To invoke the ‘otherwise’ option for school absence?

Have now rtft

Urgh quit whining!

You don't need to go skiing so all this shit about fitting certain activities in to half terms is entitled shite.

The vast majority of people live & work somewhere and send their children to school locally. People moving constantly for short stints is a tiny minority of people. The vast majority of people manage to fit an annual family holiday into the 13 weeks of school holiday available (why yes, it is 1 in 4 weeks a year). The vast majority of people are quite happy their child taught maths skills. I regularly use mine at work and in life - its handy spotting in the supermarket that two for £3.50 is not a great deal when they are £1.70 each, and that. The vast majority of people understand that "flexi schooling" and having constant underutilised capacity in schools for children whos parents may or may not send them in, if they feel like it, is a) costly and b) ineffective as a means of providing academic education c) a nightmare for teachers trying to ensure that those children with piecemeal attendance can follow whats being covered in the class given they missed the last two sessions....

You can't hold the space.

You have to deregister and risk the space being given to another child who will actually use it.

Even if there isnt a law specifying you cant temporarily deregister, there also isnt one that says the school has to allow a temporary deregistering.

You absolutely can remove them, the school cant stop you but legally it it doesn't HAVE to have them back just because you added in a date you want that to happen.

I do get that, but what we have right now isn’t working. I do feel that we need to drastically revisit how education and childcare dovetail in a society where both parents need to work, where parenting is often split across two households due to separation/divorce, and where we no longer have extended family hubs to fall back on. I have no idea what the solution is, but the conversation needs to be had, surely?

I actually think any reform should have a wider scope - education reform should go hand in hand ideally with family life balance reform.

You don’t just want to make school days longer for child care reasons.

Responding to the comments that ‘the world has changed’ and that schools need to change with them… well, yes they do. We no longer have the majority of families structured around one SAHM, living a few streets along the road from Auntie or their mum who can help with childcare. We no longer work in the local fields, factories, mines or even in the local offices of professional services in the high street over the butchers.

People work longer hours and travel further and have no choice but to pay extortionate childcare costs - on top of high utilities and mortgages [they also used to more normally rent in the past]. Holidays never happened, unless they were camping/caravanning.

So how should schools adapt? By letting people take holidays/absences when parents get the whim? Citing misunderstood passages of law in their defence?

Well, no. If they really want to change with the times, they need to have extended hours and operate 50 weeks of the year. Summer school programmes to help those who are lagging behind, with child care and extension programmes to support working families. I’m not saying it needs to be fully educational, operated and run by teachers, but - as they do in the US, where teaching is 8-2pm and 2-6pm is drama, sports, band, leadership/mentoring programmes for minority groups etc - we need to revolutionise education, pay teachers a professional salary and expand the offerings within schools.

Yes the world has changed and yes we need to change our approach to education accordingly… but allowing families to dip in and out of education when it suits them is not the answer.

Just pay the bloody fine @KuanKaKu. If you’re so desperate for a holiday you want your children to miss 2 weeks of school, it’s cheaper to go during term time and pay the fine, than it is to go during the 13 weeks they got off school each academic year.

@KuanKaKu the current attendance is awful if you have a child who doesn’t fit the system and suffers anxiety etc so forgive me if I have absolutely no sympathy for those who want to change for a term time holiday

but the system isn’t antiquated it is new and the current 2024 version is even more awful than before but isn’t something the present Government will change and the obsession with attendance isn’t

That wasn't what I meant. I meant, if she proceeds as intended, OP will be forced into home educating on return from the 10 day trip, unless another victim school willing/able to register the kids mid-term can be identified.

And then she'll need the collective wisdom of the great and the good over at the HE board. .

If you do this there's a high chance the school place won't be there when you want to return. The money you deregister it goes to the next pupil on the list.

This would be very disruptive for children to find that they are in random schools on random days or not in at all depending on the whims of the parents. Most schools don't teach the same curriculum or even the ones that do won't teach them in the same order, so they will be missing out on large chunks of their education and duplicating others.

There's a reason why the travelling community often leave school with poor results.

On behalf of the home ed community, we don't claim whatever the hell @KuanKaKu is doing 🙅‍♀️

What do you do for work @KuanKaKu ?

Until reforms bring the policy into line with real life, it is therefore very possible for families to rely on the lawful option that Section 7 provides and on the practical 10 day window in which the school still holds the place. It is not misuse. It is a rational response to a system that has not kept pace with society.

Ah, so it's a ten day holiday during term time. 💡

Bit of a palaver to withdraw them wholesale surely? What if your return flight is delayed and you miss an additional 2 days? Your kids will be out the door and the next eager beaver will be warming their seat.

Why can't you just take your holybags during outside of the school term time like normal people?

Exactly. How would a child who has never done manual calculations using established mathematical formulae ever have a feel for whether the output of the programmed software is actually correct? In fact, how would they programme that software if they've never worked with formulae that are the very basis of maths?

Yes, you effectively release the space so if the school is oversubscribed and there is a waiting list, you could lose the child’s place in the school.

You want to “enable change”, become a MP. You want the benefit of free state education, you follow the rules if keeping the place is important to you, or if you don’t follow the rules, don’t expect to be able to slot your child back in where he or she left off. You might get a different school. Only you can decide whether consistency or adventure is best for your children.

Nah. Home Ed message board, surely?

This.

I am writing to inform you that for the period xxx 2026 to xxx 2026 inclusive

Exactly how long are you planning to remove them?

The drivel on the subject gets worse. OP just isn't getting it but posts rambling posts from god knows where. Almosr deluded that they are right.

Where do you stand on the need for drivers' licences, @KuanKaKu ? Are you driving or travelling?

You are right on many of the points that you raise and you are certainly right that younger generations could force change but that would be their choice as adults. What you are doing risks disadvantaging your children, who are not the ones deciding this, to make a point.
Education is essential, holidays are at best enriching and at worst a chance to collect a selection of foreign germs to bring home. The school system will probably change but this will necessarily be slow. To change as you want would mean that at some point in every term each child would be off for two weeks out of thirteen, this would be a nightmare for teachers trying to make sure everyone covered the curriculum. Or that the schools would have to be open for a greater number of weeks and increase staff numbers and costs as necessary.
A tacit opt in/opt out each day or week would further break the assumption that, once you have registered to attend a state school the children attend. Sadly it would not be only the children who could cope with losing time who would not always attend. Real danger of increasing inequality of opportunity.
I don’t believe in fines for holidays in term time and I actually agree that occasional absence for a special trip should be allowed, many schools recognise and allow this for parents who approach openly and discuss it.
Petition parliament, start a campaign, speak to your MP but don’t waste the headteachers time and use you children as pawns.