Unauthorised absence

[verbeier]

I am from another country, a fair distance away (OK, a very large distance away). I have two children here, as well as my DH (British). We like living here. My children generally don't have any family they see often here but my family dote on them. Now my DS is at school, the whole 'unauthorised absence' thing us weighing on me. We genuinely could not afford to go and see my family outside of term time. I appreciate that there may be some repercussions on my children's education, but the alternative is that they have no family in their lives. I am really torn. As I said, we do love our lives here generally. We could stretch to a term time holiday to see my family (it would still be hard for us) but a trip in school holidays would be actually impossible. Has anyone been in the same situation? My children love seeing my family outside the UK. Out if interest, not that I can afford it, but are private schools as strict about unauthorised absences? And, say I went for two weeks and suffered the consequences, could they kick us out of the school? I know there would be a fine.

Speak to your LEA.

I'm currently in the situation where I'm taking my three school aged children out of school for seven days at the end of June, to go and visit family. It's not a holiday as such, but more a desperately needed get away from here, as I fear from my eldest child's mental health if we stay (huge long story)

I put in an application for holiday time and it has been refused. I knew this would happen as the head has been told by the LEA to refuse all holiday time. Thing is though, the head has the discretion to decide weather you actually get a fine or not. So you could take them away unauthorised, but it's up to the head as to weather you'll get fined.

I currently have a letter from my sons therapist, the SW, HV etc as support for us going. I also spoke to the LEA and told them our situation and the woman I spoke to has said that she will strongly urge the head not to fine us.

Even if you are fined, you can appeal and if you can prove it's for the good of the child/ren to be taken out of school then you may not have to pay.

If you're on FB, there's a great group that gives advice about all this, but I can't remember the name of it atm, sorry.

Good luck though.

People saying de register or home school them are being ridiculous. For a two week holiday? Take them to see your family and pay the fine when you get home. I'm taking my dd out of school on holiday in a few weeks. Her attendance is otherwise excellent and she is doing well academically. I won't lose any sleep over it.

Wow that's very good price you got for going to Oz for £2k for 2 adults 2 children. Very impressed.

We did have to go around DHs work. So the savings isn't that great between term and non term times.

You have my sympathy as a week is far too short for a 24 hour flight. Took my 4yo a week to get used to the time changez

And yes the fines are minimal, given long haul flight prices. And you might be able to get much cheaper tickets just flying a few days before term finishes.

Definately look at when your school holidays are, this year, our LEA had easter holidays that were out by a week compared to most of the country, which meant a lot of families in our school went away the second week of the holidays which was a lot cheaper.

Not sure of your exact requirements (airports, dates etc) but there appears to be flights for around £3000 next Easter (using our dates), and if you left a few days earlier, therefore only missing a few days of school, they go down to £2500. Of course it depends who you want to fly with as well. I just used Skyscanner to have a quick look.

OP those that dont have family a long way away (and l dont think 200 miles is that far) understand your dilemma. I will have to just take the fines also as l don't intend to be restricted to only visit home during the winter there or miss out on Christmas with my family.

You won't necessarily get fined at all, of course. No one in my school has been, and there are almost as many term-time holidays being taken as ever. Three from just one class last week alone, and one of those parents had the cheek to complain that the school were running tests that week and she 'hadn't been informed.'

Our county council also states that holidays shouldn't be ok'd but exceptional absences are at the heads discretion. Visiting extremely elderly relatives or funerals or weddings are all at the heads discretion and I hope they would use common sense.

Is it possible to take holiday over a holiday but still get the cheaper flights?

e.g. Fly out 15th Dec, return 10th Jan, you'd get 4 weeks out there, for only missing 2 weeks of school? Or similar over an Easter or a half term?

Just because absence is unauthorised that doesn't mean you have to be fined. That very much depends on the policy set by your LA. And the fine is still probably less than you would save anyway.

You could even ask your family to find a low cost rental rather than hotel which could make it cheaper, and presumably food would have to be bought here anyway, and you'd save on heating?

"are private schools as strict about unauthorised absences? "

Some are actually far stricter than the state schools, it's kind of funny, they refuse to let you come back type thing (must be spoilt for customers, I guess).

I am another (entitled and culturally adulterating) immigrant & have no regrets about the many times DC have missed school to see my relatives abroad. If DC fall behind in school it'll be because of a whole heap of reasons & not the weeks I took them to see relatives.

It's hit & miss whether schools authorise and nobody has fined so far. My only regret is that I have ever worried so much about this issue. Good luck with your situation.

Just a quick thanks for the replies - I really appreciate them. I was feeling a tad emotional about the situation!! There is a lot of good suggestions and I am going to research some of the things suggested. Thank you!!

I would do what you can to engage with the head of the school to get them onside to authorise what you want to do, but in the end my view is that the newer rules are a really oppressive intrusion of the state into family life. If it came to it, I'd rather pay a fine than indulge this kind of intrusive control.

Heads do all kinds of shitty things to try to control parents. I am getting really tired of the policy at my kid's junior school, where the kids who have 100% attendance record are paraded at prize-giving and get to shake the head's hand in front of everybody. Seems like a great way of making kids who have health problems keeping them away from school feel even worse. I remember holding the school non-attendance record one term - I think it was during the year I was working hard for A levels and found I could get more done at home than from going into school - notably on Games days - I was sick a lot on Wednesdays. Every lesson does not count and can easily be made up if it really is important. Don't let some head browbeat you into thinking any differently!