help senior school visit unauthorised ?

[3asAbird]

My child is year 6 so senior apllication due in October 31st.

We did some opened evenings last year 4 different schools when in year 5.

Many if our city schools opened evenings are hugely busy

Some only have evenings no day tours!

We looked at some more schools this year and revisited 2 from last year.

Last fri morning I sent her in late as was no other way we could see the school we wanted to see as husband 2 work schedule and find open morning easier get a feel for the school.

Also many of open evenings clashed so it's been hard seeing them all .

Unfortunately we went and not keen.

There's 1 last school we would all like to see and they have open afternoon next week .

Primary are saying they only authorise 1 senior school visit.

Other local primaries being quite flexible

Where did I stand on this matter legally.

We attend a state lea run primary right now.

I know the scholl have authorised taster days at independent senior schools in past.

I don't think I'm being unreasonable miss 2 sessions as it's an important decision .

By child has a great attendance record

Apart from sickness no authorised absence .

[mouldycheesefan]

Doesn't matter. Nothing will happen to you. Stop worrying. I take mine our for holidays every year, no fines etc have ever happened. Relax.

[Girlwhowearsglasses]

That terrible! We've been to four or five morning ones.

No idea about legals but id imagine they'd look pretty stupid if you got a fine and appealed it with that reason.

Hopefully someone knowledgeable will be along soon

[t4nut]

They're being ridiculous. No-one is going to do anything about school visits. Go ahead and do what you planned.

[PatriciaHolm]

Take it as unauthorised absence.

Insane stance quite frankly.

[prh47bridge]

Legally it is the school's decision whether or not to authorise the absence. However, it is highly unlikely you would get fined for this. Even if they tried (which I doubt) I would be very surprised if the courts upheld a fine in these circumstances.

[admission]

Actually there is a code on the attendance system used by practically all schools (SIMs) that is for situation such as this. It is Code J: At an interview with prospective employers, or another educational
establishment.
The school are either not properly aware of attendance codes they should be using or are just being awkward. If it is the later then they are just being silly as Code J is counted as attendance for their records whereas unauthorised absence is not.

[jamdonut]

Weird....all the senior schools in our area have open evenings. Can't imagine why they think afternoons are helpful to anyone?

Is your child's school a feeder for a particular secondary, and that's why they only authorise one visit?

I wouldn't worry too much, tell them what your doing and take it as unauthorised.

[BackforGood]

Well, I personally managed to pick schools for all my dc by going to the open evenings, that way,
a) your dc don't miss school
b) the staff are free to talk to you / answer your questions
c) They've got stuff set up for the dc to do / have a go at

There is no need for dc to miss lessons to look round a school, so yes, it would be unauthorised. It's not an interview, is it?

That said, it doesn't matter if thy do mark it as unauthorised. It's not going to affect you, just the school's statistics overall.

[CotswoldStrife]

The secondary school round here have an open evening and a couple of open mornings where you can look round the school on a 'normal day'. Our junior school is happy for the children to be signed out to go, they just ask for advance notice.

As Back said, surely marking it as unauthorised absence is only going to increase the school's absence rate? The open mornings are only a couple of hours!

[PatriciaHolm]

Going to open evenings only works if they don't clash, which they did here last year. Plus the schools actually recommend visiting during the day to get a real feel for how the place actually runs rather than just the all singing all dancing "pick meeee!" Events that open evenings are.

As mentioned though , there is a code in the attendance register that can be used so the OPs school is being bonkers.

[Girlwhowearsglasses]

You need to go in the day to see the school properly!