Term-Time Holiday Father wins Case at High Court

[TractorBoys]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-36277940

Isle of Wight council attempted to enforce the farcical £120 fine for taking children out of school during term time. The high court ruled the 5 day period did not amount to enough time to suggest the student didn't attend 'regularly' based on their past record.

Sets a much better precedent and hopefully stops the farcical nature of these claims being enforced in future.

 

[Cheese & Biscuits]

I'm very much on the fence with this one. I do have sympathy with parents however it can't be right that parents have the right to remove their kids from school whenever they like just to get a few quid off a holiday.

 

[Look Out There Are Llamas]

I'm very much on the fence with this one. I do have sympathy with parents however it can't be right that parents have the right to remove their kids from school whenever they like just to get a few quid off a holiday.

Depends on the holiday. If you're off to Corfu to sun it out for a week, valid. If you're doing something vaguely educational and interesting then chances are you're gonner learn more from being in, say, St Petersburg for a week than school will teach.

 

[LoveSlug]

I think that it is good because during the summer months a lot of holiday companies crank up their prices and that's because they know it is when children will be off school. So if families can get better deals during term time then fair play.

 

[LoveSlug]

Can the teachers do this now so they can get a cheaper holiday too?

Tucking right

 

[silkyman]

I'm very much on the fence with this one. I do have sympathy with parents however it can't be right that parents have the right to remove their kids from school whenever they like just to get a few quid off a holiday.

It's not just a few quid though. It's an absolute deal breaking difference for most families. Thousands.

We took our daughter to Disneyland in Florida in the year before she started school. There's simply no way we could even think about affording it in the holidays. There's families who will probably struggle to ever give their kids the experience of travelling to another country.

The easiest solution would be to not have every school having holidays at the same time. Spread the week off over a month or something.

 

[mente captus]

I never knew that all kids in the uk are going on the same day on holiday in the summer.

it wouldnt work in germany and i am glad how it works here.

The time period for the summer holidays differ from federal state to federal state. practically it means when the kids from the northern parts of Germany are coming back from their summer holidays the kids from the southern parts will go then into their

 

[johnnytodd]

I'm very much on the fence with this one. I do have sympathy with parents however it can't be right that parents have the right to remove their kids from school whenever they like just to get a few quid off a holiday.

No they do it because family life is more important than school i would imagine.

 

[johnnytodd]

I never knew that all kids in the uk are going on the same day on holiday in the summer.

it wouldnt work in germany and i am glad how it works here.

The time period for the summer holidays differ from federal state to federal state. practically it means when the kids from the northern parts of Germany are coming back from their summer holidays the kids from the southern parts will go then into their

Is that so you can cover the sunbeds all year round?

 

[blade1889]

Schools down here do that. There is a 3 week period where different schools have a week off for half term and a few use their annual allocation of days off in the space of a week to give them a 2 week break in October.

As good as it sounds, the parents which have their kids at different schools with different weeks off it is a bastard!

The easy solution there would surely be to allocate different half -term weeks by council. Not sure why that cant/doesnt happen tbh.

Wouldn't be messing up exams, would work out cheaper for the parents and cant see how it would cost the government anything to implement.

 

[Stagat]

Wouldn't it just mean expensive holidays for 3 weeks instead of 1 though?

 

[blade1889]

I expect they'd be more expensive than term-time but cheaper than when they are all on the same week

 

[TheMinsterman]

I remember back when I was at school I'd go away with my Dad a few times, I probably missed a "dangerous" amount in the eyes of some (including all other absences due to illness) and my GCSE's were nothing special, yet I'm enrolled at a University with a scholarship on a PhD (ironically my subject supervisor also said don't bother carrying on History I won't be able to do it).

It's tricky, I think kids who have it in themselves to succeed will do, whether they miss time or not, in whatever capacity they want to. Absenteeism for kids who have no drive or support network on the other hand perhaps not, but I don't think time out during term time is de facto a crippling issue for a childs education.

Why not give parents 7 days a year of authorised term time holiday so they can choose to go when it's cheaper for one week only? Then fine them for anything more than that.