General Chat

Holiday Companies should have to pay heavy penalties for inflating the prices of their holiday packages both at home and abroad. If the prices remained at reasonable rates there would be no need to take children out of school. However saying this my husband used to work in the Leisure Industry and was unable to take his holidays during School Holidays or Bank Holidays as this was their busiest period... under those circumstances you have no option but to take your children out of school. It has to better for a child to have a holiday than not at all. Gaynor :-)

We generally go on holiday in term time, mainly due to cost. We get the Sun holidays. We can't afford anything else. But I also belong to English Heritage and wherever we go try to cram in as many visits as we can to their sites. So it is educational too. If the holiday companies didn't charge such silly amounts for holiday times you wouldn't have to do it.

to be frank - anyone that takes their children out of school when there are exams planned has no concern for their childs welfare. Apart from that - I've listened to both sides of the debate and I'd say that whilst its not ideal to take the kids out during school time, sometimes it has to be done. It's very true that holidays during the summer break DO cost a lot more, and some just can't afford that extra amount. Also.. when I was at school my father worked for a company that had fixed holidays, and his week off in the summer was always the week before the end of the school term. So I always missed a week (unless there was something vital, and then we wouldn't go away). Personally I don't think it affected my education. I'd prefer the government to worry about the ridiculously high level of truanting, and give schools more power to deal with problem children, than to worry about families holidaying during term time. oh and I agree with Elaine about florida / disney ! Epcot in particular is very educational, as well as Seaworld and of course the Kennedy Space Centre.

OOOOH Kennedy space center...memories.... I also dont take my kids out during S.A.T.S, tests and exam times. Elaine x

i totally agree with what elaine has said. i will take our holiday when i can.my kids will not be morons from missing a week in school, its ok for people who have a job that enables them to be off in school holidays but some of us have to work. its ok for the school to lump us with inservice days when they feel like it!