Expressing a view on something you have no knowledge of makes you a vacuous bag of wind IMO
So that would be a large majority of the forum on a large range of subjects then
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School Holiday Rip Offs
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So that would be a large majority of the forum on a large range of subjects then
User20205
Money List Winner
From what I can see those threads are about supporting a football team and scoring petty points from one another, I'd say you were qualified.
I suppose in your defence you post on the 'I played today' thread when often you haven't. This has echoes of that
woody69
Journeyman Pro
It's a load of rubbish. My parents used to take me away at the start of the school year, usually around Oct and I had to take a ton of work with me. As long as it isn't during SATS or their GCSE's I see no issue with it if parents want to take their kids out during term time. The exceptional circumstances get out is open to too much interpretation. They should just insist parents try to take their kids during school holidays where possible, but then allow other weeks during the term so long as it doesn't clash with exams etc and allow a max of 10 days say.
User20205
Money List Winner
Yep, how many of your 47 million posts would be valid if subject knowledge was a precursor
Bazz
Q-School Graduate
Good luck with that Homer, can imagine that's quite a tough and stressful thing to go through.
Hacker Khan
Yurt Dwelling, Yoghurt Knitter
But you or I can't talk with any authority on discrimination for example. We know it's wrong, it doesn't sit right with us, but we can definitively say what it feels like.
Expressing a view on something you have no knowledge of makes you a vacuous bag of wind IMO
But if the qualification is that you must have direct experience to post them it would be a very empty forum. Yes you can decide to value one persons posts over another, but poor form saying someone's opinion is nonsense as they have not direct knowledge. IMHO.
Argue against the facts of their opinon, not the right of them to have one.
Whatever. Clearly looking for a bite. I'm done. Think/say what you like.
User20205
Money List Winner
Parental discretion should be allowed. Especially backed up with an other wise good attendance record. I annoys me when the education system hides behind the 'best interests of the child' when all they care about is an ofsted tick. It's sounds a bit twee, but my kids best interests is their job, it's more than that for me. Some of my best childhood memories were on holidays outside of term time.
User20205
Money List Winner
How can their opinion be factual with no experience??
There's too much googling on this place & not enough understanding
Hacker Khan
Yurt Dwelling, Yoghurt Knitter
If all parents were nice middle class parents that read to their kids and wanted them to get the best education possible then OK. But in a lot of areas this is not the case. And believe you me, almost every teacher or head has the best interests of kids at heart and desperately want them to be the best they can. And in some cases if that means doing all they can to ensure the kids to come to school, even picking them up themselves at times as has happened at our school, then that is what they do.
But they also need to be realistic when it comes to the ofsted inspection and have to play the game to some extent.
SaintHacker
Journeyman Pro
Lets turn this around a bit. Inset days. Surely having them during term time is affecting my children's education. Teachers/heads already hav far more time off than the average working parent so why cant these days be taken during school holidays?
Slab
Occasional Tour Caddy
Wont someone please think of the teachers (and in particular those without kids)
Being forced to take their vacations during every school holiday period!
Paying top whack prices year after year for their costa break with a fair chance of it being spoilt by screaming kids when they could easily go a week earlier/later and save a packet if only the school head would authorise the absence.
Surely that's what substitute teachers are for
Being forced to take their vacations during every school holiday period!
Paying top whack prices year after year for their costa break with a fair chance of it being spoilt by screaming kids when they could easily go a week earlier/later and save a packet if only the school head would authorise the absence.
Surely that's what substitute teachers are for
I think the reason for the much higher prices now seen within these strictly allocated school holiday periods is because the remainder of the year and when parents used to take their kids away with them ad hoc spread across the summer & winter those establishments are now much quieter and not full, as such they need to claw back that lost revenue within a shorter period, I can see this clearly when I book the cottages that I stay at across the country which would normally be well booked up in advance but now I can book very easily as the kids are still supposed to be at school, for every cloudy day there's a sunny one somewhere else :thup:
Hacker Khan
Yurt Dwelling, Yoghurt Knitter
Don't think of it as kids needing to be there for a certain number of days, but more that they need to be there when the subject is taught. The teachers have planned their work so they are not teaching essential stuff on inset days. The new national curriculum places a lot more emphasis on applying learning. And not just remembering facts then forgetting them. So if becomes even more important that kids keep up.
Inset days are used for essential whole school training where all the staff can get together for a day without the kids. I'm sure all of us with kids want our teachers to continually learn. Yes they could be done in holiday time, but how many of you would happily give up your holiday time to come to work for training?
Also some schools lump all the inset days together, usually at the end of the summer holidays, so families can get away for cheaper.
Ethan
Money List Winner
The proposition is that missing school adversely affects achievement. That sounds reasonable on face value, but if you break it down a bit, it means that chronic truants are likely to do badly. But that isn't just because of the truancy. Parents who tolerate that, or raise kids who are likely to do that, are the same parents who contribute very little to their kids education in the home setting, don't worry about homework etc. It is more complicated than the simplistic association that Governments like. This line is fed to the governors too.
But the same clearly doesn't apply to otherwise diligent parents who want to get a jump of a few days on holiday. At my kids school, the last few days before end of term don't have much actual content, mostly playing and winding down.
The real agenda is the OFSTED targets for attendance that schools have to meet and which can affect ratings. Schools are therefore exercising their so-called "reasonable discretion" within that. If Tarquin's parents want to take him out a few days early because the snow at Gstaad is declining fast, £60 is nothing to them. But if little Jake's parents want to do the same because the prices in Pontins go up too, that means a bit more to them.
But the same clearly doesn't apply to otherwise diligent parents who want to get a jump of a few days on holiday. At my kids school, the last few days before end of term don't have much actual content, mostly playing and winding down.
The real agenda is the OFSTED targets for attendance that schools have to meet and which can affect ratings. Schools are therefore exercising their so-called "reasonable discretion" within that. If Tarquin's parents want to take him out a few days early because the snow at Gstaad is declining fast, £60 is nothing to them. But if little Jake's parents want to do the same because the prices in Pontins go up too, that means a bit more to them.
SaintHacker
Journeyman Pro
Obviously I wouldn't, but then again I don't get 13 weeks a year holiday!
I saw a news piece the other day about a school that did this in June, so they could go away before the summer holiday price increase hit. Thought it was a very good idea, if we must have inset days then this is the way forward.
FairwayDodger
Money List Winner
If all schools did the same then effectively the school holidays start a week earlier and so do the higher prices due to higher demand.
SaintHacker
Journeyman Pro
Thats why they did it in June, a random week in the middle of a term
FairwayDodger
Money List Winner
Ah! I'd assumed it was the last week before the summer hols.
Hacker Khan
Yurt Dwelling, Yoghurt Knitter
Mmmm, as a school governor I am not convinced. Inset days are there for the staff to perform CPD, they are not intended as an opportunity for some families to have a cheap week in Terremolinos. I am sure some parents would welcome the fact they can pay less for a week in the sun, but if they knew it could potentially come at the cost of their child's teachers not being up to date with everything they need to know to ensure their Johnny gets the best education possible then they may reconsider. Hopefully.
The government and DFE crap out initiative after initiative all the time throughout the school year, and in my opinion any half decent school needs to have inset days spread out, not all in one lump, to process and incorporate these.
As for the the long holidays of teachers then no one can deny that they do get that. But if long holidays is such a deal breaker for people then become a teacher. It is one of the hardest jobs there is, having a massive say on the the future life chances of kids in your hands. A job in which so many people have an opinion and seem to feel the need to constantly interfere, from parents to the local authority to governors to the government to uncle tom cobley and all. And the principal should be the same for anyone, your holiday is your entitlement and part of your contract, so you are paid on that basis. And changes to that will need your contract to be renegotiated.
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