School holidays

Just heard some utter twit on breakfast tv this morning (tuned in a bit late, so didn't get his credentials or name), but either a teacher or head, along with the opposite view parent, talking about taking children out of school for holidays.

Parents stance - its much cheaper to do so, it affects child school progress very little, it's good for family time, and it's educational (cross cultural learning, and language development). Personally I utterly agree with this, we have taken our children out of school for holidays, and it has mad absolutely no impact on their school progression whatsoever.

Twit's - oops teacher's - stance, and this statement really stood out - poor child performance has been unequivocally linked to poor attendance. Of this I have absolutely no doubt, but you have to link holidays to poor attendance, and of that there is no evidence - ie do parents who take their children away on holidays also allow thir children to poorly attend. Perhaps, but poor attendance is more likely to be a chronic, repeated poor attendance throughout the year, rather than just a 2 week or so period one off.

Other anti in term holidays arguments - its disruptive to teaching - well that was about it really.

The snob also commented that he had sympathy with parents who took children on educational trips as opposed to the Marbella - hmmm - wonder what Marbellan residents have to say about that.

The problem - holiday providers (hotels, tour operators etc) all inflate their prices for school holidays, sometimes double or more compared to term time, so it is very tempting for parents to go, with or without permission.

The solution - change the shool term system, so there is no holiday price bias. Instead of fixed terms, have teaching all year round, and allow children to have an amount of time off over the year, whenever they want. They would have to make themselves available at certain times to attend for instance exams.

Downside for teachers - they would only get 5 weeks or so holiday a year, just like the rest of us, instead of the 13 weeks or so they get now (fully paid of course), together with all the training days held during what would normally be classed a teaching day, forcing the parents to take time off work in order to look after the offspring (what goes on in a training day anyway?)

Now perhaps we see the real reason for teachers reluctance to allow out of term holidays - it would just be the thin end of the wedge, the slippery slope to have to work all year, instead of the ridiculous holidays they have now.

Don't get me wrong, I have far more respect for teachers than I do for politicians, and most of them do a fine job of teaching, often under difficult circumstances, but the holidays, and the insistance on keeping them is just out dated.