Schools expelling students?

[Enigma007]

DH came home yesterday and mentioned that one of his work colleague is stuck in a red list country with his wife and 2 children. He can't return home because the hotel quarantine cost is too much.
Both children were attending full time school, year 8 and year 5. The school has emailed him saying they will take the children off the school register.

The children haven't been in school since end of march (when schools reopened) and when the country was placed on the red list, ticket prices were sky high and hard to get hold of. Is the school allowed to remove the children from the register? It feels a bit unfair because he's not stuck there by choice.

Before everyone starts bashing him saying he shouldn't have gone unless it was a reason allowed by the border force, he did leave the UK under the criteria set by the border force and had the evidence with him incase he had to prove it.

That isn’t expelled.
After three months of non attendance then they can be off rolled. I think this will be the first email (of many) explaining this rather than “oh it’s done now”.

So what have they been doing for education since?

If children are off with unauthorised absences for a long period of time then schools are allowed to withdraw the place. Hopefully when they do come back they will be able to reenrol at the same school if they still have places.

It’s tough but ultimately they did make the decision that travelling to a high risk country was a risk worth taking and this is the downside of that risk.

They haven’t been excluded but off rolled as someone has already said. Do you know how they have been educating them? At my school we’ve been told that we have to provide work for children who are isolating in this county after returning but if they are abroad we don’t need to. I don’t know if that a general rule everywhere. But in our case, that would mean that children hadn’t had any education from us since March so offrolling seems reasonable.

The way things are going wherever he is may be on the red list for a long time to come.

The DC will have missed a whole term of school on top of any C19 closures.

Does your friend have any plans in place if it is still on the red list in September?

I'm not sure what they have been doing for educational side of things. They went while the uk was in lockdown so everything was online so.im assuming the children did online learning like all the children in the UK were at that time.

But the online stuff ended in March. They are going to have missed over a term of education - how long do you think school should hold the place?

I expect they will have to re-enrol at a school on their return. Schools can't just keep places indefinitely for children who are not in the country.

Is the colleague stuck because he went on holiday or did his work send him?

They have been off rolled. The only reasons for travel were business or genuine emergency - the whole family travelling doesn't fit either scenario. They obviously took advantage of a loophole to go to India to see relatives, I know several who did and got stuck.

I didnt ask the inns and outs to be honest but I know he's not from India or Pakistan so let's get off that band wagon before we start bashing that community. And as far as travelling with his family, it was allowed when he left December.

And hotel quarantine was only introduced in February, and even as someone not travelling I know there was lots of talk about it before it happened, so I do find it quite hard to believe that they couldn’t have made arrangements to be back in the U.K. before that was introduced if they had wanted to

I don’t understand why he can’t return because of the quarantine costs surly the costs of being away since March and the fact that can’t work / school is a cost they are going to have to find . They could of been back months and your issue is with the school taking them off the register . What’s the plan stay there till they on the green list? Which could take months . They haven’t been to school this year that’s be my most concern.

So really they have not been in this country for 6 months now. I think it is more than reasonable of the school to have held their place this long tbh. It is not the schools fault they are stuck and can't afford to return. Can't they apply for educational provision in the country where they are stuck?

It honestly sounds like schooling is the least of their problems!

Yes they can deregister children. They have missed almost a term of schooling and are not resident. Presumably this more than one school if y8 and y5?

The children haven't been in school since end of march (when schools reopened

So where they in school up to that point?

Seems fair to me. If the children haven't been in school since March why should a place be kept for them?

Anyone who travels is risking things at the moment, if you aren't willing to take the risk then don't travel. If the travel wasn't work related then he needs to suck it up.

Schools are allowed to off roll pupils who have missed more than 20 school days. It’s a very unfortunate position but your friend and their family can return - they will just have to incur the costs. As a PP mentioned all remote learning ended in March so I think isolation costs are the least of their worries if they want education for their children. Unless they are home educating.

If they’ve been out of the country for six months, I think the school are reasonable.

He is not actually prevented from returning though, as in they could do it if they have the money. There isn't a ban. Surely when they do finally get back they just reapply, or is that not how it works?

So they left in December not end of March. And back in December it was very well known how bad the virus was everywhere and travel was not allowed except for exceptional circumstances, so they did not need to travel with the whole family and if they did, they would have known they needed to quarantine anyway with the children missing school then. But they didn’t care about that then.

When they left in December, they also surely would have had tickets to come back before the start of term in January because it wasn’t announced until 4th Jan that schools were going online.
Let me guess, they then decided to make the most of the remote learning and stay out there a little bit longer. Then got stung with being put on the red list and now claiming they cannot come back. Those are the risks you take. They are now past the time of a sense mentioned in the Education Act and because they cannot give a date as to when they will return, the school is allowed to off roll them.

@Iggi999bYes. When those children return they would apply to their LEA for a place. May not necessarily be the school they left if places have been filled but it’s LEA duty to find them a place.

Definitely not ‘expelled’.

So they went somewhere in December and haven’t returned.
Sounds like they had no intention of returning for the start of term in January, as the closure of schools wasn’t announced until basically they were due to go back. So the not in School since March is actually a red herring. They’ve not been in the UK to attend school since January.

He has a steady job as he's wfh so income isn't and issue for them to maintain living costs. Just asked dh why he left the UK in the 1st place. He said his father in law was terminal and given a month to live. He passed away in feb some time.

If you like I can ask the specific dates so we can make sure he can pin him and bash him on some small minute detail that we may or may not know about.

The schools are in an awkward position... They may waiting lists for those places. Is it fair they are kept indefinitely when other children may have no spaces?