wow this is one debate i cannot stop reading about and although new to this i just wanted to say my piece
i have 2 children one daughter who is in year 7 and a son in year 3 and i have been wrestling with what to do about taking them out of school
i have spoken to many teachers (my brothers girlfriend works in a secondary school )and parents alike and i tseems there is definatly no middle ground in this situation
i am taking my children out of school for one week at the beginning of october next year as my husband cannot get time in school holidays off - he works for a huge firm of accountants and has to wait in line for holiday even if he wants to book it a year in advance our honey moon is being taken 10 months after our wedding !!
anyway next october my daughter will just be starting year 9 and my son year 5 i would absouloutely refuse to take her out during year 10 or eleven and although at my daughters school they take their options in year 8 rather than year 9 the proper groundwork for all her exams wont start til after christmas at the earliest
i want to take my children while they are still able to look at the trip through childlike eyes -
we have already started to make it educational plotting possible flight routes the importance of walt disney for cinema and film the differences in american culture and food and ours even getting them to work out how many dollars to the pound
i know many people will judge me but we are having to save and save just for one week in term time i feel that if we dont go for it now i will never be able to
the school are well aware that parents can sometimes take liberties regarding holidays especially those with a large amount of sickness but with my children that is not the case
i know that teachers work hard from seeing my bros gf online at silly o clock stating that she is still up marking or lesson planning however i have spoken to my daughter and she is fully prepared to catch up on what she has missed even if it means going to afterschool homework clubs but she is old enough that i was able to talk about this holiday with her as i feel she should have a say and she is more than prepared to catch up on a weeks work
sometimes she has to anyway when a supply teacher doesnt have any work left for them and they end up doing crosswords
anyway i have no doubt i will be judged for this decision but it wasnt that long ago that when i was at school 10 days was automatically authorised i remember going to spain in my last year of secondary !!
didnt seem to do me much harm ! !