Mousecellaneous - a thread to share non-DLP related posts

[torsie24]

I live around Laguna beach I love it there.... Cant imagine living anywhere else

OMG jealous!!!! Lol.

Maybe one day they'll give me a green card!!

 

[mystic_path]

LOL Your funny. Its nice thats for sure. Definately a place to come for a little vacation.

 

[Ware Bears]

My DDs will be soooooooo envious of you! They watch that reality show on MTV about Laguna Beach and dream of living there themselves!!

We live by the seaside too but it's nowhere near as nice as where you live!!

 

[ukstitch]

Rumour has it that the 10 days that children are allowed to be taken out of school are to be revoked as of next September.

This would be a real shame for us as DB (with his autism) always has a much "better" holiday (i.e. less stress etc), so it makes our holiday better.

The other problem I see with doing this would be that those people who take their children out of school and now can't, will mean yet more crowds during the school holidays. Plus, I suspect the travel agents may up their prices again, due to this increased demand.

Personally I think you should be allowed to take your children out of school, so long as you aren't doing it at an important time (exams, exam preparation etc) and so long as it's not for too long at any one time.

 

[britchic4]

Rumour has it that the 10 days that children are allowed to be taken out of school are to be revoked as of next September.

This would be a real shame for us as DB (with his autism) always has a much "better" holiday (i.e. less stress etc), so it makes our holiday better.

The other problem I see with doing this would be that those people who take their children out of school and now can't, will mean yet more crowds during the school holidays. Plus, I suspect the travel agents may up their prices again, due to this increased demand.

Personally I think you should be allowed to take your children out of school, so long as you aren't doing it at an important time (exams, exam preparation etc) and so long as it's not for too long at any one time.

Its not actually 'allowed' even now, there is no right to it, its just up to the discretion of the head or the LEA. I don't know, I'm on 2 minds about it. On the one hand I've done it and that particular holiday would have been out of the question for us in the summer holiday. On the other hand both my parents are teachers and they tell me particularly for children older than about 8 it makes a huge difference to lose 2 weeks of schooling. With regards prices, aren't we all supposed to be getting the semester system sooner or later which will help a bit with that situation?

 

[ukstitch]

Its not actually 'allowed' even now, there is no right to it, its just up to the discretion of the head or the LEA. I don't know, I'm on 2 minds about it. On the one hand I've done it and that particular holiday would have been out of the question for us in the summer holiday. On the other hand both my parents are teachers and they tell me particularly for children older than about 8 it makes a huge difference to lose 2 weeks of schooling. With regards prices, aren't we all supposed to be getting the semester system sooner or later which will help a bit with that situation?

Indeed it is at the head's discretion - I forgot to outline that properly, although you are allowed to apply for it.

I haven't heard anything about the Semester system down here - certainly both this year's and next year's school holidays look to be as normal.

For us, it is certainly make or break for our skiing holiday - DB would struggle with the crowds, plus we would struggle with the huge cost increase which occurs for these holidays during half term (£1600 vs £3000+)

 

[poohmadmum]

I haven't heard anything about the Semester system down here

I thought this idea had been scrapped. Some schools will not allow any time off during term time as it affects how the school looks on the league tables. I have taken DD out of school for odd days but wouldn't do it for 2 weeks - possibly 1 week either side of a half term. However, she's now in year 10 so wouldn't take her out of school during the GCSE time.

It is so difficult though and I really think the Government should stop travel companies hiking the prices so much in school holidays. When we went to WDW in 2006 we took DD out of school for 4 days before the Easter break and saved approx £1,500. Her absence was allowed but if it hadn't been then paying the £50 fine would have been worth it.

Rob I can symphasize with your family's position.

 

[tennisfan]

I thought this idea had been scrapped. Some schools will not allow any time off during term time as it affects how the school looks on the league tables. I have taken DD out of school for odd days but wouldn't do it for 2 weeks - possibly 1 week either side of a half term. However, she's now in year 10 so wouldn't take her out of school during the GCSE time.

It is so difficult though and I really think the Government should stop travel companies hiking the prices so much in school holidays. When we went to WDW in 2006 we took DD out of school for 4 days before the Easter break and saved approx £1,500. Her absence was allowed but if it hadn't been then paying the £50 fine would have been worth it.

Rob I can symphasize with your family's position.

Unfortunately the government cannot do this as they do not own the travel agents, so they have no say in what goes on. I know its not right but what can you do its peak time & all companies will raise there prices. It used to be great when DLRP didn't recognise half term holidays, so we used to go away & paid the normal price to do so.

 

[ukstitch]

It is so difficult though and I really think the Government should stop travel companies hiking the prices so much in school holidays. When we went to WDW in 2006 we took DD out of school for 4 days before the Easter break and saved approx £1,500. Her absence was allowed but if it hadn't been then paying the £50 fine would have been worth it.

It's daylight robbery IMO, pure and simple. It's a bit like DLRP to be honest. We're booked to go away from 4th - 8th January, when it's cheap. If we had booked just one day earlier, then the prices jumped enormously, even though 4 of the 5 days are the same on both trips.

Personally, I think the companies should price per day, rather than pricing it based purely on your arrival date.

 

[tennisfan]

I have finally heard back from the ambulance service about the job I applied for July 2007, after passing the whole selection process I was informed that they will no longer have technicians but a new role.

Well after 2 months of waiting for them to tell me about the new role, they phoned yesterday saying they have a couple of training courses running in October & November. I can't do October as I need to give notice at my current job.

However I had to prise a job description out of them as they were not forthcomming with one. The new job it quite different but the salary is less approx £1000 less then the technicians role which I applied for, so i'm not sure, the job has similar responsibility to the technician & will eventually replace it but its less money

I'm not being greedy or anything but the technicians rate wasn't good for shift work & this new role is even less

 

[hildasmuriel]

That's disappointing, Nikki.

The school holiday thing is really awkward. As a parent I can see the temptation of quieter and cheaper holidays but I know some children can slip behind with just a couple of weeks holiday. The school is judged each year on what % attendance they have and the Head's pay could even be conditional on it, if it forms part of his/her performance targets!
The problem we have in our school is that most children are not of British heritage so the majority of holidays will be back to their country of origin and will be for at least 2 weeks and quite often 4 weeks plus. Last year two children missed the entire second half of spring term due to extended leave.

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Hope you can sort something out Nikki

 

[Ware Bears]

Oh Nikki, that's just too bad.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[MrsTigger]

OOOo lovely... I'm looking forward to trying the Milkshakes....

 

[Bolanette87]

OOOo lovely... I'm looking forward to trying the Milkshakes....

They are very good and you can mix two flavours if you want. Just as a note to people though, they no longer do the big milkshake for two people to share....

Bob xoxox

 

[MrsTigger]

Oh we were thinking of sharing but we'll just do that with a small one...

 

[ruthiebabie]

I love the banana and peanut butter shake at Annettes and you can also get them to take out. Yum

 

[kevankiki]

I love the banana and peanut butter shake at Annettes and you can also get them to take out. Yum

Banana and chocolate is my favourite! YUMMMM

 

[Dianetigger]

Oooh I'm hungry! We love Annette's Diner, food has always been lovely and the service top notch!

 

[thelittlemermaid83]

Wooohoooo I'm eating here next week! The Burgers look scrummy! I will report back with photos