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).

We have traveller families who do this every year for June and July when they go on the road. They used to get authorised absence but the LA cracked down on that so they just de-register for the second half of the summer term and re-register for September. It’s not a problem generally.

No, they double it if you don't pay quickly enough.

Which regulations are they trying to tighten?

what an unbelievably ridiculous idea. Honestly, how on earth can you think this is a better plan then just paying the fine?! 🤯

@NameChange547 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?

Yes, it's ridiculous. And shameful.

You do realise that if you start home educating your children you will need to be visited by the local authority with evidence of your educational structure and lesson plans? When we did this we probably took it more seriously than you have to, but it was still a proper interview.

You would also be teaching your children that it is okay to be deceitful and to lie to people in authority in order to get your own way.

Be a grown-up and pay the fine. Even better, be a responsible grown-up and don't take them on holiday in term time.

OP not been back?

Take a look at the latest HE consultation and new guidance online. If you're a home educator, you'll find links in the groups, if not, you'll find it on gov.uk

This is incorrect - as far as the parent is concerned they are legally deregistered the moment the deregistration letter is received. You can send a "failure to deregister" notice to the school thereafter if they try to insist that you are still linked.

However, because the council would rather everyone was in a mainstream school rather than any of the other available options, they do tend to have policies that you can change your mind for up to 10 school days (2 weeks) and they will 'hold your place' until then, rather than immediately offering it to someone on the waiting list that afternoon. This is presumably what you are thinking of.

@tachetastic your information is incorrect. Currently, there is NO requirement to have a visit, no requirement to have lesson plans, no requirement to have educational structure. Please educate yourself before spreading misinformation about UK HE guidelines.

£60 per parent, per child which goes up to £120 per parent, per child if you dont pay quickly.

Worth it to save £1000’s on a holiday and really not worth the effort of un-enrolling your child out of school for.

@Isitautumnyet23

How does that work with split parents? What if one parent just takes the kids away on their day for a holiday which goes into scho time without permission from the other parent or with the other parent disagreeing?

Would you be fined if your ex just took the kid son holiday despite you saying no?

@ReadingSoManyThreads

Yes, I read the proposals. There's very little change - a voluntary register, including literacy and numeracy, some limited data sharing pertaining to safeguarding and a check on school off-rolling. I'd be very worried about any parent that objected to any of that. Weird.

Not sure as im not a single parent. But I can’t imagine they fine both parents if they are not both on the holiday and the school knows the parents are not together. I’m sure somebody on here knows though.

We home educated three children for three years. Please do not tell me what we did and did not do.

I thought you were going to say for an extended holiday. Like you wanted to take your child off for a couple of months for a one in a life time experience.

For a fortnight I would pay a fine!

Yeah, don't do that. Just pay the fine. It's a waste of time and paperwork for all involved

Pretty much what I was thinking…

I’m not sure anyone is genuinely this dense.

I did not tell you what you did or did not do. I told you that there are no requirements to do these things, as you told the person there was in your comment.

Are you a home educator @Hobbi ?

I'm wondering if you understand the full impact of the proposed changes. There is more to it than you've stated, and there are certainly concerning changes, especially to those with children with SEN.

Not surprised you NC’d for this, what a spectacularly stupid idea

@ReadingSoManyThreads

Which proposals are 'concerning'?

I'd be concerned that they've backtracked on compulsory registration and that they're not funding LAs to fulfil their extra responsibilities but I'd be interested to see what you find concerning.

Our LEA is so clogged up they prioritise fining those it will make an impact on, regular non attenders. You would seriously piss off the HT if you took him out over the school census date as if there is a child less on the roll that day the school would lose about 3k of funding, maybe more.

Okay, so when we took our children into home schooling, we met with the local authority to discuss our plans and the structure of our children's home education. This was extremely beneficial and personally I think was the responsible way forward, working with the local authority. This started back in 2015 and continued to 2018, and we met with the local authority frequently to ensure that our home education was of the highest possible standard.

But maybe you are right in terms of obligation. It also strikes me you are possibly missing the point about just how irresponsible the OP's plan is simply to get a cheap holiday, but fine. Yes.

What you are saying is definitely how a lot of LAs try to present the requirements for allowing them to check that a home educated child is receiving the "full time education suited to their age, aptitude and ability, including any SEN" that they are entitled to.
It is also possible for them to satisfy this duty by not having any face-to-face meetings and instead having you write an annual report on what you have done the previous year, explaining the progress made by the child.

I didn't ask you what you did. It's not my business. I was only correcting misinformation.

I'm not sure how you think I was possibly missing the point when I made it very clear that her hair-brained idea was a dick move and shouldn't be done. Perhaps brush up on your comprehension skills, as you've misunderstood all of my comments.