http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/halfterm.aspx

This October half-term enjoy 50% off SWT standard off-peak day return
tickets every day from Saturday 25 to Friday 31 October 2014. You can book
your tickets anytime from now.

The best news is you can travel ANYWHERE across the South West Trains
network! So book your ticket online today and start exploring!

Remember you must book your ticket a minimum of 24 hours before you travel
to receive the discounted fare!

No additional Railcard discounts

== T&C
•This promotion offers adults and children a 50% discount on Off-Peak Day
Return tickets between Saturday 25 – Friday 31 October 2014 inclusive.
•Promotional tickets are available through ticket offices, telesales and our
website, and must be purchased the day before the date of travel.
•Tickets are valid for travel at off-peak times Monday to Friday – please
use our journey planner to check which trains you can travel on. Tickets are
not valid for journeys departing from Waterloo between 1600 and 1900,
inclusive. Similar restrictions apply for Vauxhall, Queenstown Road or
Clapham Junction.
•Tickets are valid at any time on Saturdays and Sundays. Some journeys may
be affected by engineering work – please use our journey planner to see if
you will be affected.
•This promotion is available for journeys where we set the Off Peak Day
Return rail fare. We won’t offer a promotional fare if a journey is priced
by another train company, even if it’s on our network; or if an Off-Peak Day
Return fare doesn’t exist.
•No further discount is available for Railcard holders.
•Tickets are not valid for cross-Solent travel on Hovertravel, Red Funnel or
Wightlink services. You will need to buy an additional ticket for the
crossing. If you buy a ticket to Portsmouth Harbour or Portsmouth &
Southsea, it is also valid for a return journey on Island Line services for
no additional charge.
•Weekend First Upgrade is available with the promotional fare, subject to
availability. Please purchase your upgrade from the guard on the train.
•South West Trains reserves the right to refuse the sale of discounted
tickets to any person they believe will transfer, trade or resell them.
•Tickets sold are subject to the National Rail Conditions of Carriage.
Normal refund conditions apply.


If you have any questions about the October half-term campaign please call
our Customer Service Centre on 0345 6000 650 (option 4).
--
Mike D

"Michael R N Dolbear" wrote in message
...
http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/halfterm.aspx

This October half-term enjoy 50% off SWT standard off-peak day return
tickets every day from Saturday 25 to Friday 31 October 2014. You can book
your tickets anytime from now.

The best news is you can travel ANYWHERE across the South West Trains
network! So book your ticket online today and start exploring!

Remember you must book your ticket a minimum of 24 hours before you travel
to receive the discounted fare!

No additional Railcard discounts

with 50% discount already, would you reasonably expect any more?

OTOH

SET have in the past thought that it's perfectly reasonable to offer 10%
on-line discounts, with no addition railcard discount - go figure?

tim

Michael R N Dolbear wrote:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/halfterm.aspx
This October half-term enjoy 50% off SWT standard off-peak day return
tickets every day from Saturday 25 to Friday 31 October 2014.

And a minor rant because one of my old schools doesn't have half-term that
week but instead this one. And the others my sister, my neighbours and I
variously went to have a fortnight this week and next. Though as we all left
school in the 1990s (and I only know the term dates from mini-research on
why letting schools set their own is a bad thing for any family with any
connection to more than one school - in my day things were even worse) it
doesn't actually matter to any of us now.

But would a parent whose children have the wrong week off have any legal
basis for a discrimination complaint? And would the outcome be different for
those off in the wrong week vs those with a fortnight that does cover the
week of the offer?

--
My blog: http://adf.ly/4hi4c

On 21/10/14 19:09, Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
Michael R N Dolbear wrote:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/halfterm.aspx
This October half-term enjoy 50% off SWT standard off-peak day return
tickets every day from Saturday 25 to Friday 31 October 2014.

And a minor rant because one of my old schools doesn't have half-term that
week but instead this one. And the others my sister, my neighbours and I
variously went to have a fortnight this week and next. Though as we all left
school in the 1990s (and I only know the term dates from mini-research on
why letting schools set their own is a bad thing for any family with any
connection to more than one school - in my day things were even worse) it
doesn't actually matter to any of us now.

But would a parent whose children have the wrong week off have any legal
basis for a discrimination complaint? And would the outcome be different for
those off in the wrong week vs those with a fortnight that does cover the
week of the offer?

My friend has children off both this week and next. And to add insult
to injury neither school would let their children have the week off for
a holiday. There is a huge difference over Christmas and the weeks are
different again in February.

It has got very stupid and something has to give.

In article ,
(roger) wrote:

On 21/10/14 19:09, Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
Michael R N Dolbear wrote:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/halfterm.aspx
This October half-term enjoy 50% off SWT standard off-peak day return
tickets every day from Saturday 25 to Friday 31 October 2014.

And a minor rant because one of my old schools doesn't have half-term
that week but instead this one. And the others my sister, my neighbours
and I variously went to have a fortnight this week and next. Though as
we all left school in the 1990s (and I only know the term dates from
mini-research on why letting schools set their own is a bad thing for
any family with any connection to more than one school - in my day
things were even worse) it doesn't actually matter to any of us now.

But would a parent whose children have the wrong week off have any legal
basis for a discrimination complaint? And would the outcome be different
for those off in the wrong week vs those with a fortnight that does
cover the week of the offer?

My friend has children off both this week and next. And to add
insult to injury neither school would let their children have the
week off for a holiday. There is a huge difference over Christmas
and the weeks are different again in February.

It has got very stupid and something has to give.

I blame private schools...

--
Colin Rosenstiel

roger wrote:

My friend has children off both this week and next. And to add insult to
injury neither school would let their children have the week off for a
holiday. There is a huge difference over Christmas and the weeks are
different again in February.

It has got very stupid and something has to give.

There have been attempts at co-ordination in London and the Home Counties
with authorities agreeing a common calendar for state schools and a lot of
private schools appear to be following this, albeit with variations such as
a two week autumn half-term and ending the summer term earlier. Although as
the year I was looking at had a late Easter that may have forced more
conformity than usual. (Having said that in many places Easter is no longer
treated as an absolute requirement for the spring holidays.)

But that's possibly down to a combination of an area where multiple school
authorities are common (not just children being taught in different
authorities but also teachers with children at different schools and even
workplaces that structure operations to allow as many parents as possible to
be off for half-term) and parental/political pressure for conformity. If all
the education authorities in the area are singing from the same hymn sheet
and other local independent schools are copying it then it becomes much
harder to whine that it's too difficult to sync up term dates. (Even the
internet is a factor - it's much easier for a parent to get the term dates
of common other schools and call bull**** on the school's objections.)
Parents rarely give a toss about school sports matches, especially if their
own children aren't in the team, and just aren't interested in having to
take extra weeks off work or forgo the chance to have a family holiday at
half-term just because of some silly friendly game.

It may also hinge on whether a school has got a good idea of where its
pupils go onto and also where their siblings are. From what little I've seen
my old prep school has partially adapted to now also officially prepare for
the 11+ as well as Common Entrance two years later. And if the number going
on to boarding schools is in decline as it seems then elder siblings are
more likely to be in the catchment radius doubled.

--
My blog: http://adf.ly/4hi4c

On 21/10/2014 19:09, Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:

Michael R N Dolbear wrote:

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/halfterm.aspx
This October half-term enjoy 50% off SWT standard off-peak day return
tickets every day from Saturday 25 to Friday 31 October 2014.

And a minor rant because one of my old schools doesn't have half-term that
week but instead this one. And the others my sister, my neighbours and I
variously went to have a fortnight this week and next. Though as we all left
school in the 1990s (and I only know the term dates from mini-research on
why letting schools set their own is a bad thing for any family with any
connection to more than one school - in my day things were even worse) it
doesn't actually matter to any of us now.

But would a parent whose children have the wrong week off have any legal
basis for a discrimination complaint? And would the outcome be different for
those off in the wrong week vs those with a fortnight that does cover the
week of the offer?


Er, seriously... if so, how does no sound?

Most schools in SWT's 'catchment area' (to use a scholastic phrase) are
on half-term for the 27th to 31st.

One can try and find the exceptions via this tool if one fancies (though
it now works with a postcode only, the old direct.gov.uk site accepted
local authority names as well):
https://www.gov.uk/school-term-holiday-dates

Mizter T wrote:

Er, seriously... if so, how does no sound?

Most schools in SWT's 'catchment area' (to use a scholastic phrase) are on
half-term for the 27th to 31st.

One can try and find the exceptions via this tool if one fancies (though
it now works with a postcode only, the old direct.gov.uk site accepted
local authority names as well):
https://www.gov.uk/school-term-holiday-dates

That covers the states (although some can vary - when I were a lad the Epsom
schools were notably divided over whether the summer half-term should be the
standard late May Bank Holiday week or Derby Week for either local tradition
or traffic concerns) but the independents are more often all over the place
on this. From what I can tell conformity mainly comes when neighbouring
education authorities are all synced up and so provide a framework to adapt
to. Otherwise the independents claim that there's no one system across all
their catchment area and make no effort to either research the majority one
or start talking to other schools about conformity beyond sports matches.

At first sight it may sound rich for anyone to complain about this in
regards an independent school but many parents are not actually rolling in
cash and have cut back in many other places to afford the fees. And often
relatives wind up looking after children, especially if different term dates
makes it impossible for a parent to take every single half-term date off.

The idea of letting all state schools set their own term dates regularly
flies round the Department of Education and gets floated in public before
someone realises the mess the independents have historically made on this
and that many households are tied to more than one school.

--
My blog: http://adf.ly/4hi4c

In message , at 22:16:00 on Tue, 21 Oct
2014, roger remarked:
And a minor rant because one of my old schools doesn't have half-term that
week but instead this one. And the others my sister, my neighbours and I
variously went to have a fortnight this week and next. Though as we all left
school in the 1990s (and I only know the term dates from mini-research on
why letting schools set their own is a bad thing for any family with any
connection to more than one school - in my day things were even worse) it
doesn't actually matter to any of us now.

But would a parent whose children have the wrong week off have any legal
basis for a discrimination complaint? And would the outcome be different for
those off in the wrong week vs those with a fortnight that does cover the
week of the offer?

My friend has children off both this week and next. And to add insult
to injury neither school would let their children have the week off for
a holiday. There is a huge difference over Christmas and the weeks are
different again in February.

It has got very stupid and something has to give.

Be happy that schools haven't introduced even bigger differences, such
as 5-term years. This proposal was eventually rejected (although they
also have two weeks off currently, for whatever reason, while
Nottingham*shire* has just next week):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-16627679
--
Roland Perry