To take my kids out of school for three weeks

Regardless of fines, the experience is unlikely to have a massive benefit for children so young - they may well not even remember it in a few years time.

As for the loss of education, children that age frequently make huge strides at that age. Just because what they are learning seems basic a few years on doesn't mean it isn't important (and it's not solely academic either).

They get 13 weeks school holidays a year anyway, 14 if you include INSET days.

No in that case don’t think they were

and I do know cases where attendance has been good and 3 weeks triggers it

it makes sense a fine happens after a week, 2 fines straight to prosecution so 3 weeks covers it all in one

or they may just fine it is difficult to predict

I believe so - she seemed a bit unconcerned that the attendance levels were low overall.

Go for it, and enjoy it. Be prepared to pay the fine. Don’t try and dress it up as some making memories bollocks.

They don’t have to issue a fixed penalty notice, they can take you straight to court. My local authority states they will take you straight to court if they miss over 15 days of school, which would result in a criminal record.

The school won’t authorise it.

Depending on your local authority they could take you straight to court, ours state they will do if more than 15 days are missed, so you’d be ok, but they are all different. De registering then re registering your children could be an option if the school isn’t oversubscribed?

I think it’s a great opportunity to take them travelling and at them ages I wouldn’t worry about them missing too much, it’s just the chance of being taken to court/ getting a criminal record which would put me off.

Whats the incredible opportunity?

I’m reading all these messages and genuinely astounded at the number of people totally outraged, even going so far as to suggest the OP should de register their child from school. This is absolute madness. 🤣

It will 100% be unauthorised and probably lead to a fine but that’s your call.

As a teacher I take massive umbrage at the idea that the 4yr old ‘won’t be doing much’ 🙈

also- please don’t ask the teachers for the missed work. We don’t just hand out a worksheet every hour so just giving you a copy of each written activity doesn’t work without the input to go with it. I suggest daily reading and writing a diary of what you’ve been doing.

that said, I absolutely do see the value of experiences outside the classroom and understand why parents might choose to take children out in term time.

They might make them start after Xmas though rather than join mid term and they’d be out of school for 4 months

Is your school full? If not, I’d be inclined to deregister them, then apply for school places again when you are back.

Reception is a tricky year group to catch up on, both socially and with the learning, is it only available at that time? X

You do you. But whatever fine or letter you get at the end of it you take on the chin.

Countless threads on here of mums who knowingly took their kids out are now seeking to vent or asking how to appeal fines / prosecution letters.

I won’t judge if a parent does this, but I will judge the CF attitude when consequences follow.

Why is it unreasonable? What would you deem acceptable?

If it’s for disney YABU

There are very few “once in a lifetime family trips” that require you to be away for a whole month …..

I don't know if this has already been metioned but this happened to a poster here that took their DC out for 3 weeks. It affected their employment as it comes up on DBS checks.

Nope the revised regulations in 2024 DO give LA the power to go straight to prosecution they don’t often but they can

anyone suggesting calling in sick last week of term a 5 day absent end of term for two children is likely to trigger needing medical evidence to authorise - it will go down as unauthorised anyway

yes it really is that bad

And even with our common sense approach and lack of total nonsense around attendance in Ireland, the educational outcomes for Irish children are generally better than those of English children.

It’s the common misconception that it means less due to how young they are but brain wise they are doing more learning now then for the rest of their lives. They are also much less likely to remember the experience aspect of it than if they were older. It would be a memory for you and the wider family which could also be important.

I didn't say I knew best, but you're the one who answered a question which wasn't actually meant for you, as if failing to understand something quite basic. (On top of the very simple, regular present tense of the verb 'to sit', which is taught in primary school - ETA: Maybe you were off that day?)

You interjected just to argue. As stated, I was interested as I would expect an attendance officer to be of the opinion that attendance is important and was surprised to see otherwise. What a demoralising job if you don't even really care about tying to improve this problem in the face of everything against us.

However, it's not just persistent absence that's a problem. And despite being a secondary teacher, I don't ascribe to the idea that only exam years count and early years aren't the foundation.

I worked in school through the COVID lockdown with vulnerable kids who needed school and could not be subjected to the alternative at home with their families - offensive as that might be, we determined this to be the case as professionals and made provision for those who would have been seriously disadvantaged without it. I also tried to offer for other kids some of what they normally experience online and note that many opted out. Most seem generally fine for having a few weeks' pause, because everyone else did. Many still are really not. And few would cope with losing out while everyone else continued ahead of them.

I mention this because, in general, for lots of our families it was a wonderful extended summer with parents at home and playing in the garden, largely without financial worries. But the kids coming through each year are still noticeably behind academically and lacking in social skills. So whatever was being 'kept up' with or 'caught up' on by well meaning parents clearly wasn't working as well as they thought.

And PP are right to say that the length of time, and across two terms, might not be a simple fine to be factored into the cost of the holiday; it might be that the children are deemed to have been missing from education and not accounted for over a prolonged period. Parents saying they're 'my children' doesn't mean other adults don't have certain levels of responsibility.

Honestly I can’t think of any trip genuinely educational or once in a lifetime. The benefit of the usual suspects (safari/ pyramids/ grandparents in Nz) is debatable and I can’t think of these trips that would genuinely give these benefits as opposed to just cultural or interesting.

4 and 5 year-olds aren't going to be having "life time experiences".

I'd respect people who take their kids out of school more if they admitted that they did it just because they want to instead of pretending that it's "educational"

They are extremely unlikely to remember anything if a "once in a lifetime" trip at that age. Pay the fines and take them out but please make sure you cover anything they will miss while away yourselves. Your holiday shouldn't affect the education of anyone else in the class when you return.

There are six weeks every summer to experience the world outside the classroom.
Most parents take advantage of that, so stop making out that op is conferring an enormous advantage on her child by taking them on holiday on term time, it’s ridiculous.