Taking kids out of school for a term

[Whenthechipshitthefan]

Possibly the wrong place to post- if so sorry!
Has anyone had any success in taking their kids (legally!) out of school for a term or even a half term. I want to take 2 x DDs (Yr 4, Reception) to my mums country for a long stay. They don't know the culture and I'm aware that we are all losing that connection. The flights are expensive, and it takes at least 24hrs to get there. Its a big country so that if we go over I want them to see a lot, experience a lot and see everyone.

Has anyone applied and been successful? Is it just headteacher opinion that matters? What can I promise to keep their place and not get taken to court. Happy to pay a fine!

This is incorrect. I work in a school.

I agree with the others that say go for a month and use half term plus 2 weeks. I'm guessing a remote African country.

Not a private school, 3 years ago.

I regularly overstayed abroad (I am self-employed) with dc. It was glorious. Good in every aspect apart from the price we had to pay - underperformance by dc in final year of school with consequences - forget about your uni of choice. Our minor school was indulgent, they were struggling and scared to lose full-fee paying parents, but I would not do it now if I were to go back in time - I can't put my finger on when this underperformance started - maybe it started as early as primary, it is difficult to pin it to a concrete date. I hope if you go, you won't be like us - just chilling and your dc will learn the language of the country, i.e. there will be some educational benefit to make up for the absence.

We took a family sabbatical last year and took the kids out of school for summer term (year 5 and year 3) to spend some time living in France and travelling. They came off roll and we notified LA we were homeschooling. The HT was broadly supportive (keen on languages/sympathetic to our wish to expose kids to other cultures) but couldn’t keep places open. Best she could do was indicate she’d be minded to exercise discretion to réadmit them above the school’s Published Admission Number provided they were next on Waiting list at point of decision. We immediately reapplied for the Sep term to max chances on the waiting list. Kids were both re admitted though we had prepared (inc with them) for them not to be, at least not immediately. But we figured life is short and we wanted them to know it’s ok to take risks/manage uncertainty. They’ve just finished years 6 & 4 and both exactly where they should be academically (older aced SATS) and richer for the experience. As are we. Go for it!

This is so true. Imagine how they will feel when they are back and out of the loop. The younger one will have missed out on critical phonics teaching. The older one will find maths hard as it builds on previous learning. The poor teacher and stretched school staff will be left to mop up the pieces. I am a teacher.

You can do it but there is nothing you can do or say that will allow your school to simply just let you go and hold your children’s places for when you choose to come back. It’s just not how the system works.
your younger ones place is likely to be the biggest issue as at that age the class sizes are legally limited. There is no wiggle room to admit one extra.

They can't stop you.
Worst case scenario is they don't authorise it and you have to withdraw them and reapply when you get back and it may be they will not get back into the same school.

@Whenthechipshitthefan I would check with the school. My DC’s school (non academy village primary) permitted siblings to go abroad for a term last year. I think they did a house swap. The head saw the cultural benefits and supported the parents - I don’t know whether or not they got fined.

You can do this in Scotland. I appreciate it's no help to you. We did this for for 10 weeks over the winter, either side of the Xmas holidays. It didn't harm the DC at all in terms of their learning. In fact, they learnt so much while we were away.

We did this. Impossible to go in the summer because of mudslides and it takes 2-3 days of travelling at the best of times (3 flights and a long train journey). So we left at start of Feb half term and returned at the end of Easter holidays. Head couldn't/wouldn't keep the space for us, but fortunately we got both DC into the same school. Had to wait a week for DC2 but were confident it wouldn't be long as there were a group of travellers who used to come and go. So she had an extra week at home before they moved on. DC1 was year 4, DC2 was year 1. School didn't give us any work, but we used the time to get DC2 reading as she wasn't managing with phonics (hearing loss). She left on 2nd reading band and returned on the last one (8 or 10?). So I don't think it affected education in the slightest. There was much staff sulking before we left, but no one had any grounds to complain when we returned - there is so much timewasting at primary, that it doesn't take much effort to keep up/get ahead. Bought some maths workbooks from poundland for both DC as well. Much harder to take the time out as they children get older and school becomees more rigid, so I'm really glad we took the opportunity when we did.

I wondered something similar about taking my children out from school Our local authority won’t let families do it, however if you are part of the travelling community you can do it

I’m in Ireland and it’s not uncommon to do that here, especially in Primary school. Unless you live in the city where schools might be oversubscribed, you’re unlikely to lose your school place. I know a couple of parents who have done this.

We had a Y9/10 student do this last academic year for 1 term. But it was a condition that the other school send regular attendance updates. That allows the educated elsewhere mark to be confirmed.

Remove them from roll and say you will home school. That will deal with the fine issue and won’t cause absence issues for them.
Then reenroll when you return and hope there are places.

This. Although OP may not realise how disadvantaged children may be by missing half a term at any age. Don't be surprised if the children are then behind the rest of the class.
I once had a conversation with a head teacher who was very concerned that just one family with children who were behind could drag down school's ofsted results. This was a school who bent over backwards to help children who needed it, but the amount of work was not reflected / understood in ofsted report.

Still being very coy re where they want to go but this does not stop me thinking that Summer hols would be the best time - if they want children to learn about the culture that could include seeing how people deal with that time of year.
Maybe relatives could visit UK at other times.

@Whenthechipshitthefan

Your kids can have whatever experience you want them to have but you just need to be prepared for the fact that the school will cancel their places & there's no guarantee they'll get them back on their return. Times have changed & that's all there is to it.

Have we guessed Philippines or Indonesia yet? Not that it matters, just playing along.

What a load of codswallop. What about all the Traveller children who move around and dip in and out of education.

You should absolutely go for it! They are not missing anything in Reception and Year 4 that they won’t gain from cultural experience.

Go for it and enrol them when you return - it might be easier to get the schools blessing even if you have to enrol them again in case they get funny about it. What an experience for your DC!

Sounds very unlikely that the head would agree.

I think you’d need to deregister them and re-apply for your place on your return but don’t be surprised if this is a bit of a pain. If relationships with the school have soured they won’t make it easy for you. If the class has filled whilst you’re away they won’t be able to go back to their old school- they’d have to start in a new school and go on the waiting list. It’s pretty easy to work out how likely this is- I’d say that if the current classes your kids are in have 25 or less kids in, likely that there is no waiting list and you’ll get a place as soon as you get back. If the classes are currently full (29/30 kids) chances are there will be a waiting list and the class will be filled by someone else once you leave.

I don’t think the school is able to hold the place legally if your kids aren’t attending- the school gets money for each child on roll so it needs its places filled.

TBH I think this is all a bit crazy, as others have said what about the lessons they’ll miss. Are you going to do schooling whilst away? And even if they get the connection again now, are you going to risk doing it every few years as exactly the same thing will happen again (what about exam years).

I agree with others who said do month over Easter which is probably less than 10 days absence and pay the fine.

”Traveller” is a protected characteristic. We have to use a specific code for absences that we have to authorise due to this protected characteristic. Appleby Fair for instance. When they are “we’re taking them home to Ireland for a while” and it exceeds 20 days we have to report it to the LA and they are CME.

Could you not go for 8 weeks, and miss the last week of summer and the start of autumn terms?

Is the country one where FGM is prevalent, and do you have a daughter? If so, the school will likely contact the police/social services if you try to leave for an extended period.

I think it's irresponsible. The teachers will have to provide extra support when they return so they catch up, if they ever do (yours are young so they could). It sends the wrong message about the importance of education. Surely the six weeks of the summer holiday is plenty of time? I think it's a shame that parents increasingly sanction absence from school as if it is optional.

The biggest risk, as some say, is that they end up at different schools. Would you be able to cope with that?

Why is it a once in a lifetime? Cost?