Mum took her children on holiday in term time and was hit with £1,000 fine - whose side are you on?
A Yorkshire businesswoman insists she has ‘no regrets’ after taking her four children on holiday leaving her with a near £1,000 fine from East Riding Council.
The Monday Moan: whose side are you on?
By far and away the most-read story on YorkshirePost.co.uk so far today is one about a mum who says she has absolutely no regrets whatsoever about having taken her children out of school for a holiday … for the second time … and about the subsequent £1,000 fine she has been hit with by East Riding Council. By midday the story had been read 10,000+ times.
Now, married as I am to a primary school teacher, and as a father to two school-aged boys - one at primary school and one at secondary school - I am well-placed to understand the dilemma that comes with taking your children out of school for holidays, or not.
In my experience, the two sides of this debate are fiercely divided. Honestly, it’s worse than Brexit. When you get parents on the one hand who think nothing of taking their children out of school for a fortnight in the sunshine and parents on the other who wouldn’t dream of doing such a thing, you can expect fireworks.
The righteous parents almost always share the view of my wife and the schools; that is, you should never ever do it. The message you send to your children is that it is OK to abandon your classmates in the middle of term-time, and walk away from your responsibilities on a whim if you feel like it. Obligations are yours to neglect should you wish, child.
On a practical level, it leaves a hole in a thread of learning that can’t be caught up. A brick missing in a wall. Teachers can’t abandon the kids who don’t go on holiday whenever their parents feel like it in order to catch up those children who do lose learning (through no fault of the children, I hasten to add). They can’t ask the others to hold on for two weeks whilst they bring Jonny and Jane up to speed with what they’ve missed. Understanding this more deeply from my wife’s perspective means I know that lessons aren’t planned on a whim. They’re not sporadic, haphazard peeks at this and that. A good teacher plans strategically and chronologically with the utmost care towards delivering learning outcomes and expectations that come with huge pressure and responsibility. Why we don’t pay them more and offer them more respect and appreciation as a nation I will never know, but the point is, it isn’t just the learning lost during the fortnight away. That which comes later is built upon that taught previously. The roof falls in if the foundations aren’t laid properly.
Then there are parents in the same boat as Hannah Davison, who runs the Boathouse at North Landing a much-loved takeaway cafe at Flamborough. Hannah works her socks off, in a sector that is under huge pressure, and closing the cafe doesn’t come with holiday pay. It does come with no business transactions done, though. No income. It makes sense, then, at least in financial terms, for Hannah to be on holiday when it’s quiet, but behind the counter working when it’s busy - ie. the school holidays!
Her four children work hard, they’re up at the crack of dawn every day, they do their homework and they mind their ps and qs. She is married to a fisherman who works hard, too, to support his family. The Davisons are not alone and their call for special dispensation to be given to families who do work hard - children included - who pay their taxes, iron their uniforms, turn up on time, cause nobody any grief. In other words, families who genuinely deserve a holiday who need to take one outside of scheduled school holidays in order to avoid it costing them sums of money that nobody should have to pay for a break away with loved ones.
And let’s not forget, holiday companies take the proverbial when it comes to families going on holiday. It’s scandalous, it really is, that little families who can afford that week at the seaside at term-time prices are priced out of the opportunity during school holidays. Heartbreaking, actually. I don’t know what the answer is, but I’m keen to hear your views and looking forward to hearing from you.
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NB: correspondence sent to me will be deemed fit for publication.
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