To unenrol my child to take them on holiday?

[NameChange547]

DC attends an undersubscribed, small village school. There are 17 children in the class, and they can take up to 30, so I’m not concerned about us losing our place. Is there anything legally to stop me unenroling my child from school, ‘home educating’ them for two weeks on holiday, and then re-enrolling them back in school, to avoid being fined?

DC is high achieving and I’m not concerned about the academic impact. They appear to spend a fair amount of the school day relearning things they already know like phonics (DC can read fluently).

It sounds a bit bonkers as you aren’t home educating them! Just pay the fine.

What's the point though? Just pay the fine.

Children have to be kept 'on roll' for a number of weeks after they leave, until they start at another school. Removal to homeschool has a process for off rolling too. So chances are, you'd still face a fine as it would take more than the two weeks!

Really silly and a waste of school staff and local authority time.

Waste of resources. Just pay the fine.

Yeah just pay the fine. Or don't take a holiday in term time. But it's ridiculous to unenroll for this.

Sounds a bit of a faff tbh. I’d just take them out, have the Unauthorised Absence and pay the fine if there was one, which isn’t definite.

Why would you bother? 😕

Massive waste of everyone else's time and energy.

Surely it would take a bit of time to re-enroll them after your holiday and they wouldn't be able to waltz back in after the 2 weeks, meaning they will end up missing more school time. Just pay the fine if you want to take them out during term time.

Schools are meant to take a child off the roll without any delay if you deregister. I guess they might take their time re-enrolling so you could end up home edding for longer than you intend plus you probably wouldn’t be favourite parent which could be uncomfortable in a small school.

Depending upon when you take your cheaper holiday, you could tip them over into closing down. And then you wouldn't have a school at all (nor anybody else).

Just pay the fine and don't gamble with the other kids' education.

YABU just go on holiday and accept that the absence will be recorded as unauthorised. You may not be fined.

I imagine you’d piss the school off more by unenrolling them due to the administration associated with this. Just pay the fine.

The fine is £120 total for two parents (if you pay straight away) per child. And not all schools fine. You save quadruple that on the cost of a holiday going in term time.

The fine has no after effects.

Just pay it.

The only reason to unenroll and re-enroll realistically is to appease your own parental guilt. But really, there is no need. Just pay the fine and go on holiday.

Just go on the holiday and don't worry about it. You may or may not get fined.

Isn't the cost about £60? I'm not sure what you earn an hour, but the admin and time involved in sorting that has to cost more?

Yep YABU.

That’s incorrect, once removed to home educate then that’s that.

It would probably be a faff though @NameChange547, you would have to go through the process of reapplying- even if the school has space there will be all the forms and gubbins to deal with, and depending on which LA you are in they might start contacting you for visits and things that you would at least have to respond to when they went back or they might well keep calling you (there isn’t a lot of joined up thinking between the departments!).

I'd be pissed off with you if I had to do the admin for that, when it's clear what you are doing!

This is just stupid. I’m so glad we don’t get fined in Scotland since it’s causing people to think this sort of nonsense and admin headache is acceptable.

Just pay the fine.

Just pay the fine. Deregistering and re-enrolling isn't quite the process you think it is. You won't just be able to take him off roll on the Friday, then get him back in the Monday you come back. Plus a massive waste of lots of people's time doing all the paperwork.

Same. Your re-application would definitely not be a priority!

Don’t go in term time or pay the fine

This is what I was thinking...if I were the admin at the school I'd feel like misplacing your re-application!

Will you do this every time you go on a holiday during the school term? You will majorly piss off the school, it’s definitely not worth it!

What are you going to do with the children after the 2 week holiday when they still aren’t in school? Do you have childcare sorted?