School holidays 2

So up pops GMTV with a report from some charity that the government should provide subsidised child care during the school summer holidays; oo you know or they could not have such long holidays at all. Ah I've already dealt with this, but it's time for a true story.

Once upon a time the family Bratus decided to book a holiday, for reasons to complex to explain the best time for this would be near the end of the summer holidays; in fact at the end of the summer holidays. Sadly this would meant that the two Brats would miss out on the first two days of the school term, and as these were a Thursday and Friday for the family to come back on the Wednesday would have left that part of the holiday a bit flat.

So conscientiously they asked the school if it would be okay for the Brats to miss the first two days.
"Oh no", said the school. "We'd prefer them to be here for the start"
This seemed fair enough being the beginning of a whole new term with new teachers and timetables missing out could be difficult; so the family booked only a week off.

Just before the holidays started the family received a note from the two schools the Brats go to detailing the holiday period. Imagine the surprise of the family when they discovered that both schools had tacked on Teacher Training Days to the end of the holiday covering that very Thursday and Friday.

Well I say surprise I'm sure you can guess their real reaction. They're currently trying to see if they can add on the extra week they were told they shouldn't take by the school.

So what can we learn from this little lesson?

Firstly the cry that the period is required for training becomes a little pale when it seems a need to add extra days for training is a necessity.

Secondly why have the children come back on a Thursday only to break up the start with a week-end? Okay it could be argued that it's a stressful time that the weekend acts both as a break for the children and as a period of consolidation for the teachers to deal with any problems that have arisen. Except we get those Teacher Training days that just wave that argument away.

Any teachers out there want to comment?