but over Sickness can't be timed for school holidays, holidays can. That is a pretty weak argument. Can't help but think you missed the point Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted March 28, 2014 Moderator Share Posted March 28, 2014 Go off sick for a week and little Johnny can catch up on the school work But it seems take him to Barbados for a week during school time and his life is all but over Sickness can't be timed for school holidays, holidays can. That is a pretty weak argument.Can't help but think you missed the point Which was? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted March 28, 2014 Author Share Posted March 28, 2014 Sick childen are expected and assumed to be able to catch up on the lost school time. Children on holiday are deemed to be throwing their education away by missing school time. If a holiday was agreed in advance with the school then it might be possible to send the student off with some work to keep him/her from falling behind too much. Can't really do that if someone is unexectedly off sick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted March 28, 2014 Moderator Share Posted March 28, 2014 If that was the point then no I didn't miss it. I don't think sick children are expected to catch up, that is exactly the problem they don't. But Under your suggestion teachers/schools should take on extra work to assist pupils in not getting behind so parents can take a cheap break? I don't think so. So how about teachers being allowed to take time off in term time to go away? They could give the pupils extra work to catch up before they go or when they get back. Sickness can't be avoided but holidays in term time can be and in my view the two things are completely different. And before someone brings up teachers strikes I don't agree with them. Pupil attendance is really important especially in Primary education but poor attendance is a real issue in some areas. I think schools are right to try and address that including fines for term time holidays even if it upsets some. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdistheword Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 The problem is not the school, government or parents. Th probem lies with trave companies having such high prices n the school holidays. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted March 28, 2014 Moderator Share Posted March 28, 2014 The problem is not the school, government or parents. Th probem lies with trave companies having such high prices n the school holidays. I agree but only to a point, it's supply and demand. More people want to go away at that time so it costs more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted March 28, 2014 Author Share Posted March 28, 2014 I'm not sure why teachers seem to think they're the only profession that have to do stuff that isn't strictly part of their job description. Maybe the majority of them have only ever known that job and are unaware of other industries where people just get on with and cover stuff without fuss or feeling sorry for themselves. If they have to spend 2 mins of their week with a child asking him/her to read ahead a few chapters of a book, or do a few of the activities in the text book then it shouldn't be an issue. Travel companies will charge what people are willing to pay, its not specific to the travel industry. They are not charities or subsidised by government. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykeyb Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 So presumably those of us on here with kids looked at the league tables and read the Ofsted reports before sending our kids to a school we thought gave them the best chance of a good education, and as a school can go from being Outstanding to Good on a poor attendance against the national average then you will understand why the schools are against unauthorised absences. The point I was trying to show was that children are in school for around 180 days of the year, You cannot guarantee that your child would have perfect attendance for the rest of the school year should you take them out of school for a holiday which these days is going to be a fortnight. So you have got your child into the best school you can so they will have a fighting chance of a reasonable education but then you want to jeopardize that by taking them to Magaluf for a fortnight - slightly ironic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted March 28, 2014 Moderator Share Posted March 28, 2014 I'm not sure why teachers seem to think they're the only profession that have to do stuff that isn't strictly part of their job description. Maybe the majority of them have only ever known that job and are unaware of other industries where people just get on with and cover stuff without fuss or feeling sorry for themselves. I don't think they do and trust me teachers in many instances do far more than is in their job descriptions without complaint,I've spent 10 years living with one and 14 years recruiting them. You are though ignoring the practicalities of it, if parents were free to take pupils out of school for holidays as they wished, trying to balance the learning of pupils would be impossible. If they have to spend 2 mins of their week with a child asking him/her to read ahead a few chapters of a book, or do a few of the activities in the text book then it shouldn't be an issue. Care to explain to me how that works with primary pupils? Or how in a secondary school how that would work with multiple subject teachers? And how would this work in a large secondary school with the vast number of pupils and subjects if parents could take pupils out in term time as they wished. What you are suggesting is utterly impossible and is seemingly due to the misguided notion a teachers input in a week can be matched by a 2 min chat telling a kid to read a book. Travel companies will charge what people are willing to pay, its not specific to the travel industry. They are not charities or subsidised by government. Agreed. Annoying but thats the way of the world. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykeyb Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 If they have to spend 2 mins of their week with a child asking him/her to read ahead a few chapters of a book, or do a few of the activities in the text book then it shouldn't be an issue. and how many parents spend time with their child helping them read a book when at home? or is that solely the responsiblity of the school? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyh29 Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Go off sick for a week and little Johnny can catch up on the school work But it seems take him to Barbados for a week during school time and his life is all but over Sickness can't be timed for school holidays, holidays can. That is a pretty weak argument. Can't help but think you missed the point Which was? I wasn't making an argument I was making an observation but I like the notion that as it didn't subscribe to your pov it thus must be weak Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted March 28, 2014 Author Share Posted March 28, 2014 If they have to spend 2 mins of their week with a child asking him/her to read ahead a few chapters of a book, or do a few of the activities in the text book then it shouldn't be an issue. Care to explain to me how that works with primary pupils? Or how in a secondary school how that would work with multiple subject teachers? It would work exactly how it worked when the vast majority of this forum were at school, quite easily. This is exactly what I mean about flexibilities of teachers. Everything gets broken down into tasks and minutes and problems. Just get on with it like the rest of us do when our colleagues, bosses, suppliers, customers are off or unavailable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mykeyb Posted March 28, 2014 Share Posted March 28, 2014 Where do you draw the line. What happens if parents looked and worked out they could have two fortnight holidays in a year if they did it term time instead of during holidays, is that allowed? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted March 28, 2014 Moderator Share Posted March 28, 2014 Go off sick for a week and little Johnny can catch up on the school work But it seems take him to Barbados for a week during school time and his life is all but over Sickness can't be timed for school holidays, holidays can. That is a pretty weak argument. Can't help but think you missed the point Which was? I wasn't making an argument I was making an observation but I like the notion that as it didn't subscribe to your pov it thus must be weak It my pov it was a weak point/observation/argument, call it what you will, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Genie Posted March 28, 2014 Author Share Posted March 28, 2014 Where do you draw the line. What happens if parents looked and worked out they could have two fortnight holidays in a year if they did it term time instead of during holidays, is that allowed? Its not allowed is it, not even a single day. In the first post of the thread I was just suggesting 1 week per year of term time flexibility written into the law on the basis that: 1) It means some families are able to take children on holidays where they previously wouldn't be able to afford it 2) It would create a year round demand for the travel companies reducing the price hikes in school holidays 3) Its a short enough period of time that (imo) it could be caught up relatively quickly 4) It could be preplanned with (imo) minimal impact on teachers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TrentVilla Posted March 28, 2014 Moderator Share Posted March 28, 2014 It would work exactly how it worked when the vast majority of this forum were at school, quite easily. This is exactly what I mean about flexibilities of teachers. Everything gets broken down into tasks and minutes and problems. Just get on with it like the rest of us do when our colleagues, bosses, suppliers, customers are off or unavailable. Only when most of us were at school parents didn't take pupils out of school as and when they wished for holidays or at least they didn't at either of the schools I attended. As for the second part of your post, it doesn't prove teachers are inflexible in the slightest. I tried to suggest what you were proposing was completely and utterly impractical and unworkable, which it would be. There are direct links between pupil attendance and performance. Expecting schools to be able to be flexible to ensure pupils don't get behind through holidays is completely unrealistic. As for breaking things down into minutes, it was you that did that. It seems to me that a lot of people think because they went to school they know what a teachers job entails which really isn't the case. There also seems to be a lot of public resentment towards teachers which comes through in threads such as this, perhaps its the holidays I don't know. Not that I'm accusing you of either of these two things mind, that is more of a general point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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