A business idea - What are your thoughts.

I am currently in the French Alps working with a team of nannies that care for children when their parents are skiing. This is a very popular service.

Like you, I know how expensive it can be taking a vacation during the school holidays and I know how much pressure schools put on parents nowdays regarding attendance. As a skier I am also very aware of how busy and sometimes unenjoyable the slopes can be during these periods.

I am planning on moving permanently to the Alps and have been thinking about offering a service to families whereby children can attend a holiday during school term time and NOT get an absence mark in their school register. They could be cared for during the week by a qualified teacher, that would be able to tutor children in a fun way (say five half days) that would be linked to the national curriculum and the childs level of ability. This could be accomplished through liaison with the child's school, necessary planning and assessment, crb's, risk assessemnts...etc. Expectations on the school would be minimal i.e. taking a phone call and accepting an end of week report.

As already stated this is just an idea at the moment but I wanted to ask you all what you thought of it and if you were able to, would you use the service?

I am more interested in your thoughts as a parent who might use the service as I am already pretty clear about what a school would be prepared to do and not to do and how to deliver an appropriate and fun curriculum.

Please let me know what you think even if your reply is a simple yes or no.

For just one week? Nope not for me. If I take them then they would always be skiing full time

If the kids missing a week of school would affect them then I wouldn't do it. If it was an 'important' year then they won't go [I would go alone ) ]


Also I'm not entirely sure about the rules, but I would have thought if they are not in 'proper' school then they would be marked as absent anyway.

Just brain storming here, but what about kids race camps. Would there be a demand for kids who otherwise might train there, but don't because of missing school? Might be an additional source of revenue.

It not some thing I would use but thats not to say it could not work ..I think on the Logistical side
dealing with individual schools could be a pain 8)

I don't think UK schools would ever go for it. They'd view it (rightly or wrongly) as a smokescreen to allow parents to subvert the 'no holidays during term time' rule. We even got a sniffy letter from our school for taking daughter to visit another school - even though that involved her spending time in classes at that school!

Snowbandit,
I think it's a good idea, but I'm pretty sure both my daughters would have nearly killed me if I'd told them that yes we were going to a ski resort but they would be in school for half the time whilst I was ski-ing! :wink: :lol:

Ally

Sounds good in theory but I bet the practice would be a nightmare to co-ordinate and keep up to date with national curriculum requirements.

I have two daughters (12 and 14). My eldest sat her maths gcse for the 2nd time before Christmas and she's still in year 10 and won't be 15 until June!. I would think that dealing with children from years 10 and 11 would be horribly complex. They seem to be constantly doing controlled assessments, exams, tests and homework.

It would be easier dealing with younger children (primary and maybe year 7). However, I imagine many parents would be fairly relaxed about taking their children of this particular age group out of school and actually skiing with them for the whole week.

Best of luck with the venture. Having set up a business myself 7 years ago in an industry I already knew very well, I can speak from experience. The number of "things" that needed sorting out, monitoring and co-ordinating were many more than I could possibly have envisaged!!!

Are you already working within the education sector? If not, then the learning curve will be uber steep.

That would be a difficult one to sell to your children:
"We're going on a skiing holiday, but you've got to go to school for half of it"

The issue for most parents of older children is avoiding the many exam dates that have cropped up because of modular GCSEs & A levels (bring back proper exams in the summer I say)

Trying to provide appropriate work for older children doing many courses under different exam boards may be a tall order.
A week off school is no big deal (in the grand scheme of things) for those under say 14 years old so I guess as a parent I wouldn't have put my daughters into school when it's our family holiday.