To think the penalties for term time absence is ridiculous..

[JKbowling]

I got this in my email inbox today, sent to all parents and guardians.

"Failure to safeguard a child's education" appearing on your DBS, really?

As for term time holidays. If a family can't afford to pay for their one measly UK break per year to be had during the 6 weeks holidays (because the prices are hiked right up and become unaffordable) how does school suppose said family is going to pay the fine?

Then it’s not much of a holiday. I just went on one of those. While it was nice it wasn’t a mental or physical break and I spent a lot of time cleaning up, cooking, washing up and shopping. Also cleaning like a mad woman on the last day so we didn’t get a crap review on Air B and B!

There is huge jumps in families now home educating.

We moved to home Ed because we had little.other choice. Despite years of fighting.the LA for the support child needed we got.no where.
Medical needs meant.high absence and a home tutor should have been provided legally. But LA never did this. SEN needs not met at all. During lockdown the bit.of work sent by school was inappropriate and not accessible to child. I was asked to plan my.own work aimed at child level.

After that's of fines for absence and all request for the childs assessment and documented needs to be supported being refused..we deregistered from school because

1. We were concerned about fines
2. Child was making.no progress
3. Child was terribly unhappy and stressed daily

We have also benefited from.home.ed as it means we can holiday in terms time. It is quieter and cheaper. The quieter environment means we can enjoy family time more as we have less autistic meltdowns.

You can afford what you can afford - my husband lost his job last year and we still managed an amazing summer. The memories you make have very little to do with how far you travel or how much you spend…

Lol. She posts almost exclusively with complaints about her job and/or profession. If other teachers disagree, she shuts them down.

it’s fine if that’s really her opinion (I do find it strange that her opinion is entirely the same as the teaching unions various and many complaints). we should have a healthy debate on mn and feel free to state our opinions. But let’s not pretend that one person’s opinion is anything more than one person’s opinion. She doesn’t speak for all teachers, just herself

Oh that must have been awful. You definitely deserve a cheap all-inclusive break in term time on that basis.

Maybe it’s a social media problem. In’t olden days when most people couldn’t afford to holiday abroad there was less of a feeling that they were missing out compared to those who could afford it. Now everything is an Insta or TikTok moment it is peer pressure between adults pushing the move towards foreign holidays in term time.

I don’t remember anyone at my school being taken out for a holiday in the 80s/90s although I guess the odd family must have done it. Most people I knew weren’t holidaying abroad.

We understandably don’t want our kids to miss out but I think a lot of people underestimate the breadth of experiences kids can receive from a simple U.K. camping trip or similar.

@noblegiraffe I think it’s important the kids attend school but I also think it’s massively valuable to have a couple of periods of time longer than 2-3 days each year where the whole family is off together. I’m sure there are plenty of parents who travel in term time solely to save money but there will be others who do it just because parents can’t manage to get the same school holiday weeks off as one another. We struggle with it as my OH has to block his time off up to a year in advance to be sure he can take it and I’m often not allowed to book more than 2-4 months out. So either OH books based on my best guess of when I won’t have project blackouts or we wait till my project blackouts are confirmed and risk those weeks being unavailable for him. It’s always hard in the school holidays as more people tend to want those weeks off both for holidays and for childcare. Anyway we have so far managed at least a few days off together every school year but I can totally sympathise that some people won’t be able to and understand why they want to take time out. I can think of other similar cases.

A policy that gives head teachers discretion allows them to look on a case by case basis and consider individual circumstances. Why are you against that approach vs penalising everyone? Why do you think people who favour that approach don’t value education?

I know im poor to we stay home most years Iv took my kids on holiday once this took 3 years to save for. They've missed one week of school in their whole education. I'm not going to apologise for that

It hasn't been removed. The School Attendance (Pupil Registration) Regulations 2024 still allow leave to be authorised if the head teacher thinks it should be "because of the exceptional circumstances of the request".

Not asking for apologies, just no complaints about the fine…

No the memories YOU make have little to do with how far you travel. People are different you see.

Being stuck in your house with teenagers who don’t like arts and crafts does not a holiday make!

Exactly. Some seem woefully behind on how stinkingly expensive this grey and wet island is.
We can't afford a day trip, never mind a UK holiday. £80 per person for an hour of archery or £120 for 30min of family GoKarting?

I'm thinking of saving up for a holiday, going term time and...not coming back.

let's give all teachers a term time week off and all parents/families as well. To be taken at a time of their choice. Then teachers might be less stressed and more open to the benefits it brings to students and low income families. (slightly sarcastic).

I'm allowed to not agree with something, thank you very much

No idea what you mean by the latter part. The point is, children should prioritise work and education and that should be instilled into them at an early age. Lifting them out of school for 2 weeks promotes the wrong attitude.

When you put it like that........

My husband is 46. He used to be taken out of school to go on hols to Spain and Disney world.
don’t think it’s an IG thing. It’s always happened.

Or we should prioritise good health and mental health

Why can’t people prioritise leisure, enjoyment and pleasure if they want to? Why do they all have to be taught to prioritise bloody work which for most people is boring, unrewarding and largely pointless makework?
I like my job but I do it so I can afford lovely things that give me pleasure.
Such a corporate slave mentality!

the wrong attitude for being a wage slave? I'd argue that children who go on more holidays have more idea of the size of the world, and the opportunities in it. More impetus to give themselves a life they love and enjoy and pursue a career and lifestyle they love other than working in a crap job doing something they hate. No I'm not saying they shouldn't work hard. but school and working for others isn't the be all and end all of education, money, career and life.

Posters may be saying this, but the evidence is that there is a direct link between attendance and attainment. Clearly a child that has 30 or 40 absences in a year will suffer more than a child who only has a 2-week holiday, but no link has been found between the reasons for a holiday and attainment. In broad terms, 10 days off every year equates to half a grade dropped at GCSE.

you say kids nowadays are all about me me me. And that taking them out of school to go on hols makes them feel that way. I’d think that what happens overall In a year is what makes them believe they’re entitled, not only if they go on hols in school time

maybe because school isn't the right place for that child in particular? maybe that child hates school, it makes them anxious. Maybe they would achieve better grades home educated, or in a different setting? Correlation is not causation. Grades are not everything to everyone.

I don’t really get what all the angst is for these new rules, other than it raising the subject again about school absence - because for the vast majority of people who may take their children out of school in term time the new rules make very little difference at all, but from many comments on here it’s clear that lots of people are unaware of that.

Some local authorities varied in how they applied the old rules, but if you are in a typical English local authority and you take your child out for a weeks holiday in term time once each year then the only difference is that the fine has increased £20 per child/parent. Given price rises etc that’s hardly much to get worked up about.

Then consider that actually the new rule on second fines and the 3 year period, it’s actually a clearer position and better than was the case for many people under the old rules. Certainly in my English local authority it is, as the old rules were 1 fine every 2 years, if you did a week term time holiday again within the 2 years it was a court summons, no second fine. The new rules are actually an improvement for those parents overall as can do it more often (3 times in every 4 years, rather than 2 times every 4 years) in the knowledge of avoiding court summons. Yes the new second fine is higher, but considerably less punitive than a court summons under the old rules at that point.

What few comments have recognised is that a key change is the time period the absences are counted in - it doesn’t apply to just consecutive days of absence now, all unauthorised absence over a 10 week period will be pooled together. Meaning that the new rules now capture the people who have persistently taken their children out on odd days eg around the school holidays. Up until now they have avoided the fines even when overall their children will have same or lower attendance percentage than a child that had 1 week off in one go. Those people are pissed because up until now they have dodged the fines but it will now catch up on them and they will get fined. But surely that is fair and they should be treated the same because the result on their child’s attendance level is the same as those that have been getting fined previously,

Very much this. We think everyone is out on amazing adventures all the time and feel like we are just as entitled.

you make your own fun - at home or abroad - and while it is undoubtedly fun to get away and do something completely different, there are a million ways to have an amazing family holiday without even staying in a hotel.