Saturday, 25 June 2011

"I can resist everything...except temptation"

A head teacher has expressed anger at a holiday advert which he said tempted parents to take children out of school during term-time.
Because parents are children, after all, who can't be expected to resist when Big Business (Boo! Hiss!) dangles a shiny toy in their face...
The Butlins advert offers a free place to an adult paying the full price for a child in term-time.

Graham Browne, head of Tor Bridge High School, Plymouth, said taking children out of school disrupted learning.

Butlins has admitted the advert sent the "wrong message" and was aimed at families with pre-school age children.
There you go. All sorted. An advertising error, not some diabolical capitalist plot to wrench the kiddiewinks away from their mandatory, state-approved, diversity lessons...
Butlins said in a statement: "We unfortunately placed the wrong adverts in recent editions of the Asda and Tesco consumer magazines. This sent out the wrong message.

"The advert should have used our pre-school pictures and wording, making it clear that we were suggesting parents bring their tots for a break in quieter times when the big kids are in school.

"We've spoken to our advertising team to ensure they use the correct adverts in future."
Still, maybe I'm being a bit hard on Mr Browne. Maybe absences for holidays are the main problem in his area, and he needs to nip it in the bud?

Government statistics show that the percentage of pupils away from school has fallen over the last three academic years. Plymouth schools are now outstripping the national average for attendance.
So maybe Mr Browne just needed to get his name in the paper...
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4 comments:

  1. Mrs Erdleigh25 June 2011 at 10:00

    I expect he'll be along soon to express similar concerns about the children being out of school for the strikes next week. What's that? Crickets?

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  2. Uncle Badger25 June 2011 at 13:44

    Hear! Hear! Mrs Erdleigh.

    I have never seen this nonsense about 'disrupting education' as much more than a claim to ownership of people's children by the state.

    Anyway, I'm not sure most children receive any actual education at state schools these days.

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  3. Mick Turatian25 June 2011 at 13:59

    Perhaps Plymouth schools are now outstripping the national average for attendance because folk like Graham Browne are taking steps like this.

    Good for him ,say I.

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  4. JuliaM26 June 2011 at 05:15

    "I expect he'll be along soon to express similar concerns about the children being out of school for the strikes next week. What's that? Crickets?"

    Indeed!

    "Anyway, I'm not sure most children receive any actual education at state schools these days."

    Clearly, the vital effort to indoctrinate must be stopped!

    "Perhaps Plymouth schools are now outstripping the national average for attendance because folk like Graham Browne are taking steps like this."

    Steps like what? I've no problem with him taking steps to ensure that those taking their children out of school are doing so legally (so long as all parents are treated equally, and not given a pass for 'cultural reasons).

    But complaining about an obvious printing error seems little more than grandstanding to me.

    ReplyDelete