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?

Floggingmolly We're talking about a holiday from school for young children. It's not a big deal.

The headmistress blew it out of proportion with year two SAT nonsense. And people ran with that and harped on about teachers having to give up weekends. That hypothetical would never happen anyway. Which was just

I have known teachers who go above and beyond. It's all about point of view. From my schools point of view a trip abroad for a student would be a once in a lifetime opportunity, rather than a 'priviledge'.

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

if it makes you feel better to think that....

I'm still waiting for tomato to tell us which other jobs should put in unpaid overtime without complaint to support the decisions of the feckless.

I sincerely hope she isn't a teacher.

The issue was when would the children sit the tests? When would the time be available?
I must admit that given some annoying and uninformed view, I tend to go of at a tangent rather than get annoyed.

Are you sure you mean tomato? I must have missed that post, I only saw her talking about what a dedicated teacher should be prepared to do for children.

I'd love to know what her employer would think of it.

Floggingmolly We're talking about a holiday from school for young children. It's not a big deal.
The unofficial holiday is the week before, and tagged onto, the official holiday which all the other children have to make do with; failing invitations to meet with dying relatives in Disneyland.
Why shouldn't they all do it, if it's no big deal?

Can we stop with this 'once in a lifetime' crap please. There are very few 'once in a lifetime' trips that can only be taken in school terms. There are 13 weeks a year that they can go on holidays, and plenty of opportunities when they finish school to travel.

"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."

I wondered if anyone would play the "if teachers really cared about a child they would come in for a couple of days over the weekend / give up a couple of weeks of lunchtimes / stay late for at least a week (hence taking even more work home)" card.

"Can we stop with this 'once in a lifetime' crap please. There are very few 'once in a lifetime' trips that can only be taken in school terms. There are 13 weeks a year that they can go on holidays, and plenty of opportunities when they finish school to travel."

Lucky the parents who can afford that outlook. Perhaps it hasn't occurred to you that not everyone's in that fortunate position?

Yes why is a holiday a once in a lifetime opportunity? Unless it's on the titanic?

Most seven year olds have another 80 years of holiday making ahead of them

I've not been abroad in decades.
My children have never been on a commercial aeroplane, poor, deprived little mites. Good job they have their lives ahead of them.

Can we come to Brazil please tomato?

But op's whole premise is that Grandad "mistakenly" booked the tickets for the wrong date, not that they deliberately booked term time tickets because they were discounted.

But holidays dont count as special circumstances!

As a teacher I say SATs mean nothing. You've told the school and the holiday is paid for. It will be unauthorised absence but so what? Pay the fine and let your kids enjoy their holiday.

When my DD is of school age, and if the SATs are still running, I will be pulling her from them anyway. They are meaningless assessments and whilst I understand for the school (and the HT mainly) it's a PITA if your children miss them it's by no mean the end of the world.

Holidays don't count as special circs - and that's why I'm going to clean up with my fake wedding invites, death certificates and doctors' letters explaining that Uncle Horatio is just about to cark it in Sharm and needs all his family there for the week before the spring half term.

You don't teach year 6, do you!

I'm struggling to understand why so many posters are desperate to support the notion that taking holidays in term time is massively detrimental to both the children and the teachers/schools? It clearly isn't!

Is it just jealousy because the majority of posters moaning on this thread are teachers and can't get away with it?

As a PP said, everyone is conveniently ignoring the fact that the unhelpful fines system only came in to give credibility to the government for tackling serious absence issues in the State school sector, which this is obviously not doing.

Before then, parents could choose to take their kids out of school for the occasional holiday/family event without any repercussions. Now it's just the wealthy who can afford to do so. Well that's ok then isn't it?

I am not pearly clutchy about term term holidays but I do love when the topic crops up on MN. I note that the children in question always have perfect attendance, unusually intelligent and that the holiday is always referred to as "once in a lifetime". I have more respect for the people who cu the bullshit and freely admit they want an affordable week in the sun every year or so.