Holidays during term-time

[AndiRee]

Please don't shoot me down in flames but seriously considering taking DD's out of school a week early in order to go on holiday this year at the end of Summer term. Has anyone done this and what are the implications? Have one DD in secondary the other just started Foundation stage. We also have a pre-schooler too.

Most schools seem to be okay. My DS, age 6, school sent a letter home at the beginning of the year stating no holidays would be authorised in term time. I ignored this and wrote them a letter saying we're going on hol and DS won't be in. Nobody said anything and it didn't even go down as an unauthorised absent at the year end.
We've now booked another hol for March as we wanted to take the DC away for our DD's birthday. I haven't yet broached this with school, but my opinion is that teachers have no issues with our children missing out on ther education when they striked. This was given with only a few days notice causing many disruptions for children and parents alike. I do not see where the problem is in parents taking children out of school to spend some quality family time together. My friends DS HT actually said this to her in November, that despite the school not officially authorising time off for hols in term time, she thought it was very important for families to spend time together.
Go for it AndiRee, as long as not all the time and during exams are such I dnt think you shud feel bad fof this. At all! I no I certainly won't......

Thank you for your response. I was a bit worried that mumsnetters would think I was the worst mum for even considering it......I guess my rationalle is that in the last week its wind down anyway and DH can't get any other time off. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that both schools give permission..............

I think it dependson what is happening in your DCs school lives at that time.

I took DS out of school for 2 days (!) prior to Feb half term this year - and recieved the standard 'no hols in term time' letter - but hey - two days??

He will bein year 10 next year so won't have him missing any school for hols.

I think it is unfair of schools to impose these rules so strictly - when most parents will only take a few days off - but i guess they have to come down hard.

Now, all the days that schools close for 'teacher training' days - well - I don't give them my permission for them to have my child out of school !! ;)

Teacher training days are actually taken within the existing holiday times and taken of teachers holidays. If teachers don't have training days for things like new curriculums, first aid, safeguarding, special needs, behaviour systems, allergy advice, record keeping then your children will not be kept as safe as possible/ learn in newer advanced techniques or supported to the best of their ability. Training days are not just an extra few days off, its to update the existing knowledge of the workforce!

*off

I have taking both my children aged 3 and 7 out of school and nursery for a two weeks, as we took a month trip backpacking in Thailand. The way I see it is yes first of all for financial reasons we couldn't do it otherwise but also it was an education recieved that they would never experience in school. We didn't spend every day by the pool or beach we visited temples seen elephants communicated and played with the thia community. It was culture shock which was good they had a trip they will never forget. My son kept a journal and made a scrap book also we did loads of reading taking photos. Honestly I can say they benefited more from that trip then being at school for two weeks. Tbh the school was brilliant they fully understood and appreciated are reasons. Their attendance have always been good so it really wasn't a problem. I'm planning to take them off school for 5days this year as we have a trip planned to Sri Lanka where again we will be traveling through the south. I have no doubt in my mind I'm doing the best for my children and if the school had a problem I would do it anyway... I know what's best for my kids not the school and certainly not the government. Of course if there were exams and such I would not dream of it. Because I am a good mum and I weigh the factors ups. I'm sure most mums who decide to do it do the same. After all we all want to give our children the best start in life.

I have just requested authorised time off for my 6 year old daughter so we can go on a family holiday in June. We are going with my family who are in the fire service, so they have got allocated holiday slots which they cannot change. I explained this in the application letter, I even offered to take some work with us. The request was denied, so it will go on my daughters record as unauthorised. The letter I got back from her head teacher even contained a veiled threat about the involvement of the educational welfare officer as she will be absent from school for 11 days because of flight times. My husband spoke to the educational welfare officer and was told that all the heads in our town had taken the collective decision to refuse all requests, unless there are very exceptional circumstances (the only one mentioned was a soldier returning from active service), this person also informed my husband that as of September 1st 2013, new government rules come in to force meaning all requests for leave during term time will be refused, countrywide, and also the current, discretionary, £60 per parent, per child, fixed penalty fines, will be made compulsory. This means that each parent will get fined £60 per child who doesn't attend school, my impression of the new policy is that these fines will kick in for even 1 day of unauthorised absence. Now for us this may mean our holidays are, in future, few and far between. Adding the cost of any fines onto the cost of our holidays will, in many cases, make them unaffordable. Holidays during school holiday periods are already getting too expensive for us, as well as the fact that we don't particularly like going during August as it can be too busy and hot for us. We consider ourselves to be responsible parents, our daughter has a good attendance record and she is doing very well in her lessons, according to her teacher. Our local authority has produced a leaflet about this subject and it states that exam/test times and the first few weeks of a new school year should be avoided. I just wish that the people who made this policy change, actually understood how it affects real people, particularly the "hard working families", they all claim to support.

I've took my ds out of school for holidays and the school were fine. They said as long as no more than 10 days they wouldn't have a problem. Ds is only in reception at the moment and I wouldn't take him out at important times and we always find out what work they've been doing to make sure he doesn't miss out.
I do think family time is just as important as school time for children. We love doing things as a family but would really struggle to go in school holidays because of the prices.
Go on holiday, have a great time with your family and ignore anyone who says otherwise. It's your family and you know best :)

We took DD out of school in years 3 and 4. She is at high school now and even missing a week is a lot of work to catch up on so I wouldn't now.

WARNING - ZOMBIE THREAD (second one on this reanimated today)

All that is coming with the new regs is the removal of the verbiage which mentions holidays.

It is, and will continue to be, entirely a matter for the HT - so if you want to complain about oppressing "hard working families" your head is the one with sole responsibility for what happens in your school (at least that's someone easy to get hold of and complain to). But you might find your head does not authorise because they want pupils in school during term time, for the benefit of both the individual pupil and the whole school comunity.

And as so many heads already do not authorise, you'll probably find no real difference in what actually happens.

(misty14: if you want a not hot, not crowded, not expensive August holiday, try Dumfries and Galloway)

Dumfries and Galloway is wonderful. We went there at May spring bank week. It wasn't a holiday in Scotland so it wasn't crowded and the only people on holiday were the English.