Taking kids out of school for OS holidays

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We took our kids out of school all through - including year 11 and 12. They travelled extensively and the benefits were huge. The youngest Miss FM fell in love with Gaudi's architecture when she was 10 and still remembers it. Their school gave us official letters saying they couldn't be held responsible for poor year 12 results, but unofficially they supported us.

In the end Dr FM is currently training as a paediatrician, Master FM is a software engineer with Google in San Francisco and Miss FM has just started working as a high school science teacher, so I don't believe missing school had any impact!

I think comments about the difficulties it can create for the school are more relevant, but if your school allows it and your child isn't struggling academically, then I wouldn't hesitate.
 
I can see the schools cracking down on this - there are serial offenders who do it a couple of times a year, so I can understand why they really shouldn't do doing it. If you take your kids out of school once over a couple of years, I think a little bit of understanding will go a long way. I think they are cracking down on people who do it all the time without any real consideration for the reasons it is not accepted.

But yes, I think parents who take the right approach - speaking to the head teacher, principal type level, explaining the benefit they will get (particularly going to places like Europe over Bali or the Gold Coast) will get a more favourable outcome than parents who just don't care and will take the holidays anyway.

Children are restricted by school holidays - so are adults with the leave they have in the workplace. It is a real world problem for everyone.
 
I have always taken my children out of school for holidays. I didn't when my eldest daughter was in year 12, but she had two trips away for a week each during the year with school activities (music) anyway so that had the same effect as if we had taken her out of school. My youngest daughter is in year 11 this year and she will miss two weeks in April as we head O/S. I am just trying to work out now what I am going to do with her for next year. She has also chosen subjects that may require some school travel, so perhaps she will only head overseas to join us in the holidays.
 
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Thinking back we used to take the kids out of school in March for a beach holiday when they were in infants school. That was pure economics though - a third of the price for a rental in the school hols. Pretty sure the kids weren't affected academically - one went off to selective and the other was dux of the school.
 
I think some schools have a belief that kids only learn if either actually in school buildings, or doing school sanctioned homework.

My belief is that school provides the basics, the reading, the writing and the arithmetic. It's the kids own inquisitive nature which is the real teacher.

Whilst of course I can only speak for my own kids, but they are natural explorers. They want to see what's around the corner, they want to ask why something is the way it is, and IMHO any school that tries to stifle that is not a school which I want my kids attending. Luckily the school which my kids attend are very good in that regard and completely understand that school is the beginning of a child's education, not the be all and end all.

I should also point out that in my own schooling, I was lucky enough to have teachers whom believed that same thing, that school was only the beginning and what was important was that the student was given the freedom to express themselves. I can honestly say I doubt I would be anywhere near as successful as I am had my education been limited to the 3 R's.
 
Some years ago when I was still in the system as a student, some private schools actually finish their terms up to a week early. The whole debacle sounds like somebody in the public system got jealous and decided everyone else there should suffer with them.
 
Awesom Andy said:
Some years ago when I was still in the system as a student, some private schools actually finish their terms up to a week early. The whole debacle sounds like somebody in the public system got jealous and decided everyone else there should suffer with them.
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No - it's just part of the "pay more - learn less" scheme that the private system excels at. (Possible sarcasm alert).
 
Definitely take them out of school.Our son was taken on tour during term time.Has a double degree plus an MBA from one of the top US business schools.
I was privileged to attend an opportunity school in years 4,5 in NSW.We went on school excursions in term time.Certainly didn,t hold me back.
I also took a week off in High School to play in the Australian chess championships.Didn't win but beat a future World Master and drew with another one.Still one of the memorable moments of my life.
So go for it.
 
I took a whole term off school every year from Kindergarten to year 12, variously to :-

> Manage the Wiggles World tour of Westfields
> Design and build Harry Potter World
> Invent the internet
> Assassinate Robert Mugabe (don't be fooled by that zombie)

> Yada, yada, ...

> Solve world hunger


And it never did me any harm!
 
Princess Fiona said:
Yes, have done it before. Faced the same issues. I don't think it's the fault of the schools, more likely the rules and red tape they are bound by.
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Good point

It is the education department making the noise. I think the schools for the most part will just follow the instruction but may not necessarily agree with or do anything about it..
 
We had six weeks in Europe when our daughter was 8yo. We spoke to the school principal beforehand and he strongly recommended we take her, he said she would learn more in that 6 weeks than he could ever teach her in 6 weeks... and he was right. I asked if we should take some school work with us and he said no, but he would like to see her keep a diary and bring it in when she returned. So each evening (or some breakfasts if she was too tired) we would get her to write in a hard covered exercise book all we had done that day. She would paste (take a glue stick) postcards, photos, snippets from pamphlets, entry tickets and sometimes a little too much information about the time dad had a bit too much to drink *blush*. Although she didn't always do this willingly, now she is 22yo and adores this little hard covered book. When she left she didn't know the difference between a country and a city, struggled with the difference between France and Paris, but by the time we clocked up over 8,000km on our little leased Clio, she could rattle off all the countries and cities. Still today she talks about the things we did and her favourite places. I have no regrets, she really did learn a lot from that trip and I have that school principal to thank for this diary which we treasure. Thank you Mr Rees :)
 
I'm not a parent so I can only comment on my own personal experience.

As infants and primary students we always took holidays outside of school holidays (road trips of max two weeks). I'm guessing it was cheaper. In high school it was a mix but when I was in grade 11, and my brother in grade 9, we went to the uk for six weeks across late Feb, all of March and into April. We both managed to continue our schooling when we got back, both somehow managing to finish grade 12 and even going on to successfully complete degrees;).

We had this conversation at home last week after the workmate of my partner mentioned that he was considering taking his kids out of school for three weeks later in the year and the drama that this had caused.

I'm sorry, but you are not learning anything in any grade of school that can't be caught up after a few weeks off. Yes, that catch up is not the responsibility of the school, it's of the parents (where required).

My sister is in the last couple of years of her teaching career and has always been an advocate of travel as an educational experience.

Seek permission from the school? Hilarious.
 
Pretty much the same advice given to us by our school head. Both our kids have travelled extensively but did miss around 3-4 weeks (butted against school holidays) till they were in Year 10. I love reading their school essays etc where they refer to their travels and learnings.

Just do it!!
 
I understand that it's the law for children to attend school (I read the pdf, thanks, and agree to a point), it was more the concept of asking for permission for your child to be absent. The principal says no, you go away in any case, what are they going to do?

Although a broad assumption, the socio-economic groups that can afford to be taking their kids away on overseas holidays during term are not the same ones whose children are absent due to truancy etc.

I've even part of conversations at work where co-workers are guilted into not taking holidays becuase they are potentially ruining the future of their under 10yo child by taking them out of school for two weeks.
 
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