I think this is lovely

[Chulak]

It's Eid this week. We aren't Muslim, but I'd say around 20% of the kids in the primary school my children attend are. The school has sent out an email advising that any children celebrating Eid are welcome to take the day off to celebrate with family and friends. I think this is a really nice way to manage a diverse school. Do other schools do this? I've never heard of it before?

That’s normal here, most of the schools and nurseries are half empty on Eid days.

Ours doesn't go that far, but does make it known that children will not be marked as unauthorised absence for that day.

I like the activities they’re doing in my son’s nursery this week, lots of Eid artwork and decorating biscuits. On the official day it’s great because w lot of other children don’t come in so they ones that there get to go on an outing as they can do 1:1 ratios.

Schools can and do authorise days off for religious observances. The school will be sending out a letter so they don’t have loads of emails/phone calls asking if it’s OK for their child to have the day off.

I thought it was standard that children can have authorised time off school for religious purposes.
I actually thought it was a legal thing ( I may be wrong about this).

This has been normal in London for decades, Im very happy that they make it absolutely clear religious celebrations are important

Sounds good. Nice that the school are proactive in promoting the fact children are allowed time off.

My rural school authorised absences for farmer kids on the big county show days.

Made a lot more sense than penalising them for something they likely had no choice over, and that was, let's be honest, more like work experience than anything else.

Our school historically has only had a handful of Muslim children, but in the last year we've gained a lot of Afghan families so now we have quite a few. Unfortunately it's Sports Day tomorrow, so lots of children will be missing that for Eid celebrations. Something we haven't needed to check in the past but will do going forward!

Our local secondary would probably send a Happy Eid card with a £70 truancy fine tucked inside!

Schools are obliged to authorise it anyway. They've just saved themselves loads of work!

It's normal at my kids school - but yes I do think it's nice.