If you're a parent of school-age children, you'll understand the appeal of taking a holiday during the school term.
For one, travel during the school holidays is expensive. Airlines, hotels, caravan parks and even campgrounds often jack up their prices due to increased demand.
It can also be hard to find peace and quiet when your favourite holiday spot is crowded with other families all taking a break at the same time.
It's little wonder some parents take their kids out of school during term time to go on holiday.
But what are the pros and cons? And how much guilt should a parent proportion upon themselves for allowing their child some time off school to do something fun?
Is it OK to take children out of school to travel?
Rules governing school attendance and term holidays vary between each state and territory, and some schools have their own separate policies.
In Queensland, parents of "compulsory school age" children have a responsibility to ensure their child attends school every day they are enrolled, unless they have a reasonable excuse.
While Education Queensland discourages parents from taking trips during the school term, holidaying is considered a "reasonable" excuse under the attendance policy.
Dr Rebecca English is a former teacher and lecturer at the Queensland University of Technology.
She says parents shouldn't feel guilty for taking their children out of school for a short holiday — but communication and planning are important.
"You can learn a lot more when you're out in an environment — I think there's a lot of practical and applied learning that happens," she says.
"If you go overseas, there can be some really strong intercultural understandings that develop."
However, longer trips need to be planned well in advance, with consideration of how that time away could affect not just the student but also the school.
"A six-month trip would be a very long time and it would be inappropriate to ask the school to plan six months of work for the child," she says.
"If you are planning a long stint, you will need to talk to the principal and the admin team at the school and negotiate what they would like you to do to prepare and how your child can catch up."
'You should see my child's face'
Gold Coast mother of three Sam Cardone takes her children on semi-regular short breaks during school time. She says her school is quite supportive of the idea, albeit with a few caveats.
"You've got to flag early what you're planning, and you've got to find out what's happening in that time frame," Sam says.
"If I'm going to make a gap, I don't expect the teachers to fill it when my kids get back so if I need to teach the five times table while on a plane then I'm going to do it."
The Cardone kids, Charlie, Lily and Evie, have travelled parts of the Pacific and to Europe, with their parents tacking an extra week on to school holiday periods for the longer haul adventures.
Sam says some of the experiences they've had on holidays outstrip anything her kids could have learned in the classroom.
"How do you teach a six-year-old that they're privileged? Take them to Soweto in South Africa and they'll inherently understand," she says.
"There are concepts about cultural difference, about racism, about the environment [that children can learn on holidays].
"You should see my child's face when she sees someone using a plastic straw after being in Fiji and seeing straws in the ocean.
"We couldn't have inspired that same passion in the classroom."
Adding a week to school holidays can be a good compromise
Adding an extra week of holiday to your school's already scheduled term break can be an effective way of maximising the learning benefit of the experience, while minimising impact to their schooling, Dr English says.
And, if they're not in the middle of assessments, she says students of all ages stand to gain from some time off from school for leisure.
"The strong connection with family and the incidental experiences along the way are really rich learning experiences for young people regardless of their age," she says.
"If they're in Year 11 or 12, it gets more complex because of ATAR scores that need to be considered so you have to balance it out and weigh it up."
Ultimately, the decision rests on parents to decide if the experience gained by having time off school outweighs the impact of their child's absence from the classroom.
Whatever the length of time, Dr English says an increase in a child's interest in the world around them should be the measure of success for any trip outside the classroom — be it school sanctioned or otherwise.
"If they've come back from a trip more curious about the world then that would make me very happy.
"That's what good learning looks like."
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