A 2 week holiday every year in school term time?

[thesmiths88]

Okay, I don't want to get shot down in flames or get into a heated discussion, but does anyone take their child out of school for 2 weeks every year for a holiday? Does it get authorised? I was just wondering ....

Our LA has changed the rules this year and a holiday for a holiday's sake has to be taken as unauthorised leave. Head teacher has discretion where there are exceptional circumstances - eg factory shut-down on certain dates, or. Ummm. Dunno. The obvious things like family wedding overseas (though these aren't usually annual events).

Exceptional circumstances only in our LA too.

A bit of gossip. The government has been stricter with schools over attendance figures and so many are refusing to authorize holidays. If you ask permission to take a child out of school and it is refused they can issue you with a fixed penalty notice. What I have been told is that if you don't ask they can't refuse and so then they can't issue the fixed penalty notice. Can anyone confirm this?
From what I know of this (and from what I've tried to find out on the internet) they could go after you as a persistant absentee, but this would mean that your child would have to have had a lot of unauthorized time off, not just the week or two for the holiday. The persistent absentee route involves taking parents to court not a fixed penalty so schools would be reluctant to do that in all but the most extreme of cases. Just another note; the fixed penalty fine is £120 for each child and can be issued to each parent. A family of four could get fines for £480 (some LA only fine 1 parent and reduce the fines by 50% if paid by a certain date).

Oh I don't like the sound of fixed penalties and court! THinking of taking mine out of school for a week this year. Never had any problems previously but if new rules have come in to play I better check before I book!

"but does anyone take their child out of school for 2 weeks every year for a holiday? "

I took DD out of school for a week, twice, when she was in KS1. Once she started KS2 we stuck to school holidays

"Does it get authorised?"
No. I think it would have to be exceptional circumstances eg factory shutdown for a parent or a parent on limited leave from active service.

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 took my kids out of school for 4 days last year for a holiday. We hadn't had a holiday in 5 years. Wasn't a huge row over it at the time... However in September when DD1 got into a professional Pantomime and had to be licensed by the Education authority the head queried her attendance the previous year. The only time off she ever has is for dance exams and very, very rarely, if she is poorly. Suffice to say, I won't be taking her out of school again! She did get the license but it gave me a fright!

I know someone that does. First year it was easy. Second year a bit of a struggle. Now, she has been told no way. It will be unauthorized.

The school I work at has been told by the Local Education Authority not to authorise any holidays and I thought this was a national decision made by the government. All absences are unauthorised unless the pupil is away for health reasons. I have mixed feelings about this as I realise that many parents cannot afford to take a holiday during school holiday periods because the cost is so much more then than it is in term time. Perhaps the government should intervene with holiday companies and ensure that the holiday cost is the same in school holiday time as it is at the (at present) cheaper times in the year.

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.

My DCs school have a policy not to allow any time off during term time.
And the LA are now issuing fixed penalties to anyone who ignores this and goes anyway.

I don't see why you would need to take time off to go on holiday during term time. Yes, sometimes there are exceptional circumstances, but for a cheaper holiday? There is plenty of actual holiday time for school children.

Misty please stop bumping zombie threads about holidays in term time - it's too early in the morning to read a thread a realise it was dated 2011

misty14

This is at least the third zombie thread on this you have reanimated this morning.

If you want comments on your predicament (which I have commented on on two other zombie threads), you might find it more useful to you to start your own thread rather than scatter others.

Oh FFS, how did I miss the date on this?

To be fair, it doesn't matter that this one is a zombie, because it's a general "does anyone do this?" rather than a "please give me advice about this specific dilemma about my 8 year old?" when said 8 year old is now in university.

But agree that misty will get the best results from a single thread of her own.

Nothing relevant to add but jessie enjoy Sri Lanka! They love kids and the food is great!