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unauthorised absence

26 replies

madusa · 25/09/2009 07:33

if i take my son out of school every friday without official permission, what will happen?

OP posts:
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IdrisTheDragon · 25/09/2009 07:35

How old is he?

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fruitshootsandleaves · 25/09/2009 07:35

Your school/lea may take you to court. How old is you ds? Why would you need to do this?

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nickschick · 25/09/2009 07:52

It would be very irresponsible to do this.

Regardless of the reasons behind it school is not a 'free childminder' that you pick up and drop at your leisure.

If there is a valid reason for you needing to do this school would be as supportive as possible and work towards a compromise.

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RustyBear · 25/09/2009 08:01

Doing this would probably trigger a visit from the Education Welfare Officer very quickly - when they come to look at our registers, one of the things they look for is a pattern to absences which are an frequently an indication of deliberate truancy.

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StewieGriffinsMom · 25/09/2009 08:15

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cory · 25/09/2009 08:18

There has got to be more behind this post. How old is your son? (If under 5, education is not actually compulsory, though the school may still grumble if there is disruption due to absences) What is your reason?

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smee · 25/09/2009 17:50

Hold your horses oh-judgey-ones. At least give the OP a chance to offer a reason. Might be a good reason after all. fwiw there are a whole lot of people who are legally taking their child out of school for part of the week. I read about it somewhere but can't remember what it's called. Two girls in DS's class for eg have every Friday off and the parents Home Ed for that day. The school's approved it. I was quite tempted when I heard, but then again DS is loving school, so who am I to drag him away..

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RustyBear · 25/09/2009 18:01

The OP had a chance to offer a reason - in her OP. She didn't bother, so I don't think she can complain if people assume she hasn't got a good one.

But in any case, I can only see one line in the answers so far that could be called remotely 'judgey' - the rest are saying if there is no good reason it would be wrong, giving information about what might happen, or asking for more information.

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ramonaquimby · 25/09/2009 18:08

but 'without official permission' isn't the same as having a 'legal' reason.

you would eventually get a call/visit/letter from the school's Educational Welfare Officer, it's 20% of their weekly time at school, making it 80% time at school. Anything below a certain percentage triggers alarm bells, certainly 80% or less would do so.

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LynetteScavo · 25/09/2009 18:13

Well, in my experience, not a lot apart from a letter from the school.

Educational Welfare Officer won't get involved untill the child has missed more than 75% of school over a certain time.

Why do you want to take him out of school on Friday afternoons? A lot tends to happen on Friday afternoons IME.

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mazzystartled · 25/09/2009 18:18

smee its called flexi-schooling
couple of my friends do it
fridays often day of choice (as the afternoon in their school consists of act of worship and golden time, not much point in anyone going then IMO but that's another thread)
lots of schools are ok with it if kids are doing something constructive, relevant

OP why?

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RustyBear · 25/09/2009 18:22

I am assuming you mean 'missed more than 25%' (ie 75% attendance) Lynette, but even so, that's not necessarily true - in our authority 80% attendance would be the trigger for further investigation, and as I say above, a regular pattern would be looked at even if the overall attendance was higher than 80%

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cat64 · 25/09/2009 18:33

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LynetteScavo · 25/09/2009 20:08

That is waht I meant RustyBear - thankyou!

Maybe it was just the school my DS attended....I would have loved the EWO to have become involved when DS was school refusing. Nobody could do anything, aprarently.

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cory · 25/09/2009 20:21

Ah, wish I'd known and been able to send ours over to you, Lynette: I couldn't get shot of them despite showing stacks of letters from paediatricians/school nurse/hospital/GP to the effect that dd was off with for genuine medical reasons. Had to listen to endless lectures on the importance of education

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LynetteScavo · 25/09/2009 21:41

OP, come back! Why do you want to take your DS out of school every friday pm?

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Danthe4th · 25/09/2009 22:07

I did this when my ds first started primary 3 years ago as he was so tired and his teacher was happy for me to do it but he wasn't 5 till the following june so no legal obligation to send him.Teacher would rather have a grumpy 4 year old at home with mum than in school.

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smee · 26/09/2009 14:08

rusty, your post wasn't judgey and was v.sensible, but I was a bit at the tone from the others. Words such as all assumed it was a bad idea/ for no good reason. Or that's how it read to me..
Flexi schooling, mazzy - yep that's it. thanks.

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MrsMagnolia · 26/09/2009 19:43

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Blessings4 · 27/09/2009 12:27

Wanted to do this with my Ds - various reasons - inc the fact he hated school/August born/clever but very spesific interests - put off by stroppy head / threats of welfare visits etc - wish I had stuck 2 my guns - he had 2 miserable years in yrs 1/2 - now 7 he has settled in to school but I think it has held back his progress

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StewieGriffinsMom · 28/09/2009 07:04

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Blessings4 · 28/09/2009 09:40

Of course you are right SGM - I personnaly was made to feel they were the same thing - hopefully some LEA's are more enlightened than mine

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StewieGriffinsMom · 28/09/2009 22:18

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Blessings4 · 29/09/2009 10:39

SGM - I was responing to general thrust of thread with my own experience - I mentioned flexi-schooling to our head and was met with hostility. I wanted to take my Ds riding and bird watching as being outside is much more his sort of thing than much of even foundation phase.

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StewieGriffinsMom · 29/09/2009 11:57

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