To get so angry about the no compromise attitude of my kids headmistress

[twinsplus1sfb]

Arghhhhh - need to vent.
Situation - I have 3 kids (2 in Yr2, 1 in yr 4). They have never been abroad experienced an aeroplane different culture etc etc.
Their grandad has booked an expensive family holiday abroad, unfortunately he got mixed up with the dates and booked it for the week before half term.
I put a holiday form in and got a phone call from the school - apparently that is SATs week for my twins.
We have looked into changing the dates - no can do.
So - and here's where I get angry - I went to the head and told her the situation and asked her if there was any way we could work together around this, could the kids stay late after school one day or come in at the weekend before the SATS or come in in the half term after SATS.
I just got a flat NO to every option I suggested - she said it would affect their grades, and their whole school career. I asked if there was anything I could do - and she said "Cancel the holiday, oh and there will be a fine"
I understand that taking them out is not acceptable - but come on school - can we not compromise??? Help a little??? I dont even mind paying the fine, I'm just so upset that she cant even work with me on them taking their SATS on a different day or different time - is it really that strict? Would all of the headmistresses out there say that?
My kids have 100% attendance, they have never missed any school for holiday reasons ever before - its so peed off - and its going to ruin my holiday. Any advice? Any body had nice experiences with their heads? Is there anything I can do so that my kids can take their SATS?

What do you mean by "the head would still have her figures to give to the school authorities"?

Just out of interest, when your DC's grandad asked for their passport numbers (to book the flights), did the subject of which dates he was booking never come up at all?

' It is extremely small minded and petty for a teacher to suggest that a couple of hours on a weekend is more important than a child's future. '

I'm sure that schools could liaise with a supply agency and fix up a Saturday morning. Of course, parents would have to pay for it.
I'd certainly be willing to do a half day, but then I'm not filling my weekends and holidays up with APP and marking because I'm not a class teacher any longer.

'It's easy for teacher's to say they wouldn't give their time up on a hypothetical scenario, but faced with a real one most teachers would go above and beyond for a child. If they wouldn't then they are possibly in the wrong job and need to have a word with themselves'

Ah yes, the teaching as vocation and teacher as saint motif.
gazette.teachers.net/gazette/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Angel-teacher.jpg

all tests from year 1 - 13 are important if the child wants to go to university

What a load of rubbish! GCSES/standards/intermediates may have a bearing depending on the course or if there are any mitigating circumstances but otherwise it is all about the UCAS points or type of level 3 qualification (as per the national qualifications framework) obtained or other suitable qualification including (but not limited to) Access courses, professional qualifications or relevant work experience.

Nobody cares how a child does in internal and for the most part not externally moderated tests. Otherwise international students, those who were home educated, people who move into England and Wales and all the rest who don't take these tests wouldn't get university places.

Absolutely hysterical and untrue bollocks spouted by people who should know better makes me furious.

It's five days out of school, really not a big deal.

Has it actually occured to anyone that international or even national holidays are not a major contributing factor to national levels of unexcused abscence! What is are parents too high, drunk or depressed to take their children to school, children refusing to go due to bullying, refusing to go because they are scared of failure or have needs that are not being met and children refusing to go because their spoilt and lazy. Most of these people stay at home. For years many ways to tackle this have been unsuccessful, this latest beauty of fines is also pretty useless too. But at least the small number of parents who are fined when they take term time holidays makes it, on paper, look like the problem is being tackled. It's BS. Holidays are beneficial. A lack of sunshine makes Jack a miserable git.

'It is extremely small minded and petty for a teacher to suggest that a couple of hours on a weekend is more important than a child's future.'

The ultimately responsibility for a child's future lies with its parent. If they refuse to send their child to the free, state provided education available that is what will impact on the child's future. The teacher's responsibilty is to provide the education during school hours; the parent's responsibility is to ensure the child is there to benefit from it.

MovingOnUpMovingOnOut and the WHOLE sentance reads "Where I live all tests from year 1 - 13 are important if the child wants to go to university"

Where I live being the key factor.. Where I live is NOT the in UK.

How many other people are in the wrong job and need to have a word with themselves if they don't feel like putting in unpaid overtime during weekends and holidays, tomato?
Especially as this would be as a result of a parent who I imagine knew exactly what she was doing from the outset.
If the vast majority of parents decided to swan off in term time and suck up the pathetically tiny fine the school's performance would be affected at Ofsted and the HT would be relieved of his/ duties in all probability.

Well, a healthy diet and a decent amount of sleep and regular exercise are vital for a child's future.
So, boarding from EY onwards then.

Well then perhaps you should have said that then tomato? Seeing as I and everyone else is not psychic and you are posting on a UK site about an issue peculiar to England and Wales?

You haven't read the whole thread have you MovingOnUpMovingOnOut

I did read the whole thread, and I think you are possibly on a different planet tomato.

Tomato - are you in the US? I thought it was only High School that counted, getting the right credits so that you can get your utterly worthless High School Diploma (where DD1 goes to school it's quite possible to get your IB diploma, but not your High School Diploma - I know which one I think is more useful).

I wonder, too, if an additional gap might be there for training the kids in the lie as well

Too late, Hermia - I think many of these parents have got that one covered

Ah yes, the teaching as vocation and teacher as saint motif

Convenient, in't it? It enables folk to coo about "kind, dedicated teachers" when it suits and slate them the instant it doesn't

As movingonup said, the school's job is to provide education - the parent's responsibility is to see the children are there to take advantage of it. Personally I like the idea of Saturday sessions which will be charged for; I'm sure all these "concerned parents" will be only too happy to put their hands in their pockets ... won't they??

God almighty, Tomato, can there really be two such spectacularly entitled families (or are you the Grandad?)
You're actually suggesting that it's small minded and petty of the teachers not to give up their weekend to administer the tests; when the children's parents have voluntarily taken them on holiday???
It's the teachers who should be "thinking of the child's future", irregardless of how feckless the parents are...
Nobody could type that sentence without their tongue very firmly in cheek, could they? COULD THEY????

Floggingmolly "one only has to wonder which cheek...

I did read the whole thread, and I think you are possibly on a different planet tomato.

Possibly, actually just a different country and after reading some of the attitudes on this thread, I'm very glad about that!

Yes, the feeling is mutual.

I really like having posters from other countries on here though. It's a bit like being on supply, you go from place to place and see that the view is different from each one. That for one something unthinkable for another is mundane.

I have read most of the thread thank tomato. I did not find your posts sufficiently interesting or special to warrant a trawl of the huge thread to pick them out specifically for the purpose of finding things that were not mentioned in one of your posts.

I'm sorry if that disappoints you :(

I like seeing posters from other countries. Just occasionally though I'm glad they're on the other side of the world.

Bet you're not a teacher, though, Tomato...