‘Paying £240 holiday school fine was a no-brainer’
eLC editorial thoughts
Parents have often felt rightly aggrieved, when all the costs of foreign travel and accommodation escalate as soon as schools are on their formal, timetabled holidays. And schools have felt annoyed when parents remove their children from school during regular term time education. In the latter case, it may be true that a child loses out on a bit of critical learning, or who’s consistent presence might be essential to a group exercise or project – but the experience of travelling to another country and everything that goes with that, is surely contextual and experiential learning that we want to encourage – even if it’s labelled “a holiday” and not specifically recognised as a formal “educational trip”. It is also true that the absence of a child, and then the return of that child later, can be disruptive, both to the class dynamics, and the teacher’s lesson planning.
To me, this scenario is a typical example of how the UK’s National Curriculum, in state education, falls down. There simply isn’t enough latitude and flexibility available in the rigid timetabling, for anyone to go off-piste. With the number of subjects needing to be covered (in England, generally 12+2), and the areas and Key Stages within those subjects, not to mention normal levels of yearly illness absences of children or staff, it’s hard to see how education can cope successfully with any form of absenteeism.
To be continued.
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