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Original poster

Would you be honest with school regarding holiday?

67 replies

namechange085 · 02/12/2022 13:36

DD will miss two days of school after February half term due to us being on holiday and it being a lot cheaper to fly home a couple of days later.
For them two days I could just ring school and say she isn't well enough to come in or I could request the holiday knowing it will 100% be rejected and go down as unauthorised. I was planning to ring up but recently read a thread where someone got caught for some reason school rang them.
WWYD?

OP posts:
TrickyD · 02/12/2022 14:21

Ring in sick. Advice from DH, retired headteacher.

FourTeaFallOut · 02/12/2022 14:23

No. More trouble than it's worth, for them and you. Just phone in sick.

NameChangeLifeChange · 02/12/2022 14:25

Depending on the age of the kids won’t they immediately bounce through the door telling everyone about their holiday they just got back from? That is 100% what mine would do…!

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sheepdogdelight · 02/12/2022 14:26

Just say you are going on holiday and accept it will be unauthorised.
Much better than being caught out in a lie. Or asking your children to lie.

TrickyD · 02/12/2022 14:30

Our DS1 is taking his DS, aged 5 out of school to come skiing with us. He decided on the week before half term in the hope that after a week back hone he will not immediately blurt out the holiday as NameChangeLifeChange predicts.

thesurreymum · 02/12/2022 14:33

My take on this is if you are lying to the school you then need to get your child to
Lie to the school which I personally think is not ok! I would be honest

PenelopeTitsDrop3121 · 02/12/2022 14:33

Ring in sick. I was truthful and we had to pay 120 fine. My daughter had 100 percent attendance:(

NoelNoNoel · 02/12/2022 14:37

Don’t lie.

Lambtales · 02/12/2022 14:40

Call in sick. We had to pay £240 when we informed them.

Username917778 · 02/12/2022 14:43

I'd be honest as I'm in Scotland and we aren't fined.

If I was in England and thought I'd be fined, I'd lie, and I'd tell my kids why we were lying too!

solemnlyswearuptonogood · 02/12/2022 14:52

You won't be fined for less than 10 sessions (5 days) missed. We let the school know and never got fined, despite it being 8 sessions. They have had pretty much 100% attendance in previous years

roratone · 02/12/2022 14:55

School governor here. Tell the truth. I'm the safeguarding lead - if you're telling lies about this, you could be telling other lies... School just want to know child is safe. Fining not a concern for this length of absence

Beezknees · 02/12/2022 14:56

You won't get fined for 2 days so ignore pp who are saying lie. Tell the truth.

EmmaJR1 · 02/12/2022 15:01

We are taking the kids out of school for the 2 weeks after Easter to go to a wedding in Oz - we will be telling them and fully expect a fine for each kid.

Ours are very small though so would absolutely tell everyone wheee they had been and I'm not about to ask them to lie.

But 2 weeks is different to 2 days...

Noodledoodledoo · 02/12/2022 15:02

Tell the truth, teachers figure it out anyway. If attendance is OK generally then it won't cause an issue.

Noln · 02/12/2022 15:04

I'd tell the truth. I don't want my kids to lie to their teachers, or get caught out. You won't get a fine for 2 days - it's usually 9 sessions (4.5 days) within a certain time frame that can trigger a fine. What does it matter to you if it's marked as unauthorised?

We're going away for a fortnight in June and paying the fine because it's still cheaper.

TurquoiseDress · 02/12/2022 15:05

We're planning a holiday which means the DC will miss one or two days of school

We're just going to email to let the school know they're going to miss days due to being on holiday

I don't want to go down the road of lying about it as I don't want to cause further issues ie DC telling school they're not sick/are going on hols!🙈

TurquoiseDress · 02/12/2022 15:08

This is one of those situations where I just don't think lying about it is worth it

You will likely get caught out, I don't personally want to collude with/encourage my kids to lie about this kind of thing

youcantry · 02/12/2022 15:11

Tell the truth as you won't get fined, it will just be noted as unauthorised absence but that won't affect you or the children. I did the same and didn't get fined as it was four days. Have a lovely holiday!

TurquoiseDress · 02/12/2022 15:11

Other friends we know who went away for longer eg 1 or 2 week absence, they told the school they were going on holiday and just paid up the fine

On balance, it still worked out cheaper going away in term time & paying fine on top

TurquoiseDress · 02/12/2022 15:12

*even with paying fine on top

Ivyblu · 02/12/2022 15:15

You don't get a fine for under 5 days or the possibility of more than 5 days.

It's only 2 days, find out your holiday policy and ask another school mum to check for you. It's not worth the lie really. You just need to write a summary to INFORM the school because most schools decline anyway.

I plan to take DS out for a 9 day holiday next year! I will just inform them about it.

Ivyblu · 02/12/2022 15:19

@Username917778 love your post.

Ivyblu · 02/12/2022 15:20

Lambtales · 02/12/2022 14:40

Call in sick. We had to pay £240 when we informed them.

Has the fine now gone up to £120? I thought it's per parent the fine is that why it was £240?

When was this please?

babyyodaxmas · 02/12/2022 15:22

sheepdogdelight · 02/12/2022 14:26

Just say you are going on holiday and accept it will be unauthorised.
Much better than being caught out in a lie. Or asking your children to lie.

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