Would you take your 6 year old out of school for 7 days

[KirstyJ2025]

Hi all, we really want to do a once in a lifetime holiday to Disney Florida. We plan on booking 11 nights, some of the days go in to a half term break. We do however have to take our little one out of school for 7 days. She’s in year 1. We know we will go over the unauthorised 10 occasions and will be charge £80 per parent, but we will save over £1,500.00. We have been told to ring in sick for a few days to avoid the fine, but I don’t think schools a silly and they will just work it out haha, so we are thinking honestly is the best policy? Would you agree?

Only thing I’m worried about it that if you have any other unauthorised absences within a 3 year period, I believe we can be prosecuted. Tbh, we aren’t planning on doing it again. We also don’t want our school giving us a hard time over it. It’s actually our honeymoon trip too.

just wondering what others have done in this situation.

:-)

Do a leave request and then it will go down as unauthorised leave. Don’t call in sick, your kid will tell all their friends. Don’t ask your child to lie

Since ds started nursery we have taken him away to an annual sporting event.
We haven't been fined yet.

Yes absolutely

Yes I would. At that age I don’t think it will make much of a difference. However the memories of the holiday will last a lifetime

Nursery isn’t compulsory, so you won’t receive a fine

That is Nursery, they don't legally have to be there

In my experience as a parent of primary & secondary, it’s been fine. Primary aren’t too concerned as a one off. Secondary don’t like it too much but we’ve done a max of 3 days a year out of term time. Now she’s in year 10 we won’t do it at all for a couple of years.
as long as behaviour, attendance & learning is on track it’s not the worst thing they see happening in schools.

As long as you look up the repercussions of being prosecuted and accept that for are willing to take that risk in case it happens as a result.

And be honest, Disney is not a once in a lifetime holiday.

Fines are different now so I would familiarise yourself with the guidance, it is no longer a case of definitely £80.00 per person each time. They can be high and you can be taken to court.

A 5-yr old won't remember much about it.

It is for some people :-) we only plan on doing it once

For a holiday no I wouldn't but we did for a family wedding in Australia. 10 sessions out. We didn't get a fine as school authorised 2 days for the wedding to bring us under the threshold.

BUT as long as you are happy with the repercussions (fines and having to watch no more unauthorised for the next few years) then do it but don't lie. They will know you have lied.
Which half term break? They have phonics screening in Year 1 so I would make sure to avoid taking that off.

I'm pretty sure its 2 fines before they take you to court now - 1 at £80, 1 at £160 then it goes to intervention/prosecution.

For some people a weekend in a local holiday cottage is a once in a lifetime holiday but it’s not something that school will see as a justified excuse.

You want to go on holiday and you don’t want to pay full price, which is understandable. However, it’s not always as straightforward as you both being fined and that’s the end of the matter. Just make sure you don’t need a clean DBS or a job where you can’t have a criminal record in case it does end up in court.

She will be 6 and 1/2

No issue with missing the odd day or 2 but 7 days is an awful lot of school to miss and isn’t something I’d ever consider doing. And 3 years is a long old time not to be able to take any term time leave again and a lot can change in that time. Mine are missing a day next month to attend a GP’s milestone birthday weekend away and they missed 2 days last year for a wedding. I’d hate if we’d had to say no to that stuff because we’d overdone it on a holiday 3 years ago. So that would personally worry me. And no way will you get away with lying because DC will be excited to tell all their friends. Can’t you just tweak the trip slightly to miss only 4-5 days of school rather than 7?? Seems like the obvious compromise.

Yes I think we will look at that

Do not call in sick! I work in a school, trust me it wont work.
Just do a holiday request it will be unauthorised and be prepared to pay the fine.
If you call in sick the school will do a home visit after a couple of days. If they cannot make contact with the children they will call the police, I'm sure that's not the avenue you want to go down.
plus if your child comes back and shares they have been on holiday they can still prosecute after the fact.
Enjoy your holiday.

Check the rules on fines and prosecution as it's all changed recently.

Thank you, this is helpful. I wouldn’t call in sick. I’d feel too guilty. At the end of the day, if we decide to take her out of school, then we should be prepared for the fine.

I believe it will only end up in court if we don’t pay the fine. We will pay the fine.

As a 6 year old I had 2 weeks off school when I had my tonsils out and developed an infecton. While I was off the class learnt a new process in arithmetic - I have been playing catch-up all my life which has caused me many problems. My children have never had time off school in term time, unless they were really ill……

The can go straight to prosecution, there was a thread where this happened to someone recently. They had gone for 3 weeks and this was the reason but this could happen in other circumstances eg if your child had lots of sickness that year or your child became a school refuser.

I think she means that they have gone to the sporting event since the child was nursery age, and they still go now he is in school.

RE OP's case, no I absolutely would not do this.

Don't be silly schools don't do a home visit because your kid has flu or whatever, in 18 years I never had a home visit when DS was ill and I'd be seriously pissed off if school turned up at my door. Schools definitely don't visit after a couple of days of phoned in sickness.

I wouldn't call in sick though OP, just let them know you're going on holiday and pay the fine. You can take them out twice and will only get fined, if you take them out a third time in 3 years then it may go to court. I wouldn't worry at all OP, have a great time!

Thank you very much, I feel better now hehe