To tell school teen is unwell instead..?

[HardHatWearer]

We’re taking our 2dc to Norway for a long weekend (Thur-Sun) next month. This means taking them both out of school for 2 days (Thu\Fri). Youngest is at primary and have already told them dc10 won’t be attending those two days and am expecting them to tell me it’s unauthorised. If we get a fine, so be it.

Pondering what to do about dc14 - haven’t yet told the school as they are incredibly strict and last time we needed to take time out for a funeral (grandparent!) they took a long time to approve it and asked 101 questions, which felt very OTT considering it was a close family death (and they weren’t asking for proof, just being extremely officious). So this time I am thinking we might just say dc is unwell and get on with our lives.

For context:

• dc14 is never off, never sick and has had barely no time off school since starting age 4 (not even a full week once). Just the odd day or two for a bad stomach bug and Covid once.
• the trip is not moveable - it’s paid for by my work and needs to be on these dates. Or we wouldn’t be doing it.
• we’re going to big city and will visit many cultural attractions.

Hard hat is on…👷🏻‍♀️👷🏻‍♀️👷🏻‍♀️

You don't want your child's teacher to have a warm and friendly relationship with your child where they chat about their lives? Weird.

Safeguarding is a mandatory responsibility for all teachers and keeping secrets is a red flag they know to look for. Sorry if teachers wanting to keep your child safe is a problem for you, but it's the law.

Thanks all, am still undecided! But erring on the side of just telling them, we’re doing this and I realise it will be unauthorised. I just want to avoid getting into a back and forth of justification etc..

I'd just tell them.
If you ask the kids to lie you are teaching them lying is ok. When it really isn't.

Your are more likely to need to justify two days off sick.

if you are happy with it being unauthorised just tell them what you are doing.

Model the right response to your child which is to own what you are doing and taking him out of school!