Authorised absences & appeal?

[niceguy2]

Hi all

Asking on behalf of a friend. She has a son who's in Y1 at primary school. Very smart, no attendance issues. The family have a wedding in October abroad (short notice) and friend applied for permission as soon as she found out the date.

The school has rejected her application. When she spoke to the headmaster he says that absences are discussed between a governor and himself. And that it was the governor who disagreed so it's a no. The head in fact has told my friend to just go and they'd chalk it down to unauthorised absence.

The problem is that my friend is going through a divorce battle at the moment and her ex knows one of the governors. So she's wondering if he has spoken to this governor and he may have influenced this outcome? I know it sounds bizarre but honestly he's the type who would do it. He's a total control freak.

So my questions are:Is this usual? ie. a governor reviewing holiday absence requests?

Can she appeal to the LEA? She doesn't want to go without authorisation because this may look bad at any future court hearings if she's seen to be ignoring school.

Can they be so arbitrary as to disallow a wedding but then approve someone else to go on a family holiday to Spain?

Any other suggestions greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[plinkplonk]

Where I live, pretty much all requests are denied. The head is telling her to go and they will chalk it up as an unauthorised absence. If her dc's attendance is usually good, then this won't be a big deal. She should just do what she needs to do; and let the school do what it needs to do. I would imagine the situation would be the same whether her ex knows a governor or not - certainly would be in our school.

[HappyMummyOfOne]

Lots of heads consult governors over term time holidays so thats not unusual.

I dont think the LEA will over ride the head as its her decision to make. Its very early within the term and will be detrimental to the childs learning so presume this is why the request has been turned down.

[Sandalwood]

Our school governors endorse the LEA's view that schools no longer authorise holidays taken in term time.
So it doesn't sound unusual to me.

[Lucy88]

It is entireley up to the Head to authorise term-time leave or not and most def not a Governor.

I am the Chair of Governors at my DS's school and I wouldn't dream of interfering in the day to day running of the school - this is the Heads role.

I once received an appeal from a parent regarding term time leave that was turned down by the Head. I actually agreed with the Head, but that is besides the point. As a Governor, it is not part of my role or responsibility to make those sorts of decisions, but to be involved in the policy making.

At our school, the Governors agreed with the Head that no leave would be granted in term-time except in exceptional circumstances, but it is the Heads job to implement this policy, not the Govenors.

Sounds to me like the Head is passing the book.

[niceguy2]

Hmm, ok thanks for that. It seems like school policies vary and that this could be just a bit of buck passing if they routinely deny holiday requests.

Thanks, will pass this info along.

[LunarRose]

Perfectly normal for governors to be involved in holiday decisions, also perfectly normal for holiday to be turned down (someone at our school got turned down for a funeral)