taking children out of school for holidays is ILLEGAL

[zippitippitoes]

interesting news report here \link{http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2075270,00.html\ High Court Ruling}

so will anybody still be taking those unauthorised breaks and days off?

Will schools get tougher

and does your school say no at the moment?

Week even, not wee lol

Our holiday this year (havn't been away since 2003) will be in April in the Easter break. My kids will miss 3 days of school as we are home 2 days after they go back.They have never been taken out of school before but as we are having baby no4 in July we can't go any later than April.I'm not planning to ask the heads permission at all,but i will be writing a letter to tell both heads they will be back 3 days later than everyone else.

I will be taking ds1 out of school this summer during term time, it has nothing at all to do with saving money on a holiday as im a travel agent and get good discounts all year round. Because of the nature of my work, the school holidays are unsurprisingly our most busiest time, and its impossible for me to get the holidays off.

im not sitting here all year round booking holidays for other people and not going away myself. no way jose.

we booked a holiday for Oct half term, plus a few days, 15 months in advance to get the flights. Ds2 doesn't start school until Sept so no chance of getting the headteacher's permission before we booked

If she says no now, we will just have to take illegal holiday.

agalch why aren't you asking permission?

Our holiday wasn't a case of getting cheap flights: in fact, in order to minimise days of school, we went at the most expensive time - the English half term. The problem was that in Scotland, the state schools don't get a full week - they only get a couple of days "Mid-term" break - plus an extra day In Service training.

The school actually laughed at us when we asked about extra reading or anything - they said he would only be missing about an hour's worth of formal reading. As it was, we practised number games on the chair lifts, and taught him to say "thank you" and other simple phrases in French.

oh prettybird are you in Scotland, i thought it was supposed to be stricter there?

These are the Scottish rules

1. Holidays taken during term time would now be categorised as unauthorised absence. However, it is acceptable under exceptional circumstances for schools to authorise a family holiday during term time. Such circumstances may include a family holiday judged to be important to the wellbeing and cohesion of the family, following serious or terminal illness, bereavement or other traumatic events. It should not include such reasons as the availability of cheap holidays, the availability of desired accommodation, poor weather experienced during school holidays, holidays which overlap the beginning or end of term, or parental difficulty obtaining leave (with local judgement applied in cases where evidence is provided by the employer that it cannot accommodate leave during school holidays without serious consequences).

I think this is where the English situation is heading

Yes I am in Scotland. Haven't experienced it being stricter - but as I say, ds is only in P1 and we have only just taken him out (and will do so again next year).

We told his teachers (job share) and then I double-checked with the headmistress at a PTA meeting that there wasn't anything else I needed to do. Everyone seemed very relaxed about it.

At our school, no holidays will be authorised now unless they were booked before the school year began in September and new parents were unaware of the rules.

I don't call telling parents they are entitled to take their kids out for 10 days 'running a tight ship'!!!

gdg is that in England or Scotland and is it a new ruling in your school?

DD's arent at school yet, but I would if allowed take them out of school for a holiday.

I would support them in school as much as I can (as I do at preschool), I would send them in to school on time, after a good nights sleep and with a decent breakfast in them, ready for a day of education. Which I suspect is a lot more than some parents do.

But, I think family holidays are very important and it is not possible for everybody to have holidays in the school holidays. I can not see, at infant school level that missing one week of school is going to hold them back much, or disrupt a class much more than a badly behaved child.

I do think it depends on the type of holiday you have, if your are going away and sticking the kids in a kids club all day for a week that is a different thing, but if you go around museums, zoos, exploring different countryside, a different language I think that could be just as educational as being at school.

I would not expect the school to provde extra work, but would try to provide something educationsal for them to do whilist I was holiday. I understand that teachers arent allowed holiday during term time, but would argue that is one of the downsides of that particular job and they knew that before they started. My dad was only allowed a set 2 weeks holiday during the summer and we coped.

I object to the government and school in controlling our holidays and hope that if teachers and parents can be sensible then the sort of thing that has made the news will be very rare.

However, I do believe that once they start secondary school it is a different matter and would probably not take them out of school.

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youa re kidding darth vader

deary me

i parpeht myslef

I'm not cod. I asked, it was only supposed to be an hour or so, from 9am - 10am and it was year 1. If they hadn't given permission I wouldn't have let him go, absolutely not. He is big hero of ds's and there were no other dates adn times. The teacher asked him to tell the boys in the class what it was like, they were all dead impressed.

ah ok
i liek you

youa re off the hook

cod i take it you wouldn't as a magistrate have been letting this woman off

we ahd one in court actually
unfort by the itme most get to court the kid is about 15

Hmmm. Interested that someone said this was a scheme in partnership with tour operators.

A couple of weeks ago I was looking in Thomas Cook's window, and it was full of cheap deals - all advertised for term times - with 'children go free' slashed across them. Complete incitement to take kids out of school. No 'children go free' offers for holiday times! I had been thinking of starting a thread about it...

Thomas Cook are in the lessons count campaign

Right up there, leading by example....

i work for thomas cook, thats the first that i have ever heard of any campaign, interesting though.

emma \link{http://www.thomascook.com/everylessoncounts/\ thomas cook every lesson counts}

thnaks for that link zippi, we really have not heard of that in our office, will show it to my manager tomorrow.

looking at those prices though- hardly deal breakers are they?!!!

ANY OF YOU LADIES WANT ME TO LOOK FOR A HOLIDAY FOR YOU FOR THE SUMMER LET ME KNOW!! WILL TRY MY DAMN HARDEST TO GET A GOOD DEAL FOR YOU XX!!

We are having a week in Normandy and a week in Brittany for £1200 for 4 the last two weeks in August. I think that is fairly reasonable, could have saved ££££ though by not having the Saturday ferry home but DS due back at school on the Monday.

Tell that to my bf. She's taking her dd out for a week next week to Club Med in Meribel, if you please.