Requesting child time off school during term for a holiday

[Yellowskies1988]

Just wondering how schools are with having time off during term time... bit of a long read and circumstances which I feel need to be included, here goes...

I'm married and we have 2 children aged 8 and 5. Our 8YO is autistic and attends special school, our 5 YO is in reception at mainstream, the same class that our 8YO was in before getting a place at special school.

With the 8YO hos school do encourage family time when possible and allowed leave of absence I think it was 3 years ago when we last went away. Primary reasons for this was it's a quieter and and put 8YO is easier to manage. Will my youngest child school be allowing LOA if we cite this as a main reason.

We had no plans to go away again this year as mu wife has Huntingtons disease (yes I've banged on about this in past posts before) and she is getting no better, over the last 12 months she has had her hours and wage reduced at work dramatically, she pretty much (barley) covers only the shopping bill now. And I have worked full time since I was 17 (now 32) for Christmas this year my sister has paid for the 4 of us to go away on holiday for a week during term time. I cried when I opened the envolpole, its actually an all inclusive abroad holiday i never expected it and any holiday would have been maybe a weekend away, we havent been away as a family for 3 years and our youngest child asked a few times last year about a holiday as his friends were going.

Anyway, how strict/lenient are schools about this issue as I would rather not get a fine.

Put the request in. You can only try!

Good luck, have a wonderful time. Certainly sounds like you deserve it.

I wouldn’t think twice about this, they can’t stop you. They can fine you but not stop you. You can only ask for it to be authorised.

Enjoy the holiday and how lovely is your sister?!

An ex colleague was in a similar situation with a child in a special school and a NT child in mainstream. They were always authorised holidays so I would definitely ask.
Plus even if they don't authorise it, would you actually be fined?

@nicknacky I just want to avoid a fine TBH as that would cover our youngest passport, the others are in date but a year (after our return date)

She is amazing, totally out of the blue, it's to the place where I had my first abroad holiday

I get you want to avoid the fine, but you might get one.

TBH, I’d just say they’re ill to avoid the risk.

@Thehop thanks, really excited myself to be honest, already on countdown for it :)

@Mistletoadsandwhine I will request this week definitely, perhaps later In the week once staff have settled a bit. I always hear horror stories about these type of scenarios

Depends on the school. Request it and see what they say.

REquest a holiday form. It will probably be denied. Go anyway they might charge they might no. (If it,s worth the charges depends on the holiday price and the alternative price.) I had one school charge and one not.

If you do get fined, it will be after you return.
Just write a letter outlining what you've said here, and attach it to the holiday request form from school.

Depends on the school! Some do, some dont.
At my DC primary school many parents take the children out for one week of the year and just pay the fine.

Gosh. Your family deserves a holiday. Absolutely go for it. My children’s school doesn’t fine families, but it’s registered as an unauthorised absence . Which in truth means nothing! I think any school or LA who fined you in your circumstances would be callous. Go and enjoy a well earned break 😀

We took our dd (8 yrs) abroad in September for good reason. Our school fines if you miss > 4.5 days so if you could get your child in for the register on the day you go you might just prevent a fine. The fine is £60 per parent (£120) if your pay within 21/28? days where we are. I’d just factor it in to costings just in case. I’d do it again tho if I needed to.

Request it and highlight the exceptional circumstances, at worst they say no and they refer you to the LA for a fine. FWIW, my DC school only refer to the LA if an unauthorised absence takes the child's overall attendance below 92%.

I have two DC with ASD who can't cope with how busy most places are in peak periods and DH is limited on when he can take leave from work, we have a term time holiday most years as it's rare his leave coincides with the school holidays and it is always approved as authorised absences under the exceptional circumstances criteria.

You can appeal the fine too as far as I'm aware. A friend was taking her DC to visit their father who lives abroad, the only available outbound flight was two days before school ended and the only available return was two days after it resumed (half term week). She was referred to the LA for a fine and when it arrived she rang up and explained the circumstances then emailed them proof of what she had explained, LA wrote the fine off.

Depending on the local authority, schools have very strict rules about what they can authorise... Which is basically nothing. However, in my local authority the fine is triggered at 5 days off in a term (10 sessions,as each day is 2 sessions). Schools don't 'choose' to fine you, they are legally required to do so when the trigger point of unauthorised absence is reached. So if you ask for authorised absence they are likely to say no, but if it is below 10 sessions the trigger won't be reached anyway. However, there are other things an absence can go down as in the register, such as illness, which wouldn't trigger a fine. But schools can't do that in full knowledge of you going away on holiday. What you could do is say your child is I'll, rather than applying for authorised leave. If the school is understanding of your circumstances they could turn a blind eye.

Having said that, your circumstances may be viewed as exceptional and they may grant leave. Just bare in mind that if they deny it and then you say your child is ill, it makes it very difficult for them to turn a blind eye.

You can only ask but I would be surprised if they authorised this.

Your local council should have a note on when they will fine parents. My local council only does at 10 days in the year (from memory) but others may do less.

I have to say though that whilst it is very kind of your sister to pay for a holiday, she has put you in a tough position by just buying this without your agreement. But that by itself will not be extenuating circumstances in my personal experience.

Ask for exceptional circumstances, resign yourself to the idea you might get fined, and deal with it as it comes.

If your eldest’s school will likely authorise it, then at least it is only 1 DC to worry about. They’re in reception- a lot of schools would turn a blind eye to this if they could get away with doing so - i.e. they might not ‘authorise’ it officially but they would not draw the LA’s attention to it unless they had to (if the school’s attendance figures are generally poor or under review for instance).

If you did get fined there would be a period of time in which to save up - and I bet your sister would rather lend you the fine money to have you enjoy your holiday. I’d pay the fine, if it were my sibling and I’d already paid the cost of a holiday.

@UpperLowercaseSymbolNumber I HAVE TO SAY THOUGH THAT WHILST IT IS VERY KIND OF YOUR SISTER TO PAY FOR A HOLIDAY, SHE HAS PUT YOU IN A TOUGH POSITION BY JUST BUYING THIS WITHOUT YOUR AGREEMENT.

I really bet your fun at parties. She can probably see how worn I am, how I'm mentally on my last thread, how tired and repetitive my life is, how routine has bitten hard and I'm starting to loose myself in amongst everything going around in my head as I have literally nobody else around. How scared I am about my family health and financial security. How many appointments I've been in with my eldest child, been told hes not this and hes bot that, hes not not at certain levels etc. I've been in enough tough situations, this IS NOT a tough situation at all.

The situation is this we ARE going, that's not debatable. The only concern I have is can I expect a fine.

To the rest of you guys.. thanks for the comments. Goodnight all. X

I've done this once with exceptional circumstances and had the schools blessing I spoke to the headteacher before I applyed explaining why and got his thoughts on the situation. Because dc are not in what schools deem the important years it should make it easier.

I’d be very surprised if this wasn’t authorised, it does seem to vary a lot by school and county. The county I’m in hardly give any fines out.
I’ve had a week authorised for reasons to do with a parents health, to go on a family holiday.

No school is allowed to approve holidays so in some cases, it's best to not request and just go.

They'll only issue a fine if trout child has been absent from school regularly and their overall attendance figure drops in to what's classed as "persistent absence".

When is the holiday? If before September, education isn't mandatory in reception. Many summer-born children's parents withhold them from entering school until Year 1, so they shouldn't be able to fine for the younger DC.

I’m a teacher and providing the Holiday doesn’t fall on important dates like SATS which obviously it won’t for the age of your children then our school generally approves them ☺️

I wouldn’t worry about fines too much either, providing there aren’t huge attendance issues it’s not really worth the time reporting to the LA

Have a lovely holiday :)

Once a Summer born starts school it becomes mandatory, they don’t let you pick a he choose once they enrolled.
When I requested a holiday the head asked me to come in to explain in more detail, then said she’d speak to the school attendance officer (I think that was the title) and that she’d try to authorise it as a one off. I then got a letter sent home saying they were authorising it.