[kwhitefoot]

We took our children out of school for three months about twenty years ago because I had the opportunity to work for that period in the US. We asked the school to provide the targets for the period for each child and my wife ensured that the children did a few hours work every day, not a whole day by any means. When we got back to Norway all three of the children were ahead of their classes.

In Norway there seems to be no requirement to attend school, only a requirement that the children be educated. The headmistress tried to pressure my wife to not take the children out but the only penalty she could apply was a vague threat that there might not be places available when they got back.

One idea that might reduce the problem that the UK has would be to adopt the Polish system of dividing the country into four school regions with staggered holidays.

[NeoTar]

There are staggered holidays, but it's uncoordinated, based around local council areas - i.e. areas with a population of a hundred-thousand to around a million people. One council may run mid-July to end-of-August, another council a week earlier, and a third a week later.

The UK summer vacation (summer holiday in British English) is significantly shorter than in other countries - only six weeks, where I understand eight or nine is common in other European countries. This probably significantly adds to the holiday congestion and higher surge pricing.

[toyg]

> The UK summer vacation (summer holiday in British English) is significantly shorter than in other countries

This is compensated by "half-term" weeks, where schools close in the middle of a semester, so in total there is no difference. Predictably, those weeks also see massive spikes in prices for holidays, airfare, etc.

The UK education system is built from the ground up to ensure class lines remain intact. This is just another facet of it: the wealthy will go on holiday no matter what; others will either not go or be price-gouged, hence ensuring they cannot accumulate enough to ever challenge the ruling class.

[fransje26]

> One idea that might reduce the problem that the UK has would be to adopt the Polish system of dividing the country into four school regions with staggered holidays.

Predators will be predators, and the prices will be jacked-up to cover the holiday span of the four regions..

The choice we have is to not given them money by not going there..

[tolien]

> One idea that might reduce the problem that the UK has would be to adopt the Polish system of dividing the country into four school regions with staggered holidays.

We're some of the way there - Scottish school terms run differently to England/Wales/NI (Scottish schools stopped and went back ~2 weeks earlier).

[davidt84]

There's a difference between withdrawing your child from school and them remaining registered but simply not attending.

[kwhitefoot]

Is there? We didn't make any formal application, we just said they wouldn't be there for that three month period and could we please have the lesson plans.

But remember my children went to school in Norway where there is considerably less hostility and friction between the state and the people.