Supreme court
see that the guy who refused to pay the fine he got for taking his daughter out of school in term time to take her to Florida has lost his case anyone else think this practice of hiking prices up at school holiday times should be stopped and CAMC should lead the way by starting the ball rolling before you all jump on me I've not got kids but as I'm single on minimum wage some of the prices for peak season are out of my budget !!
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ye suppose the answer for me is to do what I have done and go to a site without facilities so it's cheaper ,York has come up spaces free at Easter but at nearly £23 night even for me will have to give it a miss
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I can't see any mention yet of who's picking up his legal fees....
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I don't know how it could work but i do believe something needs to be done.Just had a e-mail from a well known travel company,quoting a good price for all inclusive in Tenerife
. Trouble was wrong time of year looked at cost for a week in July with four adults and two children (grandchildren) first two weeks £3400 last two weeks (start of summer holidays) £5300.Where is the justice in that,there was a chap on breakfast this morning going on about how the parents should be taken out and whipped
if they took there children out of school during term time. Nothing about whipping the teachers
that can have all the time off that they want (stress,sickness & strikes). Granddaughters teacher has been off for two weeks now where is the continuity there?. Steve
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A "few years ago" when our children were at school,I was in a job that was run 24/7 and on shift work to cover,and it was only a few times that my holidays were during school holidays,so it was either take them out of school or not have a holiday
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Bit harsh there Steve on teachers,
that can have all the time off that they want (stress,sickness & strikes).
Are only teachers allowed to take time off for stress, sickness and strikes then? As your granddaughter's teacher has been off for more than a week, a doctor's note will be required, are you saying that this teacher should have to be in work?
However you have hit the nail on the head earlier in your post. When saving £1900 what's a £60 fine?
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This appeal (that's all it was and pushed by the Isle of Wight council who will pick up the bill) won't change anything at all. All it enforces is that councils can issue the £60 fine. Parents can still take their children out of school. However once a certain limit, usually below 80-90%, is reached then prosecution will take place for non attendance, but even then that takes a long time.
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A 'pioneering' primary school in Hull is changing its holiday dates on a trial basis for one year, one of the said benefits would be to parents in that the holidays would be out of the peak prices.
Obviously if every school adopted this scheme the holiday firms would move with it, but why not adopt differing school holidays throughout the country! Just a thought.
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I have just done a few calculations using the Broadway site as an example. Currently there are four prices bands ranging from £19.80 to £31.10 for a standard pitch and two adults. Using the price bands published on this website, a total of 272 nights. The calculation is based on one pitch being used for the entire 272 nights just to illustrate.
£31.10 + £3.90 for each child = 89 nights
£25.70 + £2.00 for each child = 105 night
£21.30 + £2.00 for each child = 32 nights
£19.80 + £2.00 for each child = 46 nights
If you averaged out the cost for a standard pitch with two adults it would work out at £25.95 a night. If you wanted to reduce the peak child cost to £2.00 all year the average price would be nearer £27.00 a night. The problem with doing that is that it gives no incentive for people to use the site in what is now the low season and seems only to give a marginal benefit for those using the site in the school holidays. You could have incentives like a midweek discount but given the Club would want to achieve the maximum income stream I worked on the assumption they would not want to take less money than they are now in total.
David
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Hi Corners perhaps you are right it may be a bit harsh but all these years after i can still hear the sound of the cane cutting through the air on its way towards my open palm. Even then he missed and nearly broke my wrist i was only 12 still i don't think about it too much
. I should have been the one taking days off with stress. Still nowhere near has hard as my Dear Mother could hit me
Steve
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Dave i think something like this was suggested in Barnsley by the council but left it up to the individual school.Some liked it others didn't parents that had children at different schools were facing a big dilemma when each school wanted to close on different weeks.
Steve
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An excellent decision by the Supreme Court!
It was Mr Platt who took the case to court to appeal against a fine of £120. He now faces a legal bill of £10,000 and a penalty of up to £1,000 for the unpaid fine
The judge said that he showed a "blatant disregard for school rules". Quite right too!
In view of this ruling, parents can now be prosecuted if they take their kids out of school without permission.
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Regarding holiday costs, i think that most providers would say that the 'peak' rates are the correct rates and the 'off peak' rates are discounted, to try to attract business.
The CAMC already struggle to compete in the off peak season, so cannot afford to subsidise school holiday times any more than they already do, by increasing off peak rates even more.
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Ah well, that was totally wrong and I remember such 'teachers' as well, and such occurrences in childhood do last. I have always hated dentists ever since my first dentist said fillings shouldn't require any pain relief and like you I can still hear that drill whinnying away! I'm sure dentists are nice people but...
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The club does quite a bit for those with children, there are kids for a pound on many sites, thought it used to be for a penny. And caravaning is still one of the cheaper ways to holiday with children.
In my old (working) authority even a two week's unauthorised absence wouldn't have triggered a fine, and that is certainly the case for the council where I'm still a governor. We (teachers) could only imagine that the Isle of Wight did issue these fines as the residents there are mainly well off and probably paid it as a matter of course.
Interesting to note of course that this only applies to state schools. Put your child into a private school, and not only can they get longer holidays anyway (with usually better results) but no fines when you take them out for that skiing trip in late January.
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Ian I am curious why you think this is an excellent decision and your backing for following school rules? And would welcome your reasons behind your statement. Is this:
a) you believe in education and that every school day matters and that you now see the errors of your ways when you used break the school rules to play truant yourself as a child? You did say that on here didn't you?
b) you want to have your holidays without any children about, you did post two such post in the past week or so - how there might be a half term in June and the shocking state of affairs in the Easter holiday, quote: how are we expected to be able to plan to avoid these periods if they keep chopping and changing
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Sorry to hear that and that's why I said we only imagined that as a possible reason. If that is the case then perhaps the council is trying to make money from those that can pay, as the less well off won't be going on holiday?
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Yes, could certainly well have been, but I would have hated to have taught that period from when they came back after their two weeks off till they went off again two or three weeks later.
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A question for those more familiar with the education system, as I have no children, then not an area I know a great deal about nowadays.
Does attendance of pupils at school have any relevance in terms of how an Ofsted rating is granted for a school? Do the schools have to demonstrate that they actively respond to truancy and/or unauthorised absences?
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A big yes, attendance under 90% would or could trigger an Ofsted visit outright. To be classed as outstanding requires 96% or above. Between 90 -95 a school would have to show that it is doing all it could to improve attendance to get good or better, assuming that all other things are good or better of course.
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- I think the OP was really asking what alternative pricing systems could be considered in the light of the current news. I don't think that education is to blame nor should the solution be left to them. This is a question for us as a society I believe. Maybe a referendum is needed!
That magic number of '50+' solves everything it seems!
1 - I think the OP was really asking what alternative pricing systems could be considered in the light of the current news. I don't think that education is to blame nor should the solution be left to them. This is a question for us as a society I believe. Maybe a referendum is needed!
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Thanks for that Corners, I had an inkling that it would influence the Ofsted rating. No easy answer for parents. They want children to attend a school with a high Ofsted rating, yet other elements, such as sharing quality family time could in theory be a conflicting requirement.
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Well, my suggestion (purely from a commercial point of view) is that holiday providers can now look to charge a bit more during school holidays......given that taking children out of school is now a criminal offence.
Good news is that this could mean lower prices off-peak. The CAMC could thereby support their main customer base (and therefore the future of the Club) - the retired folks.
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