taking holiday leave in Reception year

[Kotek]

hi, I am not one who would normally want to pull my child out of school during term, but I am hoping to take my son who will be 4 and a half in December to Australia over Xmas so he can see his ageing grandparents.

He will start reception in Sept 2010 (aged 4 and 2 months). I would hope to depart about 10 days before the official break up day for the Christmas holidays.

I have heard that because he is under 5 he is not at the statutory age where school is compulsory. does this mean it is likely that the school will say this is ok?

any experience of this would be helpful. It is a C of E church school that he'll be attending.

thanks

Hi Kotek - I wouldnt have thought it would be an issue. I have DTs in reception who turned 5 last November, I have taken them out one day already and have another 4 days booked. Most schools will let you take them out up to 10 days and I think that goes for pretty much all of primary. May differ in different areas I guess?

Hi Kotek, I would go, we took our 2 DC out for 10 days prior to last Christmas to have a month in Australia/NZ visiting relatives. DC were Years 5 and 1. I was worried about going unauthorised but all the MN posts said I should, even those from teachers, and so glad we did!

Our education authority is very strict about term-time leave and rarely authorises it, indeed we were refused 4 days authorised leave previously a couple of years before to visit a sick relative because the time ran into school holidays (were told it would have been OK if we had missed more time but was all in term-time!)

Anyway we were told our leave would be unauthorised but went anyway and have heard nothing more about it. Both DC have good attendance records otherwise, 1 even got an award for 100% attendance during the previous year, so we may have heard something if this had not been the case.

You are correct that school will not be compulsory if he is not 5, however the school might still be able to withdraw the place in response to term-time absence, but I have been told by a primary HT that this is illegal for absence of 10 days or fewer. Not 100% sure if this applies to faith schools though?

I'm sure if you explain the situation it will be fine it's not exactly a bog standard summer family holiday
perhaps sweeten them up by asking for some 'work' that you could try and do

I'm not sure that asking for work would help to be honest. I think it causes teachers more work to try to set things separately. Maybe say that he'll keep a scrapbook of all the interesting things he's seen and done and will show everyone when he gets back.

I would be honest with the school and speak to them about how best to go about it.... I know how you feel though - I have just asked for one day off as we'll be late back from our Easter holiday, and I felt nervous enough asking for that! - It was authorised with no problems...

If anyone makes a fuss about you taking your reception aged child out of school for such a wonderful experience, they're mad! GCSEs and A Levels are a different matter. Parents that take their children out of school for holidays at this stage are very unfair. (I'm a teacher.)