School Holidays - The Rules?

[xxhxx]

I am just looking for a bit of advice. My partner has allocated annual leave in his job and my eldest child is 5 so now in year 1. We want to go on holiday (we took him out of school last year in reception) this was authorised and given the standard letter to say it was exceptional circumstances (birthday holiday) which they seem to send to everyone requesting a holiday.
My partner can not get ANY time off during school hols this year. He has an early Dec week off and an early Oct week which ideally we would like to go away. Does anybody know the rules regarding this? It isnt our fault he has no school hols but do we just never go on holiday?

GEt a letter from work to say he cant choose his holidays.

Add the letter but in terms of consequences, I doubt much would happen over a week off in a year.

There are very few rules. It is up to the school whether or not to allow this as authorised absence. If it is unauthorised it may lead to a fine. Whether or not it will depends on the LA's rules. If your children's attendance is otherwise good it is unlikely there will be any consequences beyond a fine.

I've never heard of a fine for a week's absence.

OP, how about parental leave or something? In all honesty, the employer is unreasonable not to allow a single week off in school holidays.

I think our head would approve this with a letter from your DH’s work to say he is allocated certain leave.

@xxhxx schools are a lot stricter about absence rates than they used to be, because they are held to account for it by the Government much more than they used to be. Many schools won't authorise any holiday-related absence at all, so if you had one approved last year your school is relatively relaxed, but it may have been a one-off. You might feel you have special circumstances but so have lots of other people (family living abroad etc) and so the Head will be wary of being seen as too relaxed. They can't stop you going, but they don't have to authorise it.

Whether the absence is authorised or not is less important than your child's overall rate of absence (including absence due to illness). If it drops below 95% for the current school year you may find yourself getting a warning letter from the school, and if it goes below 90% you may find yourself being referred to the local council's Education Welfare Officers.

Provided your child has good general attendance, then don't worry about taking a short holiday now while you can - it's only going to get harder as they get older.

What sort of job does he have OP that won't give a parent any time off in the school holidays?

Genuinely shocked at this.