To take my child out of school for 3 weeks?

[travelloverx]

We have a family wedding in January on the other side of the world - realistically, with travel time and maybe one or two days recovering from jet lag, he'd be off for almost 3 weeks.

He'll be 4, in reception, and won't be 5 until the summer.

Will I still get fined even though he is not at compulsory school age? Could I lose his school place if I take him out for 3 weeks straight unauthorised?

No you won't get fined as below CSA.
You may get a little bit of a grumpy headteacher. But to be honest I doubt they'll worry too much. I'd be upfront about it and discuss with them. Although I doubt they'll officially support, most decent school would be understanding and know they can't do anything. It's also for a family wedding not a holiday so they should understand even more.

Maybe ask the class teacher what they'll be covering and make sure you continue with reading/phonics a bit while away. Besides that have an amazing time. A 4 year old will get a hell of a lot more from.a 3 week adventure than 3 weeks in school anyway.

No you won't get fined and you won't lose the place as long as you are open and give a clear return date.

Thank you so much! Was very chuffed about my son getting into this school so wouldn't want to cause any issues

Any way you can push the dates to include the Christmas holidays or Feb half term, and reduce the time off slightly?

I took my son out of Reception for 2 weeks earlier this year to go to Australia.
What he got out of that trip benefitted him far more than 2 weeks in school, but having said that, he's fairly ahead in terms of academics. If he were struggling, we'd still have gone but I'd have done daily home ed during the holiday.
Enjoy your trip!

Have you got 2 threads open on thus? If not there's another one with the exact same details that you might look at for responses.