To ask for UNauthorised absence for my DD (also please help me with what to say in letter)

[boringnickname]

My DD is in year two and had 1.5 days off school since she started reception (apart from snow days and a teachers strike). I know its not the done thing and im not asking if i should take the absence, i know IABU. We haven't had a family holiday for three years due to finances and not being able to afford it. We have saved enough clubcard vouchers for a weeks holiday and i have booked it, knowing that the school wont authorise. (School under pressure from ofsted i think).

I mentioned i was going to a friend and she said to just write and ask for UNauthorised absence. But i wonder if this sounds a bit like "well, i know you wont authorise it but im taking her anyway" type thing?

Please don't flame me or get into a whoo haa about whether i should take DD out of school, i just want to know how to approach it. Our relationship with the school is good.

Fuck! Seriously? 500 quid for a week away from school?

I should probably not recommend this, but in cases where it's unlikely to happen very regularly, I am thinking as a parent I would probably say both parents had to be abroad for work reasons, and there would be nobody in the UK to look after the DCs so obviously they would have to go with their parents for a week. I would say obviously there isn't much point in de-registering a child and then re-registering him or her just for a week's absence because of the sheer volume of paperwork.

Naughty, but possible.

LOL at boffin, it would work but they know im a SAHM :) and my DP does building work for alot of the mums at the school, they know im a liar liar pants on fire!

Have decided to ask for authorised, the worse that will happen is they will say no. we willl be fined, dd ostracised from school choir, never be the virgin mary in the nativity play

Maximum fine of £50 per child, per day, but I've never known it happen. Of course you could write to school with the wrong dates on the form, if it gets agreed then change the dates, if it doesn't ring them in sick

lol at the devious ideas on here

£50 per day bloody hell!! Its not that in our area!!

Gosh we sound very lucky then. I'm shocked at the £50 per day fine!

I've just put in a holiday request form for 11 days. I know that the eleventh day will be unauthorised but it's just the way the flights have worked out. Our head is great and realistic about term time holidays. Even the council website states that you can take up to 10 days off for an annual family holiday.

I didn't realise how unusual it was until I read this thread!

I thought it was £50 per parent, per child, per week.

Not at all, our school is fine about term-time holidays and I know lots of others who are as well.

Well, this is true boring. You should have a job like mine where you can potentially zip all over the place!

Apparently a lot of parents don't pay the fines. So they are proposing docking it from child benefit.
Does that mean that us high earners don't have to pay, as we don't get child benefit anymore?

The fines are going up according to the News this morning

They're proposing £60...rising to £120 if not paid within 28 days

And as mummytime said, the fines are to be taken directly from child benefit if the proposals go through.

marrow our school allows up to ten days.

You have to request it and if a childs attendance is below a certain % or they have something very important in the time requested the headmaster will refuse - generally he doesnt!!

Hehehe Mummytime, that had occurred to me too.

my DS's school authorises holidays too. Only one per year per child. Can you find any educational merit in the holiday? If so, is it worth mentioning that in the letter?

theres something in the news today about the fines - maybe worth a bbc news google.

spoke to the secretary today - no holiday forms, I have to write to the governers, she said it categorically will not be authorised but would prefer it if i made a request anyway as then they can show the inspectors that even though i asked, they wouldn't authorise it. She was fine about it, so there, no problem.

I find it frustrating that there is such variety between schools, no problems getting authorised from other schools in the area. But then there was no mention of a fine, it would take her days off to 6.5 so i can't see a problem.

Was all very different with dd1, school time holidays were not such an issue.

I think Dodgy Dave needs to sort this out to stop penalising concientious parents who just want a family holiday rather than those too lazy to send their kids to school, or those with genuine problems, who quite frankly don't need fining they need help!

soverylucky I don't really see why you're astounded.

Your school obviously allows term time holidays...other schools have a zero tolerance and categorically will not authorise them.

Therefore, it becomes very much a formality when telling the school in writing the dates you'll be away.