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Original poster

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

206 replies

KirstyJ2025 · 14/10/2025 13:15

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.

:-)

OP posts:
Original poster
KirstyJ2025 · 15/10/2025 08:26

MenoMenoMe · 15/10/2025 06:59

@KirstyJ2025 I don’t know all the rules but be very very cautious. The recent thread was absolutely shocking (about the parents taking their dc out of school to visit family in another continent then getting a court summons - not a fine. I think because it went over one week (in that case) it was logged as separate occurrences, or something like that, so you may find within a few weeks of getting back, you have a court summons landing on your doormat. I suspect they are coming down hard to reinforce the rules. You have to consider whether your career and future travel plans will be affected by getting a conviction - I think on the other thread someone mentioned what the conviction woukd be for, and it is child-related (something like child neglect or failing to safeguard a child or something similar), so depending upon what jobs you and your oh do, you will have to disclose this to them and it may well affect your employment - could you lose your job over that?

is it really worth it? I would say no, not at all.

Had they taken their child out on more than one occasion?

OP posts:
MenoMenoMe · 15/10/2025 08:34

KirstyJ2025 · 15/10/2025 08:26

Had they taken their child out on more than one occasion?

Show quote history

No, it was one trip but spanned over more than a week, so the assumption on the thread was that this officially counts as more than one incident. I have just found the thread, it is not accepting new messages and not sure how to link it, but it was called something like ‘took kids out of school for 3 weeks, now the council is taking me to court’ or something like that. I will try and work out how to link it, but I’m a bit useless with things like this…

MenoMenoMe · 15/10/2025 08:39

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5417392-kids-missed-3wks-school-council-taking-me-to-court?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

I hope I have managed to link this correctly… apologies if not!

Original poster
KirstyJ2025 · 15/10/2025 08:45

MenoMenoMe · 15/10/2025 08:34

No, it was one trip but spanned over more than a week, so the assumption on the thread was that this officially counts as more than one incident. I have just found the thread, it is not accepting new messages and not sure how to link it, but it was called something like ‘took kids out of school for 3 weeks, now the council is taking me to court’ or something like that. I will try and work out how to link it, but I’m a bit useless with things like this…

Show quote history

Thank you. Although, they took their children out for 3 weeks. I’m only taking out daughter out for 1 week and 2 days :-)

OP posts:
CountryQueen · 15/10/2025 08:54

No I wouldn’t. I’d shop around, there are good deals to be had in the school holidays

MenoMenoMe · 15/10/2025 08:57

This was linked to in that previous thread. Actually it’s a bit ambiguous, as there is an alert in bold that suggests that the council can do any of these actions but doesn’t have to do them before prosecuting you. It also suggests you look on your own Council’s website for their own rules in detail. Whether it would mean that 1 week and 2 days would count as two offences as they are within different weeks / accounting periods I don’t know. It’s worth looking in detail on your Council website to get to grips with exactly what the situation is, so you can make as an informed choice as possible.

School attendance and absence

You can be prosecuted if your child has unauthorised absence from school - truancy, help with getting your child to school, and legal action to enforce school attendance

https://www.gov.uk/school-attendance-absence/legal-action-to-enforce-school-attendance

Tiswa · 15/10/2025 08:59

@KirstyJ2025 when are you looking - Disney has August down as a value season and the US holidays tend to finish much earlier

Dont do a package much better to shop around and book directly

but yes on its Orlando time facebook I have seen court for this

nosleepforme · 15/10/2025 09:04

Mizztikle · 14/10/2025 13:44

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.

Never heard of home visits from school! And I worked in a school. (Not currently so maybe it’s changed). But still never heard of school doing home visits for every sick kid. Sounds like a joke.
if someone came from my kids school to check they’re sick I certainly wouldn’t open the door. It’s ridiculous!

Jen0106 · 15/10/2025 09:26

Just do it, my daughter is 5 and in year one. I'm a single mum and I can't afford half term holidays, I've just took her out for our holiday. We went for 2 weeks, she missed 10 school days, obviously I will be fined but I'll pay £80 over the extra £4000 it would have cost to go 2 weeks later. I was honest with school, I got a phone call from the head teacher who actually told me to take my daughter on holiday and she didn't blame me, she would do the same if she could but she was not allowed to authorise as her hands were tied. They even gave my daughter the class bear to take away with us to journal our holiday. It's primary school, they aren't sitting their GCSE's. You only get to give your children one childhood, go and make them memories! And for those saying they won't remember holidays at that age, says who? My daughter remembers every holiday we've been on since she was 2 and can name them all.

Foreverwipingcounters · 15/10/2025 09:30

KirstyJ2025 · 15/10/2025 08:24

Maybe because people can’t afford to pay an extra £2k to go in school holidays. Trips like this are expensive anyway and taking them in the holidays can nearly double the price. Would be good if the government could put something in place to stop travel agents pretty much doubling their prices. I know it’s where they make their money, but think about it, if they were reasonable prices all year round, more people would travel in prime times and they’d make their number back.

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Whilst it is unlikely, at 12 missed sessions the council could go straight to prosecution as that is a lot of missed sessions. Then you could be looking at a fine of up to £2500 per parent or a prison sentence which is likely to cost much more than the saving. If I was going to take DC out of school I would keep it under the 10 missed sessions, it is not worth the long term risk to your family.

doctorsleep · 15/10/2025 09:31

Go for it, take 1000 pictures and put 200 of them in a photobook. Your DD will remember it far more than a random week at school.
Life is precious, enjoy it and have fun!

Kirbert2 · 15/10/2025 09:40

Do it.

My son is in Year 5 and has just had a week in Florida. We did get it approved due to personal circumstances so it has gone down as authorised which means no fines either. Happy Days.

yetanotheridiot · 15/10/2025 09:40

You obviously can't afford it if £1.5k is the price difference of term time vs school hols so downgrade your ideas or save for longer, a 6 year old will have nearly zero memories of it in a few years, Florida is full of moronic Trump voters, teachers / school staff have better things to do than deal unauthorised absence. They are just a few of the reasons I can think of why you shouldn't.

ButterPiesAreGreat · 15/10/2025 09:52

nosleepforme · 15/10/2025 09:04

Never heard of home visits from school! And I worked in a school. (Not currently so maybe it’s changed). But still never heard of school doing home visits for every sick kid. Sounds like a joke.
if someone came from my kids school to check they’re sick I certainly wouldn’t open the door. It’s ridiculous!

Show quote history

It’s usually on 3rd day of absence.

notacooldad · 15/10/2025 10:08

If you call in sick the school will do a home visit after a couple of days

All the schools that I have worked along side only do arranged home visits on the school refusers. ( school attenden e of lessthan 30%)A social worker is involved as there are usually other issues going on.
Im not saying this is true for every LA, but this is my expierence.

mummybear35 · 15/10/2025 10:11

My father was diagnosed with cancer half way across the world so I travelled with my 6yr old (and 2yr old) and stayed out there for nearly 8 weeks till he passed away. I notified the school and they were fine with it but it was a private school and I made sure my 6yr old carried on with his daily reading, timetables etc while we were away. For those that say missing so much school was not a good idea and the child will fall behind…in our case, it had no detrimental effect on their education, got twelve 9s for iGCSEs and four A*s for A level 🤷🏻‍♀️ and now at one of the top universities..

Mizztikle · 15/10/2025 10:46

nosleepforme · 15/10/2025 09:04

Never heard of home visits from school! And I worked in a school. (Not currently so maybe it’s changed). But still never heard of school doing home visits for every sick kid. Sounds like a joke.
if someone came from my kids school to check they’re sick I certainly wouldn’t open the door. It’s ridiculous!

Show quote history

Nowhere did I say for every sick kid.
If they’re going on holiday school will not be able to contact her which means they will do a home visit after a few days because they need to make sure the child is safe and well as they will have had no contact. Furthermore when they call mom the dial tone will be different when she’s out of the country which will also warrant a home visit as they will want to know where the child is if the parent is out of the country . Hope that explains everything.

Strawberrycreamcalzone · 15/10/2025 10:53

I’m confused how it works tbh
We took our year 4 out last year for six days. Informed the school and it went down as an unauthorised absence.
However, we never received a fine. I was informed that anybody with 95% attendance doesn’t get a fine in our school.
So the school must have some sort of input on whether an absence gets passed on to the LA to fine?

Kirbert2 · 15/10/2025 10:57

Strawberrycreamcalzone · 15/10/2025 10:53

I’m confused how it works tbh
We took our year 4 out last year for six days. Informed the school and it went down as an unauthorised absence.
However, we never received a fine. I was informed that anybody with 95% attendance doesn’t get a fine in our school.
So the school must have some sort of input on whether an absence gets passed on to the LA to fine?

It confuses me too.

My son's headteacher said it wouldn't be a problem straight away because it was classed as exceptional circumstances so it did go down as authorised absence but I've heard of similar situations go down as unauthorised absence and parents fined.

My son's attendance is also (far) below 95% too but that is linked to the exceptional circumstances.

Tiswa · 15/10/2025 11:13

Strawberrycreamcalzone · 15/10/2025 10:53

I’m confused how it works tbh
We took our year 4 out last year for six days. Informed the school and it went down as an unauthorised absence.
However, we never received a fine. I was informed that anybody with 95% attendance doesn’t get a fine in our school.
So the school must have some sort of input on whether an absence gets passed on to the LA to fine?

It really depends on the local authority they do have the final say in how it gets done

and when last year pre August was a slightly different set of rules

if it is authorised it is fine

that said this is Disney unless you are package dealing it end summer holidays shouldn’t be peak for the US side

Nora89 · 15/10/2025 11:14

Just pay the fine.

We did this in May, my daughter missed 6 days the fine came through a few days after we returned from the holiday. Her attendance is otherwise good so the 1st level of fine was issued and we know we have to be careful now for 3 years. Do it, its the best holiday EVER!

Original poster
KirstyJ2025 · 15/10/2025 11:17

Nora89 · 15/10/2025 11:14

Just pay the fine.

We did this in May, my daughter missed 6 days the fine came through a few days after we returned from the holiday. Her attendance is otherwise good so the 1st level of fine was issued and we know we have to be careful now for 3 years. Do it, its the best holiday EVER!

Edited

Perfect, this sounds exactly like our plan too as we are going in May x

OP posts:
Original poster
KirstyJ2025 · 15/10/2025 11:19

mummybear35 · 15/10/2025 10:11

My father was diagnosed with cancer half way across the world so I travelled with my 6yr old (and 2yr old) and stayed out there for nearly 8 weeks till he passed away. I notified the school and they were fine with it but it was a private school and I made sure my 6yr old carried on with his daily reading, timetables etc while we were away. For those that say missing so much school was not a good idea and the child will fall behind…in our case, it had no detrimental effect on their education, got twelve 9s for iGCSEs and four A*s for A level 🤷🏻‍♀️ and now at one of the top universities..

Sorry to hear about your father. Good to know the kids still excelled x

OP posts:
Nora89 · 15/10/2025 11:51

KirstyJ2025 · 15/10/2025 11:17

Perfect, this sounds exactly like our plan too as we are going in May x

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The week before the May half term was alot quieter than half term but we utilised the lightning lanes and early entry then chilled at the pool in the afternoons x

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