To invoke the ‘otherwise’ option for school absence?

[KuanKaKu]

AIBU to send this letter in and request temporary de-registration?
WWYD if you are a Headteacher and received this?
Dear Headteacher,
I am writing to inform you that for the period xxx 2026 to xxx 2026 inclusive, my children, [Child’s Name(s)], will be receiving their education otherwise than at school, in accordance with Section 7 of the Education Act 1996, which places the legal duty for securing a suitable education on me as the parent.
Section 7 states that:
“The parent of every child of compulsory school age shall cause him to receive efficient full-time education suitable to his age, ability and aptitude, and to any special educational needs he may have, either by regular attendance at school or otherwise.”
During this period I will be exercising the “otherwise” option. As such, my children will not be attending school between these dates. You may therefore treat them as temporarily deregistered for this period, as their education is being lawfully provided by me.
This is not a permanent withdrawal. My intention is for them to return to school-based provision on xxx 2026.
For clarity:
Parents are the duty-holders under Education Act 1996 s.7 with the right to elect for education “otherwise”.
Elective Home Education does not require the school’s permission (DfE Elective Home Education Guidance, 2019).
Temporary periods of home education are legally valid where the parent is providing suitable education under s.7.
Compulsory school attendance requirements under s.444 apply only where the parent is relying on school attendance to discharge the s.7 duty, which is not the case during this period.
Please confirm receipt of this notification for your records.

On behalf of the home ed community, we don't claim whatever the hell @KuanKaKu is doing 🙅‍♀️

This would be very disruptive for children to find that they are in random schools on random days or not in at all depending on the whims of the parents. Most schools don't teach the same curriculum or even the ones that do won't teach them in the same order, so they will be missing out on large chunks of their education and duplicating others.

There's a reason why the travelling community often leave school with poor results.

If you do this there's a high chance the school place won't be there when you want to return. The money you deregister it goes to the next pupil on the list.

That wasn't what I meant. I meant, if she proceeds as intended, OP will be forced into home educating on return from the 10 day trip, unless another victim school willing/able to register the kids mid-term can be identified.

And then she'll need the collective wisdom of the great and the good over at the HE board. .

@KuanKaKu the current attendance is awful if you have a child who doesn’t fit the system and suffers anxiety etc so forgive me if I have absolutely no sympathy for those who want to change for a term time holiday

but the system isn’t antiquated it is new and the current 2024 version is even more awful than before but isn’t something the present Government will change and the obsession with attendance isn’t

Just pay the bloody fine @KuanKaKu. If you’re so desperate for a holiday you want your children to miss 2 weeks of school, it’s cheaper to go during term time and pay the fine, than it is to go during the 13 weeks they got off school each academic year.

Responding to the comments that ‘the world has changed’ and that schools need to change with them… well, yes they do. We no longer have the majority of families structured around one SAHM, living a few streets along the road from Auntie or their mum who can help with childcare. We no longer work in the local fields, factories, mines or even in the local offices of professional services in the high street over the butchers.

People work longer hours and travel further and have no choice but to pay extortionate childcare costs - on top of high utilities and mortgages [they also used to more normally rent in the past]. Holidays never happened, unless they were camping/caravanning.

So how should schools adapt? By letting people take holidays/absences when parents get the whim? Citing misunderstood passages of law in their defence?

Well, no. If they really want to change with the times, they need to have extended hours and operate 50 weeks of the year. Summer school programmes to help those who are lagging behind, with child care and extension programmes to support working families. I’m not saying it needs to be fully educational, operated and run by teachers, but - as they do in the US, where teaching is 8-2pm and 2-6pm is drama, sports, band, leadership/mentoring programmes for minority groups etc - we need to revolutionise education, pay teachers a professional salary and expand the offerings within schools.

Yes the world has changed and yes we need to change our approach to education accordingly… but allowing families to dip in and out of education when it suits them is not the answer.

I actually think any reform should have a wider scope - education reform should go hand in hand ideally with family life balance reform.

You don’t just want to make school days longer for child care reasons.

I do get that, but what we have right now isn’t working. I do feel that we need to drastically revisit how education and childcare dovetail in a society where both parents need to work, where parenting is often split across two households due to separation/divorce, and where we no longer have extended family hubs to fall back on. I have no idea what the solution is, but the conversation needs to be had, surely?

Even if there isnt a law specifying you cant temporarily deregister, there also isnt one that says the school has to allow a temporary deregistering.

You absolutely can remove them, the school cant stop you but legally it it doesn't HAVE to have them back just because you added in a date you want that to happen.

You can't hold the space.

You have to deregister and risk the space being given to another child who will actually use it.

Have now rtft

Urgh quit whining!

You don't need to go skiing so all this shit about fitting certain activities in to half terms is entitled shite.

The vast majority of people live & work somewhere and send their children to school locally. People moving constantly for short stints is a tiny minority of people. The vast majority of people manage to fit an annual family holiday into the 13 weeks of school holiday available (why yes, it is 1 in 4 weeks a year). The vast majority of people are quite happy their child taught maths skills. I regularly use mine at work and in life - its handy spotting in the supermarket that two for £3.50 is not a great deal when they are £1.70 each, and that. The vast majority of people understand that "flexi schooling" and having constant underutilised capacity in schools for children whos parents may or may not send them in, if they feel like it, is a) costly and b) ineffective as a means of providing academic education c) a nightmare for teachers trying to ensure that those children with piecemeal attendance can follow whats being covered in the class given they missed the last two sessions....

I live in Scotland and you can’t just take your kids out of school for two weeks. There are no fines, yes, but that’s not the most important thing. You need permission to miss school and it’s not given for everything. I took my kids out for 2 weeks in 2021 as I hadn’t been able to travel to my home country during covid so my children’s’ grandparents hadn’t seen them for 3 years. My children were 5 and 8 at the time and we had to get permission from the council - the head teacher couldn’t even approve it.

Damn, that must be some holiday deal you’ve scored to warrant that pile of guff.

You can it just goes through as an unauthorised absence. I’m sure in some cases it can be problematic if kids are repeatedly off. Generally though as a one off holiday/ ski trip / trip to visit distant relatives it’s just accepted so long as kids aren’t behind.

I think they will require you to be more specific with the provision under section 7 so be prepared . I also think they will formally have to take your children off roll, however depending on your relationship with the school, previous attendance, need for places they might informally agree to take them back on the date you specified. Good luck

and what are you exactly? You’re the one comparing me to a circus performer with zero reasoning for that! I presume you are trying to be insulting?! I’m sure you’re lovely too ….

OP, what are your thoughts now, after having read all the replies to you? Are you going to email the headteacher what you wrote in your first post, or have you changed your mind?

Are you prepared to risk not getting the school places back when you return from your holiday, and have you thought about what that will mean?

Are you going to continue to campaign for change once you return from your holiday?

Why bother trying to get the logics and laws across when OP's record is stuck and she isn't listening?
If it means that much to you OP set up a petition and forward it to parliament.

If multiple kids took 10 days without penalty it would be carnage and to the detriment of the kids that don’t. Out school absolutely fly through the curricula and I don’t think teachers should need to take time out of teaching the class to catch kids up who missed 2 weeks when they were taught long division or coordinating conjunctions.

it’s a nice ideal for some perhaps but it’s just not practical in classes of 30. If you want this pay and send your kids to private school. Or homeschool yourself and take charge of their education holistically. I don’t think picking and choosing should be an option. I firmly believe your ideal would do a huge disservice to me and my kids.

Plus I didn’t think the Australian education system was much to be heralded - my understanding was it’s pretty poor for a developed country?

My kid has SEN and has days where he is "educated off site" or receiving education otherwise. Eg. He would be overwhelmed by sports day, so that day he received his education having a long nature walk with me instead.

The key to making it work is to communicate openly and work with the school, not to take the piss and used word salad based on how you think the rolled should work.

Thanks for your question, my stance is I 100% do not agree with paying a penalty notice for providing your children with genuine additional opportunities such as holidays, within term time if the time taken out of school is limited and/or includes an existing school holiday e.g. turning 2 weeks and 1 day at Easter into 3 weeks (term time absence = 4 days) and the Government should not be treating families who do this in a controlled way, in the same way as those who allow their children to be absent as and when /or have no interest in their children's attendance. The one size fits all approach needs rethinking....so in answer to your question, I think the OP revised inline with useful comments provided, additional research etc...is more useful as a tool to try and instigate change at a higher level than an individual school. Although if there is a genuine loop hole for instance if a place does need to be held for 10 days post notification of de-registration then a revised version of the OP is probably perfectly useable (I'm not 100% clear if we got to the bottom of whether the place is cancelled immediately) however I am on pretty good terms with our Head, having campaigned for useful changes within school and these having been made...so no (sorry for the long winded answer!) I'm not going to burn bridges - yet!

(I'm not 100% clear if we got to the bottom of whether the place is cancelled immediately) I have answered that further up and provided you with the act.

It would be illegal for the school NOT to remove the child's name from their attendance roll 'when that day has passed.'
When their name is removed from the attendance roll, their legal right to attend that school (subject to behavior and reasonable attendance) ends.

(This is why the practice of schools forcibly 'off rolling' SEN and troublesome children is such a big deal, as the child no longer has a school place or right to all sorts of things)

'That day' is the day you remove your DC as you have now elected to home educate them. (for whatever period)
In what you are proposing, your 'beginning' of your assumed ten days date.

Honestly you are barking up the wrong tree with the way you are trying to abuse the Education otherwise than through registered schools (state or private)
education rights system. Partly because you will find so many parents who agree with flexibility will be against you messing up the system they often have to fight so hard over, and not putting your Dc's needs first, by actually securing an education that is amenable to family time out.

There are, and will be other ways to push for what you want, and rights to flexi school etc, where you wont be alienating your natural possible supporters, potentially trying causing mayhem to other DC's education, (in school and otherwise) and potentially attracting SS interest by the 'red flags a flying' way you are attempting to do it.

If you'd started the thread a different way, you'd find plenty of supportive discussion, rather that WTentitledF? you've had from a fair few.