Taking dc out of school for holiday

[nursingcomplete2014]

Just for 3 days at the end of May. Would you ask school for permission? Would you write a letter/email? What if they deny it? Dc all have 100% attendance

I filled out a form with a covering letter asking if I could take my two out for 1 day. Head teacher replied with ‘unauthorised’ and said I ‘might’ be fined £60 per child per parent so with 2 kids £240. Both kids had excellent attendance.

Will see if I get a letter from Local Authority!

Around here you just tell them the kids won’t be in, the school says ‘it’s unauthorised but have a great time! How fab for little Jimmy to have that experience’. They’re not allowed to authorise it as far as I know. This in primary though, not secondary, plus post covid they’re seeming to be more forgiving.

Just to add, my kids are in secondary school, year 7&9

I'm a TA
I'd love to have a holiday in term time ..
Go for it

Fill in the form and let them know.

it won’t be authorised because they aren’t allowed to but that doesn’t mean you can’t go.

you are highly unlikely to get fined.

im sure some will suggest phoning them in sick. Don’t, school will know anyway and it just means you have to tell them not to talk about their holiday in school!

End of May is half term. Or do you mean tacking onto the half term holiday?

Fill in the form
get a standard nastily worded letter threatening fines
go anyway

or
call your kids in sick. People def do this but I wouldn’t want mine to have to lie when they were back about where they’d been

It’s three days before the end of term. I’m wondering if it would be easier just to phone school on the day and say they are sick. I’ve never done this before as I work term time but work have authorised my time off and it saves us nearly £1000

Don't lie about it, your kids will dob you in and it sets a bad example for them. I know it saves a lot of money but you have to think about what would happen if everyone took their kids out of school to save money on holidays. It's a nightmare for teachers.

I think you should only do it if you're comfortable telling your kids 'follow all the school rules except this one so I can save money' and having a discussion about whether you always have to follow the rules.

Well this is an example of how in real life as a grown up, you don’t have to follow all the rules 😵‍💫 obviously laws, yes. But I can think of many rules that everyone breaks all the time.

If you're happy not only lying to the school, but having the school knowing that you're lying. Take more than one kid out for multiple days just before a school holiday and it's obvious what you're doing.

Just send the letter in, it will
be unauthorised but for 3 days you wouldn’t get a fine many places (will depend on your LA/ school).
Secondary schools are very wise to people phoning in sick just before or after the holidays. They’re likely to ask for evidence or check up on you, just be honest, not worth the hassle or lying and I’d be cautious about asking children especially teens to lie!

Just write a letter to say you are taking three days unauthorised absence. There's no need to lie.

I'd inform school. It will be coded differently if it's a holiday you've requested time for (even if it's unauthorised and you know it will be unauthorised) than if you just don't turn up. The DCs will likely talk about it at school, in which case it'll probably still go down as an unauthorised absence rather than sickness if you did call them in sick. Our LA doesn't generally fine for less than 5 days anyway if attendance is usually good, yours may be the same

Just to say I appealed my fine. The kids were working above target on their school reports so I argued it had not affected their education. Was a while ago though. It may work for meeting targets too!

Just tell them, no point asking as thry wont authorise it as thry can only autjorise for very specific reasons. Don't make your kids lie