Unauthorised absence

[CoffeePleaseSir]

We have a holiday booked with Mil,Fil us and Dsd.

Reason for this Mil is having open heart surgery beginning of September, mil and fil are away at there holiday home for July & most of August to spend time together, mil is not well and it's time to relax.

We are then going away with them for 2 weeks to spend some quality time relaxing and so the kids can see them (live far away)

Unfortunately the holiday they booked for us runs 4 days into the September new term.

We filled in the holiday form & it has come back unauthorised.

What the hell do we do? DH is really upset because it is a 1 off to spend time with Mil before her big op and who knows what is going to happen.

Dsd lives far away from us to and again it will be great to spend quality time with Mil with the kids altogether, Dsd has been authorised her school have said yes to the 4 days off.

Can we appeal? Who do we go to? What happens if we go anyway?

Never taken the children out of school before, they have had a few days poorly this year with bugs/viral otherwise good attendance.

Dc are 7 and 11.

Help

My dc's school have a blanket policy to decline all requests for holidays during term time. This does not mean that you wouldn't be able to go. It just means that the school will record it as unauthorised.
For 1 day it will not go any further.

Ours don't have that policy they do authorise but under special circumstances I believe, it will be 4 days they will miss.

Sorry. Just noticed its 4 days. But again parents in our school routinely have 2 weeks off in a school year and no action is taken.

It's probably not worth appealing as in our local authority the ban covers all schools as policy and the governors do not override it. There are no fines until secondary school.

And lots of schools won't authorise absence at the start of term as it is disruptive.

Are your children changing schools (looking at their ages, not sure where you are)? Have you thought about how they fill cope with starting term late?
Any chance of changing your holiday dates or coming back early?

We took DS out for 5 days in January, with otherwise good attendance, and nothing at all happened. I think it varies in different areas, but generally if attendance is good, it just goes down as unauthorised, and that's the end of it. I would go anyway if I were you. If you are worried about what may happen, there must be other parents who have taken kids out of school you can ask.

Not changing schools both in a small primary school, go up with the same children as only 1 classroom to each year.

We can't change it as mil & fil not here before the holiday dates

We've just had our first family fined in the town my DCs go to school. Think the costs came to £420 plus court costs in the end for 1 child for 5 days.

Court? Do they take you to court then, oh this isn't looking good is it.

Magistrates court but I think it was because he didn't pay the fine initially. I'm trying to find the link for you but can't. Our county council are quite hot on it.

My DS's school also has a policy of no authorised absence for holidays. I sent a polite note saying that I understand that it cannot be authorised, so I am not requesting authorisation, but as a courtesy informing them of his absence (for a full school week) stating why the holiday cannot be taken during school holidays.

My SIL is a teacher and she said that those policies are really in place for those families who regularly take children out of school or abroad for a month or so to visit relatives etc, not to stop children enjoying a holiday occasionally.

I wouldn't worry about it. If you get fined (£100 in our area, but even if its £420) it will still be cheaper than a holiday which isn't during term time. Really I'd have thought it was in the school's best interests to authorise it for their own figures.

BTW, my DS's school did authorise it!

Thank you

I have just looked on our local council website and it states -
You must ask the school for permission giving as much notice as possible, the school can allow up to 10 days absence in a school year, however this is up to the discretion of the head teacher.
It stated that if parents take there children without authorisation it will go down as unauthorised leave, persistent unauthorised leave you can be prosecuted.

Hmmm well DH is going to call the head.

I may see if it can be moved but I don't think it will be able to be the full 4 days, probably could cut that to 2 days would be cutting it fine though as mil & fil not here.

What a nightmare this is.

At DCs school, you would be fined. I was told it was, £50 per child per day, but not completely sure.

But apart from that, it is really disruptive not to start the year with everyone else. One of mine missed the first few days because of a bad D&V bug once, and it took ages after they were back to catch up with everything as they had missed so many introductions and explanations.

Anyone else had any experience of this?

Do whatever you can to cut down the number of days your dc will miss at the beginning of the new school year. Whether or not they are with the same children, if they are moving to a new teacher, those first few days and weeks are really important. FWIW the Headteacher where I teach never gives authorised absence in the first month of school.

Well DH spoke to the head & it's all been sorted it is now authorised, phew panic over

Thank you for all the advice, of course we would have gone either way and paid the fine on return if there was one.

We phoned to see if we could change the dates before speaking to the head and the only space they had was a week earlier at £1826 on top of what has already been paid! We don't have that money so would have went on original date anyway.

Phew! Have a great holiday

Thank you