Kate
by KATE HUNTER
Dear Mrs Sheehan,
Just to let you know that Annabel and Sally will be absent from school Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. We are taking the children on a study trip, exploring alpine environments and communities which we believe will be of enormous benefit to their intellectual, physical and social development.
Best Regards,
Kate Hunter
Seriously? Who am I kidding?
Dear Mrs Sheehan,
Annabel and Sally will miss three days of school next week because we are going skiing. It’s a travel-writing gig, only available outside school hols, and the snow is fab. I’ll make sure they do some maths. Hopefully.
Cheers,
Kate
Well. It turns out my children are part of the ‘New Absentee’ class. Apparently this a growing group of kids whose parents pull them out of school to take advantage of cheap holiday fares. There are also kids who get days off for haircuts, birthdays and visits from Aunty Suzanne. Educators aren’t happy about it. Here’s an edited version of the story from news.com.au:
CHILDREN are missing alarming amounts of school as parents take advantage of cheaper overseas holidays and let them stay home on their birthday or to go shopping.
Principals say parents are increasingly pulling their kids out of school for up to six weeks for overseas trips because airfares are cheaper outside school holidays, but it’s having a negative impact on their learning.
Public Schools Principal forum chairperson Cheryl McBride said a birthday was no excuse to miss class.
She said overseas holidays were fuelling absenteeism. “There is the frustrating issue of children going on long holidays with mum and dad and missing significant slabs of school,” she said.
“I really commiserate with parents who say I can only get the cheapest airfare out of school holidays, but need to go home and visit family. But there are some families who want to take kids away for six or seven weeks every year and then come to school and complain that kids are not achieving as well as they should.”
Forbes High School principal David Harris said children miss school for reasons unheard of 20 years ago. “Reasons like celebrating their birthday or sibling’s birthday, stayed up too late watching TV, going shopping for clothes, extended long weekend, non-participation in sports carnival or special school events,” he wrote in a news- letter to parents.
He said children miss an average of 12-15 days a year with parent-condoned absenteeism highest among young primary aged children.
Sydney University research fellow Andrew Martin said school absenteeism can have a detrimental effect on learning.
“The amounts of time children are involved in instruction and lessons and learning does have a significant relationship with achievement.” he said.
“Shopping days, an aunty coming over and late nights have no educational yield.”
Teachers Federation deputy president Gary Zadkovich said children should only miss school if they are unwell or have an important family issue.
‘We believe absence from school should be a result of valid reasons to do with illness, important family issues or concerns but some of those reasons they are not supportable,” he said. “We place a high value premium on providing high quality teaching and learning for our students and we hope and expect that parents will support us in that endeavour.”
The top 5 excuses for days off (when kids aren’t sick):
1) Travel is cheaper outside of school holidays.
2) It’s their birthday or their sibling’s birthday.
3) They went clothes shopping.
4) They stayed up late watching TV the night before.
5) They don’t want to participate in a sports carnival.
I don’t have a problem – obviously – taking my kids out of school to go on a family holiday. Especially if it’s free. They’re still in primary school, on top of their work and rarely miss school because of illness (I’m touching every bit of wood I can reach). I’d never give them a day off for shopping, a haircut or to recover from a late night (?!) And I’m ruthless about participation in school events, even if they LOATHE the swimming carnival and come last in everything.
Kate Hunter is an advertising copywriter with over 20 years experience and one Gruen Transfer appearance to her name. Kate is also the author of the Mosquito Advertising series of novels. You can buy them here.
Does this make me hypocritical or normal? Where do you stand on days off school for healthy kids?
Comments
347 Comments so far
I know schools in NSW have really clamped down on this sort of thing this year. We have had letters sent home from my kids school detailing all the sort of leave kids are allowed. They are now only allowed 14 days of approved leave before the principal has to take some sort of action. Cant remember details? Any teachers able to help?
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Below 85% attendance is considered unacceptable – below 75% and it gets referred to the HSLO (Home and School Liaison Officer) for follow up (teachers/year advisers etc. are restricted in making home visits if phones are disconnected/not answered/hung up).
The category of ‘Educational Neglect’ has been incorporated in the NSW CS Mandatory Reporting Decision Tree – significant unexplained absence (I’m talking weeks/months) will result in a referral to CS.
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I think it’s sad that this is an article regarding parents taking kids out of school for holidays etc and many take the opportunity to critise teachers. Every state and school is different but at my school we are expected only to holiday during set times and extra leave is rarely given. I am about to get married in the school holidays for that exact reason.
Please stop critising, our jobs are hard enough as it is.
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Good point Bree. Last thing I wanted this post to be about was teacher-bashing. I LOVE my kids’ teachers. Even the ones they didn’t like
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Thank you Kate and others. I am glad I am not the only one who felt this had become a bit of a teacher bashing topic. It is a really hard job and a job that has become increasingly more difficult over the almost 20 years I have been doing it. That doesn’t mean I thnk it is harder than other jobs but there is no doubt that it does attract a lot of scrutiny from many areas of the community and media. Thankfully it is also a job which is different each day, never has days that drag, has children who can always make you smile, is sometimes extremely rewarding and is a job that I have always loved.
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i have 7 days off for this year but try to keep bralow 10 i plan to take 3 days off this week of school through
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I spent a significant time out of school due to illness. I also was allowed to take days off for my birthday and sometimes just ‘because’ my Mum let me. I was never forced to go to school carnivals (thank GOD) swimming or athletics due to the fact that I couldn’t compete due to medical issues… And the days that my friends were off on school camp, I was kept home as well because of my health issues, it was probably just easier for my Mum to keep me at home.
And then in 7th grade I was pulled out of school for 9 months. This was only 3 months after I began due to a serious illness. I fell behind in maths, but I wasn’t great at that anyway (and I have never had a need for algebra or geometry to date) and I was on and off back at school until midway thru 9th grade (before I turned 15) when I decided to just throw in the towel and not go to school anymore.
Perhaps a choice that I do somewhat regret as a 29 yr old, but due to the level of bullying both physical and verbal I was receiving, I stuck it out for as long as possible.
And you know what? I pulled 85-95% marks all through studying in uni. I became old enough to WANT to learn which I believe is better than being forced to learn, and because of that I applied myself and did well. School is BS. You learn how to read, write, count, of course, but lets be honest most kids spend half their time day dreaming, evading doing any actual work and in high school we have too much self-interest and interest in drama and social interaction and are too selfish to actually pay TOO much attention.
I would dare to say I learned more in my time at home, reading books, learning about the things from the internet that I was actually interested in, and managed to launch my very own graphic / web business before I turned 18 and made a LOT of money from it very quickly before the idea to go to uni ever occurred to me.
So………..my feelings on school are very mixed. I’m sure kids will survive missing a couple days here and there.
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I completely agree…. Well, I don’t think that school is BS, but I do agree that the kids will be fine.
I was another that spent a ton of time away from school sick. Granted it was primary school, but I was at home for 6 months. Did it have ANY effect on my education? Not a single % point. Graduated top of my high school year. Went to uni. Did a PhD. I’m fine.
I’ll be taking my kids out of school to go skiing and on overseas trips when the time comes. There are many ways to learn about the world.
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Just because you were ok doesn’t mean that this is the case for all or even some kids. I have worked in numerous schools in low socioeconomic areas and these schools tended to have high rates of absenteeism. Those kids who were at school the least were the furthest behind in their education and had parents whose own lack of education meant that they were unable to help their kids catch up. As previous posts have mentioned most teachers don’t care about the odd holiday or even the one day off a year for a child birthday. We’re talking about repeated absences, every year for poor excuses such as slept in, late nights, didn’t have any lunch etc. it is probably difficult for most people who do care about school and whose kids go to school most of the year to understand how much school some kids miss every single year. These kids are not ok. And in most cases we as a society end up supporting them in the long term.
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Rebecca I find your generalisation of people from low socio-economic backgrounds to be very offensive. I’m in my late 30s and grew up in a housing commission area in Sydney. I had fabulous teachers at the primary school I went to and through the marvels of Facebook have reconnected with most of my former classmates from primary school. I was in the highest class at school and of the 30 students who were in the same class as myself, all have gone on to have jobs/careers of varying types … recruitment consultant, office manager, mechanic, doctor, nurse, receptionist, teacher, social worker, retail assistant, beautician, journalist, vet, farmer etc etc – none of us have been in gaol, majority of us completed our HSC in 1990, have had kids, gone to TAFE or uni after finishing school, all of us did very well academically, professionally and socially. Just because you didn’t grow up in the northern beaches doesn’t mean that you aren’t committed to achieving at school and in life – the school of hard knocks (ie ‘low socio-economic background’) teaches you many things, and I can assure you hanging out at the shopping centre and your other sweeping derogative generalisations weren’t on our agenda.
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I agree that it doesn’t exclude you from doing well, I also grew up in a lower socioeconomic background-I was on school card for most of high school- my parents worked hard and I rarely had a day off school. We never had a day off to go on an overseas trips or skiing, in term or in school holidays. Many of my class mates have done very well but many got caught up in drugs, violence, petty crime-sometimes encouraged by parents!-and a lack of education and skills. I have seen many class mates, most good people when we at school, completely waste their lives and end up caught in a cycle of lack of education, unemployment and poverty. I was motivated by this and have since become a highly qualified teacher with a masters and have taught in very low socioeconomic backgrounds, by choice. I did not mean to offend anyone but there are definitely issues and problems that plague low socioeconomic areas, just look at the statistics on unemployment, crime, poverty, education, school absenteeism, mental health, disability etc. I agree with you that growing up in lower socioeconomic areas can equip you with great resources for the future especially in regards to resilience, persistence, ability to understand broader social issues outside a middle class bubble etc etc. however you can not deny that not all of us make it through and it makes me feel terribly sad to see wonderful kids get caught up in the crap that happens in some of these suburbs. Sure crap happens in higher socioeconomic areas as well but less so. I completely stand by my comments regarding high absenteeism in lower socioeconomic areas, I have experienced it. I know principals who spend the mornings rounding up kids from shopping centres and visiting families in their homes to help get their kids to school. These were not sweeping derogative generalisations but experience. If you don’t believe me go out and volunteer in one of these schools. School absenteeism is a serious issue which has serious consequences for a lot of kids. It offends me that people on here, not you, make comments about how missing school really doesn’t matter. For some of us education provided us with an extremely valuable tool to get ourselves out of poverty and many on here seem to be very flippant about it.
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As a teacher can I just say , some of the best, funniest days are those days, where kids see a different side of each other and their teachers. And the learning that happens is volunteering, problem solving, initiative, pride of workmanship, looking after belongings, organisation and seeing learning and school in a bigger picture- all of these are great life and workplace skills.
Hopefully, schools are places of all learning, not just academic.
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How do you expect them to be responsible adults, and actually turn up to work when they are supposed to, if they don’t even have to go to school without a decent excuse?
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Also, kids get six weeks holidays at christmas, plus another six weeks during the year.
Surely parents can chose these times for travelling? Overseas (Europe or America especially) the school holidays do not correlate with ours, so it’s not like every English kid would be on holidays too.
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Ash, it’s about the money – less about the crowds for many families. Outbound airfares can double in Aust school holiday times. Resorts, beach houses, car rental, ski lessons – all are much more expensive in school holidays. People are saying, ‘why should I pay $2000 for a week in Noosa at Christmas when we can go now for $800?’ Not saying it’s right, just explaining the thinking.
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As a retired teacher, next year will be the first time I have done exactly that and am going to the beach in February, not January and we have upgraded our accommodation. Excited much! Of course it always rains in February….
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We used to take a week off during term for a family holiday as it was the only way we could afford it. It’s not ideal, but for many it’s the only way to afford a holiday. The kids were in primary school & we accepted the onus was on us to help them catch up on any missed work.
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I totally agree. One of the most important lessons I think we teach our children is to persevere and see things through. It’s a skill that most adults really need to succeed or just survive in the workforce, and relationships and yes, when they themselves become parents. Doing things that you’d rather not, like sports day and end of term activities, can teach valuable things, for example, that things often turn out better than you expect.
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My family took me out of school for 9 months when I was eight. We travelled around Australia for that whole 9 months, in a car and a camper trailer.
I have vivid memories of much of our trip, of the things I learnt, people I met, places we saw. More than my parents in fact. I completed the year 3 curriculum via Distance Education, receiving a massive box of work in each big city to last me until the next big city.
I don’t remember anything I did in the first term of that year when I was at school. Not one thing.
But I do remember the panic setting in with Mum and Dad when they realised I would have to spend the next week doing school work in the car because we had gotten sidetracked in the national park playing with tree-frogs and making friends.
All about balance people
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When I think about all the school I missed out on because of awesome trips around Australia, I smile because those trips probably taught me more than my school did.
Kids missing school when they are that young doesn’t really make a difference. I would have missed a year of school in total (over 7 years of primary school) made absolutely no difference what-so-ever to my academic career, in fact, it probably enhanced it.
People need to chill. Children survive and flourish on far far less.
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As a teacher I can assure you that there are plenty of kids who are not flourishing on far less, they are falling further and further behind. Their parents let them take days off and they spend that day hanging around the streets and shopping centres. It does make a difference when they miss out in school young as this is when they are learning to read and write. Sure, it didn’t affect you but there are a lot more families out there that you don’t see but that teachers do. Trust me, it does make a difference to most kids.
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As a kid I spent a fair bit of time travelling to visit relatives in the eastern states. Mostly in term time, but sometimes a day or two (once a week) in school time. Mum and dad went to a lot of effort to teach us about the areas that we visited, the history and local characteristics.
Recently I visited the Blue Mountains with my husband and a cousin who has lived locally all his life. Without really thinking I was talking about how wonderful and unique the Great Dividing Range was and how much I admired the people who tried to get over it etc etc etc. My cousin commented that he didn’t know that stuff. My husband who never travelled as a child didn’t know the history, not because it wasn’t taught but because he didn’t travel he had nothing concrete to attach his knowledge to.
So here’s the thing. Travel is important (days off school for shopping not so much). Some exposure to the world gives context for understanding the knowledge gained in a classroom as well as helping with a more mature interpretation of life/people/understanding.
I suppose that where I’m going with this is that if parents are taking kids out of school for ‘educational experiences’ then there is perhaps something systemically wrong – smaller classes would be the first start to more fulfilling learning, then possible a greater focus on ‘real world context’ for learning. By this I don’t mean more maths problems involving trips to the supermarket etc. instead, why not have the curriculum stretched over some more weeks of the year and include more trips/genuine vocational activities etc. Everyone would benefit from a complete rethink of formal education outside of the traditional context and practice. Yeah, it’ll probably cost more money, but on the up-side it may inspire more parents to keep their kids in school for more of the school year, and more kids to want to be there even if their parents are a bit blaze about it. Also, while it will cost more, it will also mean that there are more employment opportunities, so saving on unemployed intelligent and capable skilled professionals.
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My kids always have their birthday off and also the last day of school of each term. They say all they do on the last day is move furniture and clean.
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Someone has to clean the classrooms – most schools only have minimal cleaning staff. I feel for the handful of kids who are always left to do it. Even though I work from home and it would be no biggie to give them another day off, in the spirit of teamwork I insist they go along and roll up their sleeves. The birthday off I just don’t get – but each to their own.
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I agree Kate. On the last day of last year, my son and a few other kids in his class had the job of scrubbing all the grafitti off some of the desks in his room. Says he’ll never draw on school furniture because he had to scrub it all off and now realises that someone has to keep them clean. A great lesson learned.
Plus I need the extra day of sanity before it all goes during the 8 weeks they’re off.
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Ok so this will spin you out.. afew years ago my husband started work as an engineer at a large and very successful mulitnational engineering firm only to find out that it was company policy that they were ENCOURAGED to take their birthday off. Apparently it is the companys little way of acknowledging the extra hours that their staff put in and spare the office the never ending procession of shared office cake and morning tea roster. This is a tradition we have happily embraced and now on my husbands bithday we head somewhere swanky for lunch!! I also must confess that our two lower primary kids are missing the first week backof term 3 due to a family holiday. clearly we are dreadful parents, and their chance of inheriting a soild work ethic are minimal, but we do our best x
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My husband,my husband, what do you do?.
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I like to make a fuss of my kids on their birthdays’. It’s their special day and I will always , no matter how old they get, make it the best day I can for them. This is my thing and that’s ok. Also at our school the teachers’ encourage the kids to stay home on the last day. That might be just a thing at our school , I’m not sure.
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anyone would of thought I said something like I take my kids on skiing trips every year during school time. Give me a break, I’m a single mum and if I want to make my childs birthday special, I will. I have never let my kids take extra time off for anything else either, only if they are sick. I then turn up with a doctors certificate.
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Hi mumof4, just because I don’t understand something doesn’t mean I think I’m right. Your kids are lucky ducks. I’m probably a bit jealous because my mum would NEVER have given me a day off on my birthday. Of course it’s no more indulgent than giving them time off for skiing.
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I dont understand the birthday off. And as for the clean up day – yep totally boring – but I think it’s good for the kids to get invoved and help out the school.
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I love that your children are too good to clean, what a wonderful lesson for them
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How dare you judge my parenting. My kids clean all the time. If you had bothered to read my other comment it explains why the kids don’t go. The teachers ask us , the parents, to keep our kids home on that day as there is nothing to do except move the desks and wipe them down. Everything else has been done. And for your information , I go in every fortnight and sanitize the kids desks with antibacterial wipes so keep your judgmental opinions to yourself.
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Thankyou for changing the title- it was a little provocative and not quite on point.
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My girls hate having days off school, I make all appointments needed out of school
” I love that my girls feel like they have a commitment to school and it’s not ok to have a day off for just anything. But in saying that if a day off is really needed then so be it!
Hours if possible, my 11 yr old was dissapointed with her report we just received because she had two days off she had a major vomiting bug mind you, she has a sore throat at the moment and said “I’m glad it’s the holidays or I would have to have a day off school
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This is nothing new… 30 years ago my parents often pulled us out of school (primary not high) for holidays etc. Mainly cos they ran their own businesses, so we only ever had holidays when they were between ventures. Having said that, my mum did once let me stay home from school to watch Bo and Hope’s wedding on Days of Our Lives!
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Makes me cross that this article has led to many comments with plenty of teacher bashing – it is a common sport, I guess. Some of the things that people say about teachers and education in general are very thoughtless and quite hurtful to those of us in the profession. I am also a parent who has pulled my kids out of school for the once in a lifetime family trip overseas. I have also been known to let my kids have a day of when their grandparents who live interstate have been in town. I am a teacher who wishes parents and kids well when they say they are taking their kids overseas or on a holiday close by. I do not like to set work ( though will when parents request it ) because I believe they should fully enjoy the experience and the rare uninterrupted family time and not be concerned with the stress of completing work. The comments made about teachers daring to take leave outside of school holidays are the ones which get under my skin the most. In my long career I have done this a couple of times and will do it again. The reasons which require us to do this can be very varied. You may be invited to a wedding overseas ( can you dictate when your friends hold their wedding because of your job?). There are all sorts of reasons and of course we do accrue our long service leave so why should we not take it? There are not many perks in our job (many of you will say what about the holidays of course, come try it & you will soon understand the need for holidays) so I really think most teachers are going to take their long service leave at some time or another. We do not take leave without thinking about it, without feeling nervous/guilty about having to ask for it, without worrying about what the parents will say when they find out and without leaving a learning program in place for the teacher who fills in for us while we are gone. My own kids would not have had their amazing overseas trip of a lifetime if I had not been able to take leave. It is really unfair to make these judgements about our profession, remembering of course that many of us are parents too juggling the normal family craziness and giving our best to the 30 kids that we do our best to educate each year.
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Think you might be missing the point. The topic is about the teachers who are complaining about kids missing school — I think it’s ok for kids to have a day off every now and then but I don’t it’s ok for teachers who do the same to complain about the kids having days off
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Maybe I missed the point, maybe I didn’t. I realised that’s what it was about. I guess I was responding to some of the early comments that were written that reeled out all the common complaints that are often made about teachers. They get annoying after a while and you can’t help but feel a bit defensive.
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Teachers are not the only ones who work hard but they generally seem to be the most defensive when it comes to justifying their extra leave. If you work during school holidays well so you should if you’re not on annual leave. So during the term you start at 7:30 and finish at 6pm and work at night; again you are not the only ones. I’m sure teachers get tired of people saying they have it easier but I’m tired of teachers thinking they are the only ones with tough jobs.
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Oh give it a rest. Sounds like you’re the defensive one.
Of course we’re not the only ones working long hours! But do people in other jobs work with 180 adolescents per day? No. Can other jobs stop, have a coffee and go to the toilet when they feel like it? Probably yes. Do these other jobs you speak of have teenagers hurl abuse at them?, throw furniture at them? Call them abusive and insulting names on a daily basis?
Also, these people in these other jobs you speak of are probably paid far and away more than I am. Say, about $40,000+ per year more.
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Seriously. If your job is that hard do come and do mine for a day. I guarantee you’ll be running back to your own quick smart. And if it is that bad then why do you do it? Because you are a matyr? Or is it perhaps that despite it being the hardest job in the world there are some rewards?
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And your job is????
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Kathy i started to write out all the stressful things about my job but then I realised there is no point. I wont be able to convince you that my job is harder than yours and you wont convince me yours is without rewards and neither you or I should have to justify why we choose to do the jobs we do.
I’m sorry I upset you with my comments; I wasn’t trying to make you or anyone else so angry. Its only my opinion and i was trying to express that teaching is not the only difficult job in the world.
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Oh Kathy W, I feel your pain about the toilet. Pregnancy was a nightmare, particularly the second one when not only did I vomit for 20 weeks of it, the ol’ pelvic floor just wasn’t doing it’s job properly! What I would have given for a job when I could go to the toilet when I needed to…
And I’ve given up feeling defensive about the ‘holidays’. You can tell people you work all holidays at home and they still think it’s a ‘holiday’. You can tell people that teachers are only paid for 25 hours a week, never get days in lieu for excursions etc. and they don’t care. Let them believe what they like!
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Nursing, is paid on about par with teaching. We have people of all ages being abusive to us and people often think we’re idiots because we’re not doctors. On a busy shift you may miss all/most of your breaks unless your senior nurse has got her sh*t together and ensures you go. I’ve gone home with a full bladder from not going to the toilet all day too.
I’m not trying to compete with you and prove my job’s worse, but a lot of jobs can be shite and you tend to do our jobs for the love of them, not $$$.
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Faybian… I assure you I was not trying to compete. Particularly with nurses. Please don’t take offence. Although I will say, at least if you threw -up or peed your pants in a hospital people would understand. 30 teenagers would not!
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Just to clarify, teachers don’t get ‘annual leave’ – school holidays are our leave…
I’m a teacher and I try very hard to remember not to whinge too much about how hard I work (especially around holiday time…) as I know my friends and family work hard too. Nurses, however, can ‘whinge’ all they want – that is one admirable profession that I can’t respect enough!
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You may not realise it, but there is a lot of disrespect and even disdain for teachers in your comments IMO.
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It’s not a matter of complaining about kids taking time off – we would much prefer your contagious little precious and their flu mucus stay at home. It’s a matter of serial offenders and weak excuses. Would you ever tell your boss at work that you were taking the day off because you exhausted yourself playing video games until 4 in the morning? What does that tell students about taking responsibility for their actions? Students are just as entitled to take GENUINE leave as anyone else. But genuine leave only. I have nothing wrong with a sick or injured student staying at home, or one working from home if there is a serious family problem, if there has been big problems with bullying or other social issues at school, etc. And of course, going overseas is an excellent learning experience. But some of the excuses teachers get for absenteeism are just pathetic and amount to “I didn’t bloody feel like it. I just wanted to watch crap on Foxtel”. That is not the type of work ethic kids should be developing.
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My brother-in-law is a FIFO worker doing three weeks on and one week off. They take their kids out of school for the week that their dad is home from the mines. They feel that their kids need that time with their dad, to make up for the three weeks of no contact, more than they need to go to school.
They probably have a point [shrug]
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They take one week a month off? Wow!
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I find the fly-in-fly-out thing really interesting – more and more families are living with it – and wonder how they manage. How old are the kids? How are their teachers with that arrangement? How long can it go on for? Genuinely interested.
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My brother is a FIFO worker, also 3 weeks on, 1 week off.
Their daughter is 14. She does not take off any extra time when he’s home. Instead, he gets more involved in drop off and pick-up (than he used to, prior to FIFO), they spend really good quality family time together on the weekends, and they take an amazing family holiday every year, during school holidays, usually a cruise or something exotic. I think they also sometimes go for short trips during school holidays, when he’s home.
And my SIL organises her life to be around as much as possible when he’s home, including no overtime etc.
I just don’t understand taking off a week every month, no matter what age. I would worry that it would play havoc with learning, and put unnecessary pressure on both teacher and child, with child constantly being left behind at school.
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My husband is FIFO. We dont let the kids stay home, we stick to our normal routine. When he’s home he takes them to school & picks them up & attends all their sport activities. We have 2 boys – 11 & 8. When he’s home he takes each of them out on their own for a one-on-one date (one loves to go out with dad for a steak, the other likes to go to McDonalds & a bike ride). My kids are happy most of the time, but sometimes get teary & miss dad. We just get on with it and look forward to the home-comings. He used to be in the defence forces and was sometimes away for 6 months at a time. Now that was hard & we would let the kids have a week off school when dad came home. The teachers were very supportive and seemed to understand the importance of family re-acclimatising.
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The kids are 8 and 10. My sister goes to Wooldridges which is a Perth Educational book supplier and buys assorted different brand names of math, English Comprehension, and English Grammar books for their year level. Each night (including the weekend) after the evening meal the kids do schoolwork until bed time which is usually 1.5 – 2 hours every night.
This gives Dad some kid free time out and relaxation time while my sister supervises the kids and gives whatever help may be required.
The kids appear to be above the class average in maths and English at least according to their reports.
It’s not what I would do if they were my kids and also you couldn’t do it if they were in high school but by high school age the kids no doubt won’t want to hang out with dad.
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My dad has always worked away 8-6 weeks at a time and then home for (usually) an equal time, we never got time off when he came home, we got nights and weekends and the added bonus of him coming to Kinder and on school camps with us. Parents are pandering to children far too much these days, birthdays at home….really?!?!!? Holidays depending on the childs age is a little bit different if the parents then don’t turn around and accuse the school of being responsible for their child not achieving!
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Do they realize that its roughly 2 weeks every term and 8 weeks each year, which equates to (again roughly) taking a term off every year. That’s a fairly substantial amount of time off. As a teacher I can see that having a very substantial impact on the child’s learning. Living in Perth many of our kids have FIFO parents- its a part of WA lives now. None of the children in my class ever have that much time off, perhaps the occasional day here and there but not that much.
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Well it’s not like the kids are “at risk” because they are not falling behind. It’s also not like their teachers are getting pressure on them to provide work to do at home. Seeing that they still do 1.5 – 2 hours solid school work a night, one could say that it is a form of part time ‘homeschooling’
With these parents who constantly take their kids out of school for holidays… So what? If your children leave primary school with strong literacy and numeracy skills plus a working knowledge of their world they will do fine at high school.
Primary schools are mainly froth and bubble with the timetable bulging with ‘extras’. This is not the fault of the teachers who I’m sure would rather spend a lot more time teaching the basics of maths and English, but more so the system who wants more and more put into the timetables. But all in all kids at primary school don’t spend a great deal of time in academic learning.
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That is a quarter of their education, how do they manage it legally?
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What about “Teachers’ holidays are making parents sick”?? I know it’s a little off topic (well a lot, but I need to vent about this), but my son is currently in the 3rd week of a 3 1/2 week block of school holidays. How on earth do working parents work around that?? Could kids not be at school for more weeks of the year (as I believe the US is introducing), and have the curriculum spread out over more class time?
Btw, I also recently heard of a student at my kids’ primary school who had the day off for her birthday, and was shocked!!
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Your boy at a private school? You know what they say, ‘The more you pay, the more they play.’
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As I’m discovering!! However even in primary schools in Qld they have 7-8 weeks over Xmas which I believe is a lot more than other states?
PS I’m so chuffed to have a reply from the author : )
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Chuffed you’re chuffed. I feel your pain. My boy is in Year 6. They break up for xmas hols on Nov 27. Back to school on Jan 30. True story.
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We get an extra week due to “heat week” out here. so we go back on the first week of Feb usually.
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Except Kate, this is actually not true at all.
Private school kids generally start school at 8.30am and go through until 3.30pm.
They do longer school days so that they have extra time in the holidays, this is a because many private schools are also boarding schools and it allowed the boarders to have a decent amount of time at home during the holidays.
All children have a mandated amount of hours they have to attend each school year, in year 10,11 and 12 a school representative has to fill out a legal document stating that the student completed x amount of hours in each subject in order for that student to get the leaving certificates.
Private school students DO NOT get more time off school than public school students, they just organise the hours and the school day and year differently.
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Yes, Jackson, my son tells me the same thing. Over and over
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My father used to say ‘the more I pay the more you’re away’.
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Yep on longer days at private schools. I was in the classroom by 8:20, which was school policy, til 3:30.
Also I know school holidays can be exhausting for parents, but is everyone forgetting how tiring school can be? By the end of each term I was so pooped! And it doesn’t matter how many weeks holidays you get in yr 11/12, you spend it all studying anyway!
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Or ‘ the more you pay the less you stay’ Me and my siblings went to private schools and we always seemed to be on holidays
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3.5 weeks? Is that a non gov school?
Then that is your choice and something to factor in when making that choice.
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Obviously we did that “anonymous”. The number of school days isn’t going to be the No 1 consideration.
Re extra time off for boarders – I understand students need to have that family time, but I believe the longer holidays originally came about to allow students to go back to the farm to help with harvesting, etc. Is that still the case? Just wondering.
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Hi Just a mum (and I am sure you are much much more than just a mum)
Yes it does still have something to do with harvesting. In fact the start of the current NSW holidays for private schools is to get some boarders home for some of the harvests. Some of the boarders at a school near me went home 3 days before the other students due to the cotton harvest.
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Thanks Jackson. That’s really interesting. I assumed it went back to the horse and cart days ; ) In that case, I can’t wait to send my son home with a border to help with the harvest – should do him the world of good!
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The boarder parents will love you forever if you do that. seriously all the boarder parents I have met love having extra kids go home with them. I know kids who get to go home with boarders from Hong kong and Thailand etc during the holidays. One of the perks of going to a school with boarders.
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Ahhh dear…. in reference to the School holidays NOT the Teachers’ holidays. Perhaps, a nice reminder that teachers are not a child care service.
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Renee not suggesting at all that school/ teachers are a child minding service. Just putting it out there that our schools in Australia, and in particular Qld, seem to have an awful lot more school holidays than education systems in other countries. Perhaps if the school terms were longer, there would be more opportunity to spread the curriculum requirements over a longer period of time. Surely it would reduce stress on students and teachers (and working parents), not having to cram so much in? Teacher pay for this system (and generally) is a whole other issue.
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I’ve often thought about the possibility of making the school term longer as there never seems to be enough time to adequately teach a concept to my students before needing to move on. However, by week 9 of a term (in the NT we have 10 week terms), the student are exhausted. I had three suspensions in my class in week 10 last term. The students desperately need that break.
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Not sure how old you are but we had 3 terms when I first started teaching and forever before that. It was changed for precisely that reason. Children and staff usede to have much higher absenteeism as evryone got worn out, run down and eventually sick.
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I’ve worked in international schools overseas and I worked less days, less hours in the day and got paid more. So it’s not necessarily true that other countries have less schooling time
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My kids have done both state and private and each day at private was half an hour longer than at the equivalent level at state. The work was also harder. A state high teacher tutored one of my kids for maths and she said it was at a year higher level than what she taught the same age at her school.
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My children also did a mix and i did not find this at all.
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I take my daughter (6) out of school for 2 weeks for a family holiday. I ask her teacher for schoolwork to take so she doesn’t fall behind. I make sure she completes this during our holiday. My parents used to take me out of school for 2-3 weeks a year and I had school work to complete while I was away, but I only did this up until Year 9 then it was strictly school holidays from then on. I don’t think I suffered as a result, I went to uni and am now in a professional career. Learning and life experience dont just come from the classroom…..
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As a teacher, it is really annoying and time consuming, in your own time, to have to prepare work for a child at the parents whim.
My own children missed school as we lived overseas at various times for short periods (3 to 6 months) even in high school.
They are all successfully university educated now.The experiences they had more than made up for any lost schooling and younger children can be reading signs at tourist attractions, working out kilometres and being enriched in so many other ways. If you are concerned about maths, take a textbook. Bright kids aren’t going to miss out on too much.
Kate, my views are similar to yours in terms of haircuts, shopping. That is ridiculous.
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I am annoying her teachers for asking for work from a pre-prepared curriculum? So, do they get annoyed about children missing class work or not? You can’t have it both ways!
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Did you read what I wrote? I never asked my children’s teachers for prepared work and this article is a general comment about “teachers” apparently. We don’t all think the same way and sorry but it is annoying!
I don’t know what you think we do but it isn’t all just sitting there weeks ahead ready to give someone. It is alot of work and while there is a curriculum, each lesson has to be prepared before it is taught, usually, and then you have to figure out a way to get that across when you aren’t there to explain it all.
Also my comment was general, not targetted to a 6 year old especially. If my child was going on a two week holiday aged 6, I wouldn’t be wanting them to do any “work”. They are 6!
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Daisy, did you read what i wrote? I asked her teacher for the pre-prepared work to take away. Not the work tha is prepared the night before. This is an annual event and my children need to understand that if they take holidays during school time then I expect them to do work while we are away. I am talking 45 mins a day, hardly a burden. And also the teachers have not expressed any annoyance to me, on the contrary they appreciate my efforts. To be honest as a school teacher I find your attitude surprising.
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Well, I have been retired for about a year now and possibly feel no need to pussy foot around. I had been dealing with this for a long time so I understand I may be sounding very blunt. I have also been around long enough to know that in the greater scheme of things, your 2 weeks isn’t very important.
I am not an uncaring person or teacher, I think I was very committed and good at what I did.
Individual teachers are going to have individual views . This is mine.
The point of the article is that children are missing class time far more than in the past for sometimes flimsy reasons. My view is that they shouldn’t miss school unnecessarily but that if they do miss school at times, it is not that big a deal. What you need to realise is that if you choose to have holidays at a time that is during school term, then that is your responsibility and no one else’s. Imagine if every parent expected the teacher to cater to their holiday schedule. If you have a teacher who is willing to provide work then great. I hope you appreciate the trouble they may have gone to. It is not your right.
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If you want the pre prepared work go and look at the ACARA website yourself and see how scant the detail is. It takes a lot of work for teachers to turn that into what your child experiences
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I’m a teacher. I find it difficult when a parent asks for school work to take on a holiday as I barely ever do worksheets (preferring hands on experiences etc), and there is a lot of explicit teaching that comes before any worksheets that we do do. So for a parent to ask for work to take away with them is actually hard as I don’t have much to give them! So… I don’t want them missing out on work, but there isn’t the time to make individual packs to send away with kids. So yes, to me it is actually pretty annoying!
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Yes ladybug26, its annoying. I have a lot of work to do after school hours and don’t need any extra chores thanks! Your holiday- you do the work!
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For goodness sake the lot of you. It may be annoying to you but please understand that most parents are trying to do their best. If I was a teacher I would much rather have to deal with a parent who took an active interest in their child’s education than deal with those who couldn’t give a toss. As I said before the teachers I have dealt with have been appreciative of my efforts, noone has indicated any annoyance at all. And many families don’t have the luxury of always taking holidays when school holidays are on. So please don’t make sweeping generalizations that we are lazy, selfish, inconsiderate blah blah blah. FYI I do obtain my own worksheets from various educational sites. I ask for pre prepared work so I know what sort of material the school will be covering while we are away. I don’t think my attitude is particularly unreasonable. If you are all defensive because of the teacher bashing comments, that fine, but I wasn’t one of those commenters. Enjoy the last few days of your holidays.
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Speaking personally, I am not defensive about teacher bashing, that is just par for the course.
I understand that you are a concerned parent. I didn’t see any sweeping generalisations in the above comments. Your original comment was quite reasonable and I was just trying to point out that it isn’t as simple as you think and that there is another point of view. We do value interested parents and I’m sure your child’s teacher recognises this in you.
Many of us are parents too and while young children often think we sleep/ live at school, we are often struggling with the workload we already have.
One of my own children had to take a term off in Year 6 due to ill health and I didn’t ask for work. The same child also missed 3 months of year 10 as we were living in Europe, again without work. He is now doing a PhD. There were no ramifications for him and I also know of a girl who missed all of year 10. According to her parents there were no dramas. While these are extreme examples and not recommended, they do show that, for some people, even that is not an issue and you really should not worry too much.
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As a teacher myself, I am very passionate and dedicated and could comment on so many things but will refrain…. But basically, it’s not up to me to judge a family if they want to take time off, that’s not my job. Just don’t come to me and wonder why your child is behind if they miss lots of school!
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I definitely do not think kids should get days off for birthdays and shopping, etc. Some parents really need to toughen their kids up or they end up as young adults who take advantage of employers in the same way.
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My 12 year-old cousin actually misses a lot of school because she is completely bored. She’s way too intelligent for the standard of teaching and hates it. As a scientist I was devastated to hear her say that her science teacher made the subject boring. She’s easily ready to start learning about atomic theory but instead she has to do things like squeeze porridge through a stocking. Even with all of her absences she is still ahead of the class so that says a lot.
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I totally agree – my son finds school incredibly boring. He missed 16 days of school but still managed to do incredibly well at the Naplan test. I think it is because we have instilled in him a love of learning and he understands learning is not something you can only do in the classroom. Teachers can have such a rewarding and important job, it is a shame that some of them are so uninspiring
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Unfortunately, teachers are quite frustrated and stifled too. All of them (or at least most) would rather do something more engaging with a keen student, but are stymied by the curriculum, the bureacracy, and those parents and students who have gotten ‘academic institution’ and ‘The Big Brother House’ confused.
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I’m sure that’s the case Alexandra. I don’t want to come across as someone who has no respect for teachers.I can really only speak from the experiences that we have had at our school, which I will agree is probably not representative of most schools or most teachers for that matter.
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Isn’t that just life though? Sometimes you’re bored out of your mind but you just have to suck it up and do it anyway? I’m assuming the absences are with parental consent, so is this not just telling the child ‘the normal rules don’t apply to you sweetheart, you’re special’.
It’s a risky message to send.
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Life is too short for being bored
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Nah, being bored with a smile on your face is an important skill to learn. You often have to get through the dull bits to arrive at the really juicy stuff.
Once you’re out in the big wild world and you’re a trainee/junior whatever, no one is going to care that you’re really too intelligent to do the filing.
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Too true! It’s also about learning to apply your intelligence in a mundane activity so that you are TOO good at it. If it’s a boring task you should be ALL OVER it. If you pick it up quickly then use your big brain to make sure that you’re the best ever to do it, change it, speed it up – whatever
My lil’ brother is a bright cookie (as am I and my sister) and he’s a manager at Coles. Is it what he imagined he’d do with his life? Not even a bit, in fact I’m sure that when he worked there in high school he got through many a boring day by reminding himself that he wasn’t going to be there forever lol! However, is he good at it? Fo Sho! In fact, every department in every store he goes to work in makes a remarkable turn around in profit, he’s been awarded for his work and the various stores around town keep ‘pinching’ him to fix their problem departments. Boredom turned into a career. It’s an important skill
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I guess that is one problem with having so many kids in one class – those far ahead of (or far behind) the rest don’t get the individual attention they need.
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I think thats going to become a harsher reality in schools with so many kids being held back and starting school when they’re over 12 months older than other kids in their class. And the trend for tutoring kids from the age of 6. The gap between the more able and the more mature and the less able and immature in the one class is going to make teachers jobs even more stressful.
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As a teacher I give you this advice to pass on. Tell her teachers she is bored. I would have no issue with a student telling me this and it’s a teacher’s responsibility to create a dynamic and enriching learning environment. There is the set curriculum but it is just a guide.
She is at risk of hating school and losing her desire to learn. Plus taking her out of school is fueling this attitude towards school.
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Thanks Kaz! I will make that suggestion to my aunty and uncle.
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You’re dead right Kaz. My son was whinging and moaning about his homework, saying it was boring. I said, ‘Too bad, unless you are getting everything right, all the time, you must do it.’ He said, in fact, he does get it all done, correctly, all the time. Ah. So I had a chat with the teacher and she agreed he needs to be stretched a bit and happily gave him more challenging work. He’s part of his class and part of his school. He might be academically a bit brighter than the the pack but he’s not so special he can skip the ‘boring’ bits. School isn’t a buffet.
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I think holidays are very important as a family. I don’t see anything wrong with taking the kids out of school for a week or 10 days. This is family time that you will never get back.
When we were younger, my parents pulled us out school at least once a year for a week to go away. Two of these times, my grandparents, who lived overseas came and it was wonderful. They died when I was 16 and the last time I saw them, I was 12. It’s wonderful memories i couldn’t trade for anything.
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On a slightly different note… I know of primary school kids who have ‘mental health days’ and stay at home.
I know of this in the workplace with all the stress but it scares the crap out of me that primary school ages kids are suffering enough stress to need a mental health day. Is it all about bullying? So sad…
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I am a primary school teacher and it is very common to see children who are too busy, feeling too much pressure and who simply can’t cope! Many kids in late primary school, often clever, popular, sporty kids who simply have too much on their plate and too many expectations (including their own) keeping them running on the treadmill. It is very sad to see a burnt out ten year old, who doesn’t have time to relax or even do some home reading, because every afternoon they have several activities and training sessions that mean they can’t just be kids.
Yes, this is in a more privileged part of Sydney, but I’m still talking about young children in public schools. Those that have every minute of their day full of scheduled activities (before school two recess meetings, three lunch time trainings, three after school commitments etc).
Bullying can be part of it, but striving for excellence also plays a role.
Surely there is enough of this type of living when they finish school.
Parents need to start putting in down time for children…. very few people in this world require several sports/musical instruments/drama/art/dancing/language expertise to be happy and/or successful. There is a difference between well rounded and over committed.
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As a kid we were allowed one sport and one instrument outside of school. That was enough for a kid when you add in all the homework that school set! I turned my instrument into my profession so that was a worthwhile investment
But yeah, you’re right, kids don’t need a finger in EVERY pie.
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That’s the rule I had with mine although one did sneak in an extra instrument but then, like you, turned it into a profession!
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Cordeline, mental health days are particularly important for children with Aspergers.All that social interaction, noise, unstructured play, movement and distraction can be hell. My boy certainly took many days off because he simply couldn’t cope.
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My family think it hilarious that i never went to sport carnivals when at school but have to attend those boring, loooooonnnnng days as a teacher.
Of course the occasional treat of a holiday is great, some children try to catch up but there are also those who take a day off every week eg to help mum with the housework. We need to provide support for children whose parents dont care about education.
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Oooh, I thought the athletics carnival was much more fun as a teacher! Loved challenging my Year 10 boys to tug-of-war – I think they were surprised by how long I managed to hold my own before they dragged me over the line! They had even more fun pitting themselves against a colleague who was ex-army.
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It does make me laugh at the teachers who get all upset about our kids missing school – what about the teachers missing school? I can’t speak for other schools but at our school the teachers take holiday leave during the school term, long service leave, sick leave, teachers strikes, attend meetings, have relief from face to face teaching time, teach remedial reading at other schools & have a relief teacher fill in for them – is this not disruptive to the children in the class? What about seven school principals in 6 years? What about all the days spent watching movies or the 3 days a week we do sport so that we can be part of the after school sports program but during schooltime?
When our kids miss school it is predominantly because as their parent I have made the decision that their learning will be more fulfilling out of the class room on a particular day. Our kids have had many incredible learning experiences that they would have missed out on had they not taken the occasional day off school.They are our children and as parents we should be trusted to make the best decisions for our kids not criticised by public servants just doing their jobs. There is more to learning than sitting in a classroom.
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I so agree with your comments about teachers. They get twelve weeks leave – three times more than everyone else and yet find the need to take recreational leave during term time. And no excuses that they want to take holidays at cheaper times – the same goes for parents!
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As a Teacher (and a Parent0 I find it incredibly offensive that people (i.e YOU) feel that it is your right to comment on when Teachers take leave. Long Service Leave is accrued in Education the same as for anyone else who has demonstrated long service to a company. You surely wouldn’t begrudge your local mechanic, hairdresser etc their legal right to take leave, so why are Teachers singled out?
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These sorts of comments are so ill-informed it makes me mad everytime! My partner is a high school maths/chemistry teacher and during term time AT LEAST 4 nights a week she is marking or preparing for classes and there is hardly a weekend that goes by that doesn’t include more of the same.
As for when to take LSL many teachers do take into account the time of year when booking leave. My partner has never and would never abandon her year 12 classes at key times during the year for LSL.
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Hey – come and join me on my ‘holidays’.
I have my eight seater dining table spread from one end to the other with textbooks, programs, syllabus documents and lesson prep for years 7 to 11 – and probably won’t be done by the time school goes back on Monday.
No time to prep while term is on – so I do it now. As I’m sure all other teachers are doing.
Oh – and I’ll be one of those taking time off during term. This is to visit ancient sites in Italy and Greece which will benefit my Senior Ancient History students – and it’s unpaid leave. Any more complaints?
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There seem to be a lot of posts from teachers on here today. I guess taking a rare break from their busy working day.
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Absolutely! Love to take a break and visit MM! Just like all those office workers out there who quickly minimise their screens when the boss strolls past
(and I refuse to play ball with your sarcasm)
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I think I love you!
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Amazing reply
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You have a problem with teachers don’t you kirsten.
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I was going to have a rant about your comment. But then I realised I had better get back to preparing my quality lessons for next term. If you think teachers have it so good, then go to Uni for four to six years and become one yourself, the profession is always looking for people who love to sound off without doing any research or thinking.
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I think you may be being a little mean here, ‘public servants just doing their jobs’. I take my job, which involves spending more time with your child per week than you, EXTREMELY SERIOUSLY…. way more than ‘just doing my job’, which, if I did do the bare minimum, you’d certainly have complaints.
As a primary school teacher, I have never taken holidays during term time… I have taken days off when I’m sick, usually caused by the children who have been sent to school sick that have then infected everyone else.
I NEVER strike, which gets me into a lot of hot water because the teachers who are losing pay to strike (yes, their pay is docked) are doing so for the benefit of everyone. I don’t strike because I believe that there should be supervision for children whose parents are not able to find alternative arrangements during school times. You wouldn’t believe the persecution I’ve experienced because of this choice.
I agree that school staff taking time off causes chaos, my husband and I are always talking about how frustrating this is- but this is the system. Would you forgo your long service leave because it might cause some people to be annoyed? I doubt it. This is the system, most teachers work very hard, because they care about your children, and they take leave owing to them in the correct ways.
We need to be careful about teacher bashing. As a teacher and a parent, I can say that my children are the most important thing in my life. When a parent enters my classroom, I am usually meeting someone who feels the same way about their own child, who is in my care and I do my best to honor this. I wont always be perfect, but I can tell you that the amount of silly, petty behavior that is witnessed in our school demonstrates that no one is perfect.
I think parents’ attitudes towards schools and teachers reflects their children’s lack of respect towards educators and ‘authority’. Surely we can respect the decisions made by teachers and show children that sometimes other people make choices different to ours, but that doesn’t make them less important.
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“I don’t strike because I believe that there should be supervision for children whose parents are not able to find alternative arrangements during school times”
I’m calling BS on that excuse – you can strike and still go to school to supervise kids. That’s what the teachers at my primary high school used to do.
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I am very sorry that you find what I wrote and what I do to be BS- come to some of the schools I have worked in and you will see that if you strike, then you are not permitted to supervise children. You may find that those teachers that are supervising at your schools are not actually striking, or may be in an executive position where they were required to open the school.
I actually don’t care what those teachers do, my motives for not striking are simple and I was fairly clear. And as I said, I’m often not very popular for this choice.
As a child of a single parent, my mother was not able to take days off work if there was a teacher strike. So, now that I am in a position to help families in a similar situation I try my best, as all families deserve to have their leave/days off to spend on their own holidays etc. (be that in term time or not!)
I find the aggression in your comment reflects the unsavoury tone of so many comments found on mamamia these days. I am disappointed you resorted to such degrading words about my professional choices, when the choices I’m making have benefit for others more than myself; I guess you didn’t see that.
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My apologies, I guess my comment was a bit harsh. And I guess it would depend on your school’s policies.
My school used to send a note home saying “There will be a teachers strike on XX date. Several teachers have volunteered to come in to supervise any students that cannot stay home. Please note that they are also on strike, and hence no normal lessons will occur”. Or similar.
I find it surprising that your school wouldn’t support strikers in this way. Maybe bring it up with the prinicpal next strike?
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Goose, just so you know, the situation at your school is not the norm. I have worked in many different schools and never come across the situation you are describing.
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I feel quite confident that these teachers are not volunteering. If we are on strike we are NOT to be on school grounds. End of story.
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I think it used to be that way – I have vague memories of a similar note, Goose.
Now, though, if you ‘strike’ you are not covered by any insurance to be on school grounds. If we are ‘striking’ we are not to carry out duties pertaining to work. I got a bit of a lecture about sending a work email around on a strike day once, whoops!
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That is gold! Teachers are bad because they take LSL, they should schedule their holidays to co-incide with school vacations BUT it`s ok for children to take holidays during school terms, its more important to create family memories.
Hypocrisy anyone?
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Hehe, I suppose teachers’ kids have to postpone their family memories until the designated holiday periods.
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As the child of a teacher, this is certainly what I did. Holidays to see my Grandparents over Christmas tended to begin by flying out the day after school finished and arriving back in Australia the day before the teachers had to be back at school. And my mother would bring her planning with her and spend time most days doing school work on the other side of the globe.
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I think the point is teachers shoudn’t whinge about the kids taking time off during the term if they are going to do the same – therefore making the teachers the hypocrites.
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If a teacher takes time off during the term, I’m sure the school arranegs for someone else to be teaching the class during that time. An absent student can’t exactly send a substitute.
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One key difference is that teachers are being paid.
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You are right & I apologise – what I said about public servants just doing their jobs, does sound mean. I actually do have respect for teachers and believe that many are fortunate to have such rewarding & interesting careers.I didn’t actually mean to be a teacher basher. I was actually was just trying to respond to the topic of kids taking time off school and the lack of respect for parental decisions. Surely as parents we must be able to make the decisions that we believe are best for our children without the threat of being reported to the home school liason officer ( and this is what I meant about public servant just doing there job, sorry teachers, although I admit I did not make that clear).
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Two of my aunts are teachers and have both had nervous breakdowns in the last few years. They did teach in demanding areas which definitely contributed – difficult kids, scarce resources and little support from parents.
Seeing what they’ve gone through, as well as the low pay and long hours I would not consider teaching as a career.
For those who do, within reason, I think they should be supported and not be begrudged the occasional mental health day, as well as their LSL and personal leave. As two mummies said,in the case of my aunts they would carefully consider the timing although sometimes things do come up unexpectedly eg serious illness.
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If it is a big issue from the teachers points of view, isn’t there anything they can do about it on a bigger scale I mean? For example introduce rules at their school, that children are not allowed to miss more than such and such amount of days at school! Maybe even it would have to be a law for every school. I understand that every child is different and some can easily catch up, and others can’t, but still.
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My understanding that there IS minimum attendance requirements (at least in NSW).
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so how much is it then? is it defined per term or per year?
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Couldn’t find it in a quick google, so maybe it’s school policy rather than state law. At my highschool it was 90% attendance, from memory.
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Under the Earn or Learn legislation parents are responsible for sending their children to school until they have received their Yr 10 or equivalent, and if they are under the age of 17 they must be in an approved study or work/study program (eg an apprenticeship). Parents can be (and have been) taken to court by the education dept.
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Parents at my kids’ school have to “request permission” from the Principal in writing. I assume this means permission can be denied?
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I like that. I don’t think that parents should be allowed to decide by themselves to just take them out of school for weeks without permission.
And generally those reasons for missing school, like hair cut and shopping, seriously? Like someone mentioned, all the shops are open every day so what’s the problem…
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I’m a high school teacher and I don’t mind if students miss a little time for a holiday or an important event – that’s life and I love the idea of them spending time with their families (something not too common in the area I work).
What I don’t love is when kids are taken overseas for months at a time and I’m expected to compile work to send with them! Sometimes I’m given a week’s notice to get three months work ready – not an easy task considering, you know, I have a job that includes teaching that week’s work to the kids in the classroom. One of my students left for an overseas extended vacation to visit an extremely ill relative – of course I didn’t mind getting work together for her at short notice, but when another parent turned up to school on the day before they were due to leave for eight weeks (a holiday to their home country) to tell us and get work for her THREE children, I saw red.
Obviously it’s not great for children to miss school, but as long as parents use common sense (which most of them do anyway) I’m sure they realise this and act accordingly.
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Surely in this technological age work can be emailed to the kids on a weekly basis, at the end of the week? i.e. after it’s prepped for the other kids anyway?
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If it’s in an electronic form. A lot of my teaching is verbal explanation or discussions. For example, all the information about Shakespearean plays is available online – playscript, character analysis, themes, summaries etc, but the kids would much prefer to hear it discussed and explained. That’s the teaching part and it can’t be emailed!
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Very true. i guess I just thought the parents wouldn’t expect to get the whole classroom experience if their kids were in Europe or somewhere else!
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They shouldn’t “expect” anything.
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true that!
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Absolutely! The number of post-its I add on to worksheets to give context and introduction for kids who are absent is testament to the importance of having someone there to explain it.
We do our best, don’t we?
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Hi Goose,
Email can be a Godsend – Edmodo is a really useful tool to keep kids who are absent up to date on tasks that can be posted electronically. However that isn’t always the case – the family that I spoke about in my first comment are not going to a location that they can access the internet from – beautiful beaches, though, absolutely – I’m a little jealous of them, actually!
I don’t mind getting the work ready, I just like a little notice – more than the ten minutes that I have left of my lunch break after mopping up a kid’s tears, fielding questions about why they can’t come to school to help me paint in the holidays (answer: we painted the room not six months ago!), breaking up a fight and shooing kids away so I could use the toilet without them asking me questions through the door (I wish I was kidding…).
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Sounds like you work really hard and do a great job. It’s a shame the parents don’t give you more warning before going away.
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As a primary and high school student I recall taking time off school to travel with my family for personal holidays on many occasions. And just like adults, I sometimes did not feel up to attending on a particular day (mental health day) and my parents were always accommodating of this. I felt open to discuss these things with my parents as as a result never wagged school or pulled fake sickies.
I excelled in my study and achieved excellent grades throughout both primary and senior school. I’ve gone on to have a very successful career as an adult.
To make a blanket statement that pulling your child out of school outside of school holidays is detrimental to their learning is ludicrous. If any of these children struggled then they were quite possibly already struggling to begin with. How about teaching them some real life lessons about other cultures, languages, social interaction instead of burying their heads in mathematical equations that they’ll never use in life?
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So agree Celeste and I’m a high school teacher. School is not the only place to learn.There’s a school without walls and that exists outside eg life! Sitting in a room with 30 other kids at a desk for a defined period of time in one subject then the bell rings and you get up and move onto the next subject is not effective or integrated learning. Going overseas for 6 weeks in year 10 changed my life and made me actually value knowledge, history, art, languages and other cultures much more than sitting in front of a blackboard.
Whenever a student asked me for homework because they were going overseas so I’d give them some ideas eg start a travel blog to post photos, learn some words and sentences in a new language, visit art galleries/ museums and buy postcards of fave works- write on back why you like this painting, sculpture etc and post back to the class, read some history of the country you are visiting, start a travel blog, interview a local, write a review of a traditional meal, keep a travel journal with drawings and photos plus keep all your travel paraphernalia like tickets postcards maps etc to make a collage in class.
What about connecting online with the student in the classroom via Skype so other kids can share in their trip too? Sometimes I think some teachers are so tied to teaching to the test and curriculum they miss learning opportunities.
Sometimes the whole family would get involved which was great
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Mental health days are SO important.
I remember when i got to highschool, my mum told us ÿou’re old enough to decide for yourself now whether you need a day off school or not”. I can’t say I’m worse off for having the occaisional day off (and it was very occaisional – like maybe 1 or 2 days a year of “mental health” days).
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Had same life! Mental health days, holidays in school time and flexible parents. I excelled at school, Uni and now in my professional career
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I have three cousins who are much younger than the rest of the kids in the extended family and I was horrified that my aunty let her children have days off school for their birthdays. I thought that was just the slackest excuse to miss school.
It started when her eldest was in secondary school. She’s now graduated (only barely) but the other two are in middle school are are still allowed to take the day off on their birthday.
I struggle to understand this as my aunty is the first to complain when it’s school holidays and the kids are home for an extended period, and at the same time the kids complain they’re bored and missing their friends.
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Wow that one day a year must make all the difference! Come on….seriously? Maybe a bit jealous because your parents didn’t allow you the same luxury?
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I used to take tonnes of time off during school. I still got all my work done and achieved great grades.
The problem is NOW I find full time work so challenging. Not the work, the showing up every day! I have already used all of my sick days and most of my leave for this year. I wish my parents had been a bit stricter about school attendance.
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I’m kind of the same.
My birthday ALWAYS fell during school holidays so I struggle to conceive possibly working on my birthday- to the point where I always take it off as annual leave!!
So I can’t help but think all these kids having their birthdays off school will be the same!!!
Oh, and p.s. my birthday is smack bang in the middle of winter so it’s not like I go to the beach…literally just can’t fathom being at work on my birthday.
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My birthday is in the summer break, and the first one I had after Year 12 I was working in an office, definitely a change!
Although since most of my school friends were away in January, we always had my birthday parties in February, when school went back. So even now I don’t mind moving it around.
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As a primary school teacher, I believe a day here and there is okay as long as the reason is genuine – I very rarely get what my school calls ‘acceptable’ reasons from my students though.
However, extended periods away from the classroom not only makes it difficult for the student upon their return, but also for me! (I spent the last week of the term preparing 10 weeks of work for a student who is going back to Bangladesh to visit family…) Parents are always asking me to prepare work for their kids to do while they’re away. Now, I very rarely use worksheets and a lot of the work we do needs to be taught to the child first. I can’t just produce a random worksheet and hope that they will know what to do. As mentioned by other teachers in the comments, a lot of time is taken in preparing this work for kids about to go on holidays. What irks me the most is when I am asked to prepare work and then upon their return, the work has not been completed (or even looked at!). I would rather they didn’t take any work with them. (Parents, get your kids to write a journal, practice their times tables, take photos, sketch, etc instead of boring teacher provided worksheets) Upon their return, I am also spending a lot of time with the individual student trying to catch them up on what they missed. Many of my lessons and activities go over a few days, and it makes it difficult when a student returns half-way through an activity.
But that’s just me having a whinge. When I was growing up, my family often took us on holidays during the school term to take advantage of off-peak rates. I thought it was great at the time (plus my parents never asked my teachers to prepare work for us), but as a teacher, I can see a whole other side to it.
Oh, also, from my teacher point of view I think if your child is not going to participate in sports carnivals, then keep them home. They get super bored just watching and often become difficult and stroppy – I’d rather they just stayed home (don’t tell the teacher police on me!). I also think there is nothing wrong with taking kids out of school in the last week of term. Work has pretty much finished and we are just doing fun activities and cleaning. I would actually prefer it if less students came in the last few days of term as many children find it very difficult to cope when the usual structure and routine of the classroom is altered (which it has to be in the last week of term to get things ready for the vacation clean)
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When I was ten and my sister eight our parents took us for our first O/S trip to the US and Canada for six weeks during term time. My parents approached our (totally awesome) teachers about school work but were told that the trip would be a learning experience by itself and asked us just to keep journal detailing our travels. Mum got us to complete a page a day with details about where we had been, what we had seen etc. We wrote stories, drew pictures, stuck in postcards and lollie wrappers and even practised our maths by calculating distances travelled. I still have mine and it’s the best souvenir ever!
I’m not advocating missing school for birthdays / late nights or shopping trips but I do think our teachers were right – travelling can be one of the best educational experiences ever.
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I remember getting schoolwork to take with me for the 6 weeks we went to Europe to visit family (most of whom I’d never met so more a reunion than a holiday!) when I was in Year 2. Maybe this was just my school?
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It sounds like your parents communicated with the school in advance – which is good!
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Amongst the teens I teach it’s really obvious whose parents value education, whose families have a culture where school attendance is of importance and whose parents don’t think it’s important at all. And yes, that six week European holiday is going to be an awesome experience for your kids but don’t expect that they get to have their holiday and A grades without a hell of a lot of extra work.
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I loved school, mostly learning and not so much the playground politics etc. Again, I loved learning, hated missing a day for any reason. I missed a few days for snow-visits (primary school) and a family holiday (high school) but I generally attended even if I was dying.
I was also one of those children who (in high school) would finish 45 minutes worth of work in 15 minutes and then spent the rest of the lesson doing ‘art’, homework for my out of school activities, teaching other students about the importance of punctuation etc etc. So if I was taken out of school for a few weeks the chances were that I honestly wasn’t going to miss a whole lot.
I know that as a highly educated person who has always loved learning I struggle to know what I will tell my daughter about the importance of schooling when the time comes. I have two degrees (one is teaching
) the other is a BA. My degrees have helped a lot in DOING my jobs well, but they’ve not yet actually been the deciding factor in anyone employing me. I know plenty of other people who have the same problem. Do a degree, maybe top it off with a vocational course/degree or two afterwards and still can’t get work.
So why would education be seen as number one priority? Life experience and some training in “business” seem, anecdotally at least, to be a better foundation for life in the working world.
Don’t get me wrong, education is extremely important, but a lot of todays parents have likely been stung by the ‘getting-an-education-gaurantees-a-job’ line that was peddled 10 years ago and honestly don’t see the point in stressing over school attendance.
Just my 2 cents
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Totally agree! I have 2 degrees that effectively mean nothing in my current industry. Real world experience can sometimes be the wiser choice.
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Some of the family trips I went on as a kid have stuck with me for life.
More so than that book I may have once read in English class or that formula we studied in Maths…
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I remember going on a trip to the UK with my parents and visiting a heap of archaeological dig sites – got me so excited about ancient history that I taught myself to read viking runes while travelling!
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That’s ok, the school my primary aged child goes to dishes out more than enough homework to compensate. If I elect to give her a surprise day off because I think she’s fatigued, stressed, or just in need of away from school then it won’t be affecting my sleep at night! Never done the extended leave for cheap airfares but if we had an important family event interstate, you betcha I would!
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Mum never forced me to attend a sports carnival of I didn’t want to, and for that I am eternally grateful!
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I second that. Absolutely hated swimming and sports carnivals, and missed most of them right through school (and we’re talking way back in the 60s and 70s) From memory my kids went to most of theirs, because they chose to. But, except for one week a year for holidays when they were under 10, that’s the only non-illness time they ever took off school. and neither of them were behind on their work
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I third that. I had to attend every sports/swimming/etc carnival throughout primary school. As soon as I hit high school my mum would let me have the day off BUT I had to be properly supervised and spend the day studying, not watching crap on telly. One time I desperately wanted to get out of a swimming carnival but mum was at work and my gran was busy, ergo no supervision, ergo no day off.
I played multiple sports outside of school, so it wasn’t that I was escaping the only bit of physical activity I’d get for the week.
But I am forever grateful for being allowed to escape the ones I did.
I played multiple sports outside of school, so it wasn’t that I was escaping the only bit of physical activity I’d get for the week.
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My mum’s rule was that we had to go to at least every 2nd carnival. Not that I ever competed. I played heaps of sport in primary/high school, but running/swimming wasn’t my thing.
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Good to know I wasn’t the only one, some of the teachers used to give mum so much crap for it!
Just the lead up to school carnivals there was so much pressure on students to attend and compete, the sporty kids and house captains also tended to get espicially bitchy towards kids who just weren’t into it.
Mum would also take the day off and we’d spend the day together, it was great. The fact that she understood that I really, really didn’t want to attend made me feel like she “got” me, which at the age is very important.
The one exception was when I started a new school in Yr 11, the swimming carnival was in the first few weeks of the first term. Once again, I dreaded going and begged her to let me stay home. She made me go, because she thought it was important as I was new to the school. She was right! I had a great day and no-one tried to force me to get in the pool.
Good on ya, mum!
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For all the guilt-tripping mums out there – there’s a difference (that any teacher can tell you about straigthaway!) between kids who have a day off here and there as a genuine treat, and those who continuously have weak excuses of the hair appointment/stayed up late/chilling with friends and their bong variety.
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Going to the snow for a few days will not affect a child’s overall education. Rather, it will be a great family experience and the kids will get a lot out of it. Parents who remove their child from school for six weeks to go OS should ensure that their child has enjoyable and varied experiences whilst away. Dont burden them with lots of school worksheets. Don’t assauge YOUR guilt by giving the teacher MORE work to do in providing these sheets/assignments. If you decide to take a holiday during school time, go with it. Don’t make everyone “pay” for your decision.
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Oooh this makes me so mad! Primary school is one thing – as long as you then don’t complain about your child having missed things or not achieving. High school – not so much. Your kid will have stacks of work to make up and they have the mentality that they have the right to time off however they choose. Parents then get snarky at us teachers for not giving them the right work to take away or letting them get behind – and some of these kids are those that have heaps of absences anyway. I know of children who have been allowed to stay home on the day that new video games have come out so they can have a whole day to play!!!!
For the rocord – your kids have 12 weeks off per year – fit your holidays in during the breaks!
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Essie, I don’t think Kate is suggesting they need more than 12 weeks. Rather, the cost of airfares, accommodation etc etc are wildly cheaper off-season (during term time) so for a lot of people, it’s the only way they can afford to go away.
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I missed about 6 weeks of school for a road trip in year 2, and still managed to grow into a functioning adult.
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I think this is about kids who do this every year, twice a year even! Think outside your own existence and consider all the facts please.
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I was making a point that the sum of our experience is not just about school, and it’s possible to not attend school as much as is recommended by the government and still live a happy, fulfilling life.
I have considered outside my experience and I have considered *some* of the facts (as I’m not privy to *all* the facts), but I chose to make my point short and to the point rather than repeating arguments already made by others.
As you don’t know what I’m thinking or what my own experience (or “existence”) is, I don’t really see the point of your comment.
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We took our kids out of school for 6 weeks recently and went to Europe because it coincided with their dads long service leave. It was really educational and they visited places that they are talking about at school so I think its part of lifelong education. Maybe if it was to Disneyland and the Hoolywood Boulevard I would have felt differently but I didnt have a problem with it because I know Europe is full of educational experiences for kids. Usually they have to be really sick to have a day off and 2 of them havent even missed a day otherwise this year so this was really out of character for us. When you hear of kids having serial days off because mum cant be bothered to get them there, she is too hung over or they dont want to run at the athletics carnival because they live on junk food and are obese I do get annoyed. DOCS should be looking at these people.
And Kate, skiing is something that is part of lifelong education. My kids can all ski and have been doing so since they were old enough to go to ski school. My husband grew up skiing but I didnt. And hence I hate going to the snow!
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Actually anon, I don’t think we should be wasting DOCS’ precious resources on parents who let their kids miss a carnival. Priorities and all that.
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In anon’s defence, I think she is saying that DOC’s should be looking at the parent’s of children who don’t get them to school because the parent is too hungover or couldn’t be bothered. What else can’t they be bothered with? Feeding or bathing the child? And morbidly obese primary school children who are only supplied junk food are also, by definition, being abused.
DOC’s looks at important cases of child neglect and abuse, and while missing the sports carnival is no big deal, sometimes the reasons for it are part of a big underlying problem.
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Liv, I didnt mean for DOCS to step in for kids missing carnivals, more the other issues. But I dont agree with kids missing carnivals at all. My kids are far from being great athletes but I make them go each year because its part of going to school. And its also a good lesson that even if you dont like it or you’re not great at it, you still have to go. I think thats helped my kids have a get on with it and have fun approach, unlike the kids who are allowed to stay home every year. They are missing out on a lot of fun and the whole school spirit of cheering their mates on and thats a shame. Plus they get away with missing something because they dont like it or wont win a ribbon and thats not life.
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As an employer I can pick those from my staff who did take irrelevant days off from school. The cost in lost productivity due to staff having self imposed long weekends, too tired to front up, best friend just arrived back from os, etc etc, is astronomical. This attitude was probably formed during their school years?
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As long as they’re not taking more than their allocated sick leave and annual leave days, what is the problem?
And if they ARE taking more, then surely you have grounds to say no to their requests?
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And surely, in terms of productivity, taking a day of leave here and there is better than taking 2 weeks straight leave? My bosses panic when I ask for more than 2-3 days leave in a row!
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I had a boss who used to say, ‘If we can do without you for three weeks, we can do without you.’
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A workplace that isn’t organised to cover a short-term absence, that doesn’t have back ups in place, isn’t a workplace not worth working for. Workplaces that make someone so indispensable have planned their workforce poorly.
People get sick. People have issues. And people eventually deserve three weeks holiday in a row. I’ve worked for those tough places with sayings like that before and they ultimately churn and burn their workers at great cost.
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Kate, that must be an advertising thing, because my best friend who works in advertising was told the same thing!
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or as rebellion to authority, or as a passive aggressive stance to something happening in the work place, like bullying or unfair work practise…..could be many things, as well as pathological laziness.
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Or just a bad work ethic?
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yep, that too..and those workers are everywhere
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I disagree. I was brought up with the idea that in high school I was old enough to know if I wanted a day off school. Rather than pretend I was sick to my dad I would just tell him that I felt like a day off today and would stay home. Having that option I very rarely had a day off and I am still like that today. In two yrs with my last employer I never called in sick or had a sick day.
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Whoops, they’re talking about me. We are also about to go skiing and my 7 year old will miss a week of school…and they will be the first 5 days of school he has missed this year. Speaking as an ex primary school teacher myself I feel quite comfortable in our decision to let him miss some school as he is doing well socially and academically and he will have a wonderful time away.
We chose to go away out of school holidays as we love the snow but it is definitely not cheap and we wanted to get value for money. Snow can be a bit hit and miss in early July so we wanted to go a bit later in the season and also avoid the crowds. Hopefully the snow gods play ball.
As our three children get older we may have to rethink and join the school holiday crowds, but for now I think missing one week of Year One for someone who is happy at school and never misses any other time is ok.
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My favourite was the note in the newsletter from the principal this year reminding parents that children should attend school, especially during the last week/ day of term as the curriculum is choker block. Only to have my two girls watching back to back movies, playing games and cleaning the furntiure for the last week/ Day, with not a piece of paper in sight.
At the end of last year, there wasn’t even furniture available for the children to use the last two days, as it was already washed (by the children, disguised as a wet day for them!). The children just sat on the floor and did puzzles.
I am all for sending the kids for the entire term, but it would be great if the teachers prepared lessons until 3pm Friday! No other jobs I know let their employees throw in the towel a week before they go on leave – 4 times a year!
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Those last couple of days of term where we’d get to play games and watch movies were so much fun, I don’t think I’d want my kids to miss out on it! I still have fond memories of it now
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I agree with you, I had fun too. My point is call it what it is – a curriculum free week and don’t send silly notes home to parents complaining about their lack of commitment to the school. Be open and honest about the content of the last wee/ day and let parents choose.
FYI – I choose to send them.
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Mel- from a teachers perspective I agree it is so frustrating that the last two days of term are spent doing not much when the curriculum is so full ( and it really is)- the problem is that on those last coupleof days of term half to three quarters of the class is away. There is no point teaching when it is just going to have the be re taught next term, because the majority of the class is away. In my year 12 class on the last day of term this year 4 students were present out of 32. My lessons were prepared I just didn’t have the kids!
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I agree with you and choose to send my kids to school for every day of term, and will continue to do so.
However, what can we expect in regards to attendance when the technique of ‘not teaching in the last week’ starts in prep, by the time they get to Year 12 the kids (and parents) know that there is no point sending them to school.
I have a preppie and a grade one. The last week of each term they have both been at school is full of DVD’s and puzzles. And as mentioned the last week of prep last year involved furniture washing and more DVD’s and puzzles.
And teachers wonder why the general public are a little unsympathetic to the cause of better conditions and how ‘over worked they are’. As I said, no other job would let them pack up a week early 4 times a year.
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I insist my kids rock up on the clean-up days at the end of the year. Not fair that a few kids should be left to do it – and I don’t think wiping down the desks is a teacher’s job.
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I send my kids too, and will continue to do so. I don’t think cleaning it is the teachers job AT ALL! Is it the students? Maybe? More likely the cleaners. But that was a morning activity last term.
What about the rest of the week. It is ok just to play and not do anything and then write notes to parents about how the curriculum is full and that we should send them every day so they don’t miss out? I think honesty is the best policy. If the last week is curriculum free/ clean up, then say that and give the kids activities – don’t sit them infront of a DVD. I don’t believe that is good enough.
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Mel, although I don’t agree with kids watching hours of videos and cleaning tables during school time, the reason not much work gets done in the last week is because half the kids are missing and so there is no point covering the important stuff! I think there are plenty of people in other professions who ‘wind down’ especially the week before xmas! Believe me the last week of any term in a school is anything but relaxing.
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Perhaps kids can get away with this in the lower years but it’s tricky by Year 10 and just crazy in Years 11 and 12. And yet, family holidays in term time are increasingly more common. Kids get taken to Bali/Europe/America in droves because the family needs a cheap holiday or Mum’s turning 50 or the child is turning 15 (not kidding). I am constantly restructuring my curriculum to accommodate kids missing large chunks of term time, because here’s the thing, it’s not just your child who misses a week or a month – it’s quite a few kids right across the year.
I hate being asked ‘Are we doing anything in the first two weeks of next term? Cos I’ll be in Bali.’
I hate the implication that we’ll be sitting around doing nothing until they return.
I hate being expected to provide work for a month, or catch students up for a month missed. Sometimes this is easy, but in Years 11 & 12 it can be almost impossible. ‘Yes, I know you didn’t read ‘Macbeth’ with the rest of the class – you were in Europe. Yes, that does make the assignment tricky.’
I hate having parents email me after the holiday to say: ‘My child seems to be having trouble settling back into school after a month in America. Can you help him realise how important his schooling is?’
I hate watching kids struggle because they’ve missed key skills while they were on their ‘life-educational’ holiday.
If you want your kids to value their education it helps if you value it too. I’m not saying don’t take your kids on holidays, but do try to do it in school holidays. Yes, it’s more expensive – I know as that’s the only time I get to travel.
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To say nothing of the fact that there are EXTERNAL assessment timeframes for Years 11 and 12. Tell them to take it up with the Board of Studies if they want an extra six weeks to read Macbeth.
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I took two weeks off in year 11 (and I was doing two year 12 subjects at the time too) to go to Europe. I timed it around exams, completed all of my work before I left, had all tests/assignments/essays completed beforehand, and did all of my reading on the trip.
I can honestly say that I learned so much more from a four week trip to Europe than I would have in two weeks of school and two weeks of holidays. I was studying Macbeth in my English class at the time – Yes, I did miss the two weeks when we read it out loud as a class, but I got to see it performed live at the Globe instead. I also got to spend two weeks in Italy, which was invaluable for the Renaissance Italy subject I did in year 12. I turned up at school at the end of my holidays a week ahead in both of my year 12 subjects, A+ in all of the assignments I had submitted, and with a lot more invaluable life experience than before I’d left.
Yes, school is important. And under no circumstance should anyone allow their child to get behind on or miss valuable school work. But some experiences are just as valuable as schooling. At the end of the day, either a kid is going to take their education into their own hands and get what needs to be done, done, or they’re not. Holidays should not make that much of a difference.
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Ah Leah, I had heard rumours about such students but have never personally encountered one! My students go away, have a rip roaring time that rarely involves doing any of the work that their parents requested and then they come back and struggle for (on average) the rest of the term. More work for me, more stress for them.
I’m glad you had such an amazing experience and it actually enhanced your learning – it’s rare. Full credit to you for making it work for you!
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Oops! That comment was from me – I’ve managed to log out
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I think that’s the thing – either students are serious about their schooling, or they’re not. Unfortunately, especially if its the parents requesting the work and not the kids, they’re never going to do it. I probably wouldn’t have done much had it been my parents bugging me about it, rather than having personally wanted to do well in VCE.
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I love this but chloe is right in saying this is the exception, not the rule! Most kids won’t be going to watch Macbeth at the Globe while on holiday, they’ll be playing in a pool at a resort in Bali.
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Can there be a bit more room for mutual respect? Why so judgemental of parents?
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Don’t let school get in the way of your education.
I think this is a Mark Twain quote. No time to check, 3 year old demanding lunch.
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As a parent of a primary schooler and a partner who is a high school maths/chemistry teacher I think it is ok for the primary school kids to have time off for a family holiday within reason (i.e. no more than a week or so). High school is a whole different kettle of fish because my partner has to make sure they catch up on all they missed which can mean re-sitting tests, getting extensions for assignments….all of which means a whole lot more work for her and consequently less time for us as a family.
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Guilty! We’ve just returned from 3 weeks in Europe with our two kids (8 and 6), and I think we had the full blessing of both their classroom teachers. In fact, I kinda think we did more schoolwork while we were away than they might have done back in the classroom! At my request, my 8-yr-old’s class teacher and maths teacher gave me sheets and sheets of work, to cover the curriculum we’d be missing. I reckon she did two pages of maths and two pages of english each afternoon when we returned from our explorations…. as well as being asked to keep a daily journal! Phew – we all needed a holiday when we got home. Being back in the class was seamless though, and I don’t feel too guilty.
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Well said. The average parent wants nothing but the best for their child whether they are in class or not. We have taken our children out of school on several occasions for lengthy OS trips and most recently spent 3 months in New York. We choose to accompany their father while he works rather than separate the family for these periods. The school was very supportive – but the emphasis was placed on us to keep the education going rather than expect the teacher to set the curriculum. Our 7 year old kept a daily travel diary which was a fun experience and required him to be alert of what we did each day and to collect momentos to stick into the book with his entry. We hired a tutor who visited once a week to provide guidance then left homework to be done by the following visit. We also subscribed to the Mathletics website which provided great online material. Our youngest worked with various pre-school texts to practice and copy letters and numbers. Both kids wrote postcards and emails to their friends and learnt about communication. We made it part of our routine and generally it was done each morning with the reward of a great day out exploring and learning about an amazing city. Back at school the travel diary was proudly shown and presented (over several ‘news’ sessions) to a class and teacher who loved the experience of learning about a place so far away. It’s one thing to teach someone from a text book but an altogether experience to learn first hand – if they are fortunate enough to have the opportunity.
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“3) They went clothes shopping.”
“4) They stayed up late watching TV the night before.”
In a time of whole-weekend shopping & digital recorders, I just do.not.understand.this.
I don’t have kids, so I can’t comment from that side. But when we were growing up, we were only allowed to stay home if we were feverish/bleeding/vomiting.
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“But when we were growing up, we were only allowed to stay home if we were feverish/bleeding/vomiting.”
I’ve always thought this was a bad thing. Even kids who are only a little sick eg. a cold aren’t going to be particularly productive at school, and they can get the whole class sick by being in the same room.
My parents never let me go to school with anything that could be contagious because they didn’t think it was fair to other students, their parents or teachers. I always hated when sick kids came to school and spent the whole time coughing and sneezing in a poorly ventilated room. I often wonder if the kids who got sent to school whilst sick become the workers who infect the whole office because they didn’t want to take a sick day.
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I think sometimes that it depends how much time off a parent can get to be with sick children – in some instances, parents who work outside te home might find it difficult to get time off every time their child is sick so it’s a bit of a triage system sometimes. Also, it builds a bit of robustness around not missing school every time you feel a bit off colour or tired as this can often pass after an hour or so
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That’s true. I probably exaggerating when I said that – in practice, I think it was more a case of what BrisGal mentions below, that just feeling a bit off-colour or tired wasn’t a good enough excuse.
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It’s 3 days, I don’t think they will miss much. Though think of how much they will gain, both family time and memories.
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The last week of term is pretty much a no-show for my high school students. I had nine of my year 8 students turn up on the last day (out of a class of 30). There were also ten year 11 students missing that last week – and one would think they would turn up to class but no. This is at a school where parents pay some pretty hefty fees to send their kids.
As for kids going away with mum and dad to Europe or wherever – it creates extra work for me as I’m expected to compile worksheets and tasks they can do while they’re away.For example, I spent a couple of days creating a task for a student who was visiting Italy (based on World Heritage sites he would be visiting) – but he returned with none of the task complete and was miles behind in his work. They fall behind and we’re expected to help them catch up.
Anyway, regarding the last week of term, I’ve got to say I just loved having smaller classes. Working with 15 kids was a breeze. Wish it were always like that!
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As a teacher- lets put that on the table- I get so excited for those students fortunate enough to be travelling, or any other alternative learning experience.
Yes , the curriculum is full, but there is nothing in the formal curriculum that can compare to actual real world experiences, and the knowledge and understandings that come with that. This is why we take kids on excursions…
I would think most experienced teachers have the capacity to work around the absence and modify their programs to benefit the student.
Kids are home schooled and do distance education- with no ill effects.
Full time attendance based schooling is no guarantee of success.
There are many ways to skin a cat….
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The only time I ever took the day off from school was when I had an Irish dancing competition – that’s if it went for the whole day! otherwise if the competition was early in the morning or late in the evening, my parents still forced me to go to school.
I always thought they were the worst for making me go to school for half the day……. as for sporting events – I HATED them.. swimming and athletics.. twice a year! I dreaded those days. It wasn’t until year 11 and 12 where my parents allowed me to take they days off from school – But i was such a good student – I did most of my homework then haha.
when I have kids – no matter how much they hate sporting carnivals I’m going to encourage/push them to go – I believe all kids should be involved with school activites – it’ll teach tem a thing or two..
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Growing up I think I missed less than 10 days of school for my entire 13 year school life. Twice when knocked out (boys will be boys), chicken pox maybe. Missing lots of days tell’s me a lot about how parents value education.
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