Term time holiday help

[supermario10]

Feeling really guilty ... taking my Reception and year 2 children out of school for 7 days ... we'd given it some thought but now I'm starting to feel like I wish I'd never booked it !!! Has anyone been fined ?? And if so, where abouts are you?

Enjoy !!!!

Hahaha ahh thanks so much 💕xx

We're going on a term time holiday, explained why to school, and they've authorised the absence. Fill the form in with your reasons, the worst scenario is that they won't authorise it but just go anyway and have a lovely time. In my area they don't fine you unless the absence puts your child into the 'cause for concern' category.

I think that's 92% or less.

Honestly at tgat age go and enjoy .

We did it twice and would have done it again last year because of covid. DD normally has 100% attendance and there were lots of children in her year with very poor attendance. They never fined us.

Now my friend did mis-read the school holidays and took hers out for 2 weeks and they weren’t happy, still didn’t fine her.

She’s in secondary now so no chance!

At primary and those ages it should be okay. I only did it once after DH died and we just had to get a break but school were okay. DC was a 100% attendee though and to be honest missing 2 days at aged 8 at that part of the school year, the impact was minimal to everything else she was facing.

Just to add, I know that there is a temptation to think 'a few days do not hurt' but learning is often building blocks. Schools are not resourced to go back and repeat a missed lesson and often one or two can really impact. So whilst one lesson may seem like nothing, in STEM subjects for example, it can be a real struggle to catch up as the class moves on because they have missed a key lesson and nothing makes sense. It is not impossible but much harder and asking for work to be sent home etc is not the same.

@BlatantlyNameChanged what did you give as reasons if you don't mind me asking? Xx

My dd is in secondary and definitely wouldn’t enjoy missing any school!

I’m reluctant to do it with yr 2 Ds either because although his attendance is amazing (nearly 100% if no 100%) he struggles with some things.

That said I think it’s an individual decision for families, especially at the moment.

I told them that it was our cancelled holiday from last year and we didn't have a great deal of choice over dates because of the increased demand for UK holidays this year, that we need the away time due to lockdown, and that DH is a keyworker so that's the easiest time for him to get leave.

We used to take the kids out for a week each year before covid. Always told the school where we were going and that we appreciated that it was not for an exceptional reason. They were always unauthorised absences but we’ve never been fined, and our kids generally have 100% attendance other than that week.

We’re taking them out in January for a few days at the start of term. Daughter is now at secondary school, so I’m thinking we may get a fine. But still saves a fortune on our holiday, so I’ll suck it up.

We took our then 5 year old out for 2 weeks in 2019 for a holiday. School refused to authorise it, which I knew they would. We got a fine about a month after we got back but it was worth it as the same holiday would have been double to price in school holidays.