to want to take my dc for a week holiday during school time ?

[mrsfuzzy]

i have a big family and can only take them to the seaside near us for a week each year, they are teens in school and college but it is something we all look forward to as a family as we are very close, even the 20yr ol tags along with his girlfriend! under the new rules, [i think this correct schools won't be allowed to authorise holidays during term time, fair enough] i can understand the not missing exams bit, but as dh and i can only work part time it is difficult to finance other arrangements. how do other parents manage ?

Taking my dc out in June was a last straw as my annual leave was so restricted over the hols. Its not something I do regular!

They've both got 100% attendance and no exams etc so I felt justified.

AF its the council thats issuing them although when I emailed them to object they said if the head authorises it, they will drop the fine?

Both parents have to pay, so it works out at £120 per week/child and it doubles if not paid within 28 days!

Our school is an academy and we haven't been advised if the fines officially but standard seems to be £60 per parent per child. As I'm on my own it would cost £60, so financially, it would be cheaper to go away in term time and pay the fine.

However, in your case, @ £120 per child, it could potentially cost you £480 to take them out for a week.

Some parents have said they will ring their kids in sick for a week but when they turn up with a suntan talking about their holiday, it could give the game away .

OK, So I would be risking a £120 fine.

Fair enough. It would cost me a fuckload more than that to take holiday purely outside of term time (we usually pinch a few days before end of term)

Apparently the government worded it wrong on the official documents and actually wanted to charge £60 per parent per child per day! Also there is talk NRP will be charged too so even if child only sees NRP once a month or something if RP takes them out of school both parents will be fined!
Schools have no say in these fines (unless academies where I believe they can set their own fines) they are from the government and schools won't see the money directly.
Surely this is only going to encourage deceitful behaviour by parents (not that I blame them) by just ringing up and saying their child is sick.

I don't see how they can charge NRP though as the decision is nothing to do with them? That would be very unfair and my XH would go mad! he won't have her at all in the holidays and is unlikely to take her away any other time either

This is the problem.

Some parents will decide to restrict their holidays to outside of term time, but there are two tried & tested alternatives.

Solvent parents - OK, we'll just pay the fine & openly set it against the saving we make by going away in term time.

Skint parents - OK, we'll pretend we all had flu, & one of the side effects looked quite a bit like a suntan.

Neither of these is exactly conducive to an honest, respectful relationship between home & school. One lot are being told that rules are something you throw money at; the other are being told that it's best if you just lie.

My friend has had a letter from the school her son attends saying that sickness absence of more than one day has to be backed up by a doctor's note from now on. This following parents claiming sickness to take children on holiday last term.

The GPs are going to love the ruling morgause!!

gp's don't need to give the fit notes, they don't need to do what the school says and parents would need to pay for a letter stating the child is ill - doctors will do this to stop children being brought to the surgery for minor illness tht will be ok in a couple or three days which could mean that parents will send very sick children into school each day if they haven't got £30 to spend on getting a note form the doctor to say the child is ill. Then the school can deal with it

That will then spread the illness if it is contagious and more sick child bring down the sickness rates - which in turn is what they don't want.

I don't understand your logic either, Bowler . Instead of looking for a "window" in June, why not do what most of the rest of us do and go in the summer holidays??

Mine are 15 and 17 and have never taken them out of school for a holiday. We tend to go the last week of august to dutch centerparcs. The dutch have gone back to school there so it is cheaper.
Next year my dcs will have sat their exams so will be free in July so we will take our holiday then.

Unauthorised or not I will still take dd out of school for a fortnight a year. However she's still at primary. I will rethink when she's older.

Holidays are a luxury and children have 13 weeks of holidays to go in rather than miss education. Its not the shools fault you fancy a holiday but cant go outside term as you choose to have numerous children on a part time salary. A head cant accept cost as an exceptional reason for time off.

Because, floggingmolly, I was answering the op and trying to give her options on her quandary

Made sense to me bowlersarm

Thank you for that Rufus43-I've been scratching my head thinking I had misunderstood something, somewhere. Peculiar that Floggingmolly only picked up on my post to comment on. I feel singled out! But hey ho.

Our attendance target is 96 % this year. We crept up to 94.9 % last year and got a bollocking because it wasn't exactly 95 %. Scary stuff because if we are below again Mr Gove will have an excuse to turn us into an academy. You wouldn't get an authorised holiday here.

Spikey personally I think that is the trouble with taking holiday in term time. Supposing your child has a particularly tricky year with illnesses? With term time holidays, you are on a negative before anything else comes up which is more essential, quite honestly.

That's it really, Bowlersarm. Schools aren't being awkward about holidays for the sake of it. Those of us working in them are pretty terrified about any chink appearing because it doesn't take much to be deemed as 'requires improvement' these days.

Went away for the summer (for work!) and came back to the same old argument as when I left!

Schools will fine. It is unauthorised. It is taking the piss. Get over it.