unauthorised holiday ...so cross

[lostlilly]

5 days I requested, I finished my degree last year and we havent had a holiday for 5 years!!! my dd is SO excited about going on a plane she burst into tears when I got the letter saying unauthorised. It states her attendance is 100% but it is unauthorised. I am really cross, we have to pay a fixed penalty, as if anyone can afford that at the moment!

I actually don't think it's right that he gets away with speeding because as you say the speed limit is a sensible law which should be enforced but was using that as an example to point out you do not get thrown in the tower for not obeying the LEA.
I think he is just trying to see how far you can push these things as a bit of an experiment tbh.

Thirty pupils taking a week off throughout the year would most definitely be disruptive from an admin/tracking/monitoring/progress reporting point of view!
At least it would in Secondary and I can't imagine it's any different in Primary.

And whilst it might be argued that very young pupils won't miss too much in a week off they certainly will by the time they are at Secondary.
Parents will often ask for work to be assigned to their children for these holidays during term time - so what exactly is the point of taking them on holiday then?
And it doesn't get done anyway so we spend time preparing stuff for nothing.
Then the pupil finds themselves quite far behind because we cover a lot in a week.

So seriously then lockets, do you think it is that harmful, for the individual child to lose a week at school? What happens if they are sick? its unavoidable then.

I never had this with DD1 (she 21 now) - One year we had a letter from her school saying that her attendance had fallen below a certain percentage (this was secondary school) and was to be discussed in the school board meeting. I was WTF?? Rang the school in total panic and was told that we were one of many - It was a year that the school was shut for a week, twice, due to snow (i cant remember what year) and that there was some horrid tummy virus going around that resulted in a recommended absence ofa week if affected. So the school said that pretty much 3/4 of DDs year were to be discussed at this meeting because their absence had fallen below X% What a waste of bloody time! Not the schools fault actually. No mention of fines though.

Heswall When I was 16 I did work experience as a teaching assistant. I sat a table with about 6 children who didn't know how to use a fork and used their fingers, I even remember the meal (chicken curry and rice)... they were 7yrs old. I was . Not putting your post down or anything but some children really need the state to teach them these things because the parents don't.

Goawaybob I pay it off at about £27 a month, that's including spending money and the train fare up there. The point I was making was that it's easy for me to say that I can't afford a holiday in Spain out of term time so I going to take one in term and moan about the fine. The truth is that I have to put up with sitting in a tent in the middle of a field pretending that I'm having a great time because guess what... that's all I can afford.

Because a) I don't have £50 to throw away on a fine and b) I think that my dd's school is doing a great job and would never want to disrespect them. But that's just me.

reclassify it as an educational trip?

Is it Spain? - she is going to practice her Spanish, if she doesn't have any yet, teach her a few words!

Take the child out of school permenantly and home educate for the remainder of the year ( Did I understand you right that this would be in July anyway?)

Find out how real the threat is , and maybe just call their bluff?

Just pay the fine.

(ignore Heswell, having an unpaid fine on your record can impact on job/ training oppertunities, credit rating, and generally damage you life in all sorts of ways)

Some might facebook but at a state school where the children wear a shirt and proper tie as a uniform, the parents have to be pretty blooming involved just to get the kids dressed in the morning, you'd imagine therefore that these children have a good grip on the situation at 4 yrs old never mind the fact that they'd been in the school for 4 years when some bright spark suggested that little nugget.

The letter regarding unauthorised absence is a standard letter sent by the school (probably change slightly per school but essentially the same message)

To get a penalty notice a process has to be completed and you will know about this beforehand and usually your child will have had days unauthroised absence before this is issued.

It is a legal requirement for parents to send their child to school and schools cannot be seen to authorise a holiday (however strongly you feel you deserve it). However if your child has not had a day before or has a day off after then nothing more will be or can be done.

Your child will have unauthorised absence on their record but if you asked for time off work and they said no would you be paid for it?

Hilarious asiatic.
The only people it might affect the job opportunities of are not likely to be the sort people who would avoid paying a fine because they would be the issuers or enforcers of fines.

Just go and enjoy it OP. My DS once went on holiday in his termtime with friends whose DS's school had a different holiday, luckily head was very amenable and said it sounded like a fab opportunity and he was rather jealous.

Same head though refused a friend's DD's holiday request, she was miffed but ok till she found out one of the governors was taking his 2 sons out the same week for a beach holiday and head had approved it! Her letter began "I believe you misinterpreted my last letter as a request....."

It is not a legal requirement for parents to send their child to school at all.

Sorry I missed that bit in your op that you have to pay a penalty - who has issued the penalty and what amout is it for?

Ok not a legal requirement as such as you can home educate but is not a legal requirement to educate your child.

But if you agree to send your child to a school are you not agreeing to comply with the schools policies which one of them will be an attendance policy stating when they expect the child to be in.

Schools have to include health promoting initiatives Heswall - it's Government policy and actually no bad thing.
Plenty of pupils don't get this kind of guidance at home sadly and schools are now having to deliver a heck of a lot that isn't exactly part of the Three Rs.

I have certain pupils (at Secondary level) who have clearly never had much of a grounding in manners or respect for others, they parrot their parent's "Pub Wisdom" regarding foreign immigrants, express bigoted/discriminatory opinions etc. and it's part of my job to change that.
Not just teach my subject.

Teachers don't have to set work unless for illness or exclusion - parents sometimes ask before a termtime holiday, because they think this is the responsible thing to do.

I'll set a few worksheets out of goodwill, but I always make it clear that the kid will be missing the lessons & there is nothing I can do about that.

I have a year 11 student who will now fail his English GCSE because his parents had him out of school for two key controlled assessments. He was very borderline anyway.

To me, that's irresponsible: massive impact on the lad's future.

5 days at primary level, otoh - as a parent, I'd go for it, & risk the fine.

nobody wants to have to take there kids out of school but family time is absolutely precious. parents work hard all year , many are also coping with personal troubles and difficulties, so any fun time is invaluable

when a kid looks back on his/her childhood they won't remember "the week we learned about long multiplication" they will remeber that precious week when they had fun as a family, took a plane trip ( for some kids it is an extremely rare experience) , experienced a different country. children benefit hugely from a holiday. and school themselves organise school trips ( ski trips, outdoor pursuit trips) away so where is the logic there?
and i know families who have felt forced to pay extra to go during school holidays only to find that their school only does airy fairy stuff for weeks leading up to the holidays.

childhood goes by in a flash and as adults our lives are regimented with rules and regulations. everybody wants to fine us for something

there are so many ppl who just simply cannot get time off work during school holidays or who just couldn't afford to go...It is very difficult for a husband and wife to get the same time off so i would never accept the arguement that parents must obey these rules. I actually feel strongly that the education authorities should be challenged with this ridiculous rule and allow families to have one or 2 weeks per year before fines are imposed.

If they don't want to do that they should just scrap school holidays altogether and have round the year education - then families can take time off that suits them...a more flexible approach to education for the 21st century and teachers themselves could take a holiday in June if they wanted to :o

i would just go unauthorised..it won't matter to your child so why let it matter to you

Heswall I was amazed that none of the dinner ladies were doing anything until I gave one child a fork and he didn't even know how to hold it. A dinner lady then came up to me after I had spent some time with this child and tried to get the others engaged in my mini lesson and said QUOTE "we've given up on this lot". Hence why I was put with them in the first place... maybe they all went on holiday the week they were being shown how to eat with a fork.

Anyway don't want to divert this thread.

Schools do have to provide work for an exclusion but not for illness.

Salmotrutta I realise you have an uphill battle in some cases but not all schools have the same issues with every single pupil but still have to tick the box I guess and cover it whether it's required by that set of students or not, my point was simply that state schools do waste a lot of time and that can't be argued. More than a week per year I'd suggest.

See, as a teacher if ALL 30 took a holiday the same week it'd be a lot easier. In fact, I'd love it! Primary teachers would have even more time free! For once.

In general I do object to people taking holidays during term time as I have to set work that doesn't get done and it seems to be people that take time off for other reasons (so already have low attendance) and could afford holiday prices anyway (just not to that location).

The main reason is mostly jealousy mind!

I don't understand how students with 100% attendance can be penalised and told their education would suffer; even at secondary school, when there are so many students bogging off on language trips or history trips or 'reward' trips or having exams etc during my lessons. I've certainly taught students who have missed a week's worth of lessons for 'worthy' causes. Near exam time too.

Don't see how, educationally, a good attender would suffer at this young age.

I'm also surprised that this would trigger a fine.

If you do opt to send your child to school it is a legal requirement to adhere to the rules and policies regarding attendance.
Otherwise you should be home educating if you don't like the rules.

ravenAK, i tend ot agree with you - i also wouldn't do this at secondary level

:( about the lad failing his GCSE

Its all about common sense

Heswall sorry for picking on you... I had a credit search done for a job in a shop... bad credit will stop you from getting a job.

I'll leave you alone now.

I'm happy to be corrected if wrong but I didn't believe fines come up in credit searches do they ? They didn't used to. And I wouldn't work in a shop that wanted to credit check me who the fcuk do they think they are and why is that information required, financial services, the police fair enough but Boots ? forget it.