Not compulsory school age term time holiday

[Senners]

My child will start school next September 2024 and will turn 5 at the end of September so a few weeks after she starts. Am I right in thinking she's not compulsory school age until 1st January 2025 so I could take her out of school between September and December without a fine? Thinking of a short break in Nov, but not if there's a risk of fine. Thanks

Put it this way, no teachers EVER take their kids out of school during term time for a holiday.

This teacher did-back in the somewhat carefree days of a Labour government before there were fines and when heads could grant ten days of term time holiday. I was on maternity leave and we were skint, so we took DC out of reception (but had turned 5) for 5 days and went away with my parents- who paid. It was lovely.

DC still passed the 11+, got excellent A level results and has a good degree-I don’t think it caused much long term harm…

They won’t fine you if DC is under 5 anyway.

Ha.ha.ha.
I think you can guess my reply 😄
My school offer a 1 year delayed start, as we have found January starters often, not always, couldn't catch up. They would start to self identify as "I can't do x" rather than have learning resilience, due to the missed schooling, which wasn't fair on them.
I respect parents right to make the call of waiting a year, but January starts don't work well.
They used to work better before the national curriculum changed and we had to teach children to read and write so early.

God there are some drainers on here. Take the holiday, ignore the drainers. Your child will catch up and if you care enough to be questioning it then im sure you care enough to help her catch up. The inference that your child going on one holiday stops a Ukranian child drawing pictures of tanks is ridiculous. Take the holiday, you have no idea what will happen tomorrow and what you might miss out on in the future. School is not the be all and end all of life

Teachers can’t take term time holidays - that’s why they don’t take their kids out for term time holiday.

Many teachers I know would do if they were able to. As a former teacher I probably will do too - probably not at the start of reception though.

Your child's unauthorised absence will still be counted against the school in the attendance stats which feed into their ofsted grading, despite being younger than compulsory school age. The school has to care about that because its impossible to improve a school's ofsted rating if the attendance figures are poor.

@wafflingworrier sorry if this is harsh but you are sounding like a martyr.

Instead of worrying about an other wise happy child child missing a few days to go to Spain I’d worry more about the children missing very significant amounts of schooling because of school anxiety, or because the LA can’t identify a school that meets their needs or wotn provided adequate school transport. If missing a few days causes massive issues in the class room and requires catch up, then I’d say that’s an issue with the schooling system. Maybe it needs to be more flexible. Because with the greatest will in the world children will Always need time off for Illness, travelling to see family etc.

Honestly the obsession with focusing on the attendance of children missing a week for a holiday, whilst often ignoring the many children with very significant attendance issues due to mental health or disability etc really confuses me.

🙄I'm not implying the Ukranian children miss out. I am telling you a fact. They did. Last week. This happened last week in my colleague's class. The nurture group couldn't happen because the phonics of the child who returned from holiday did.

@wafflingworrier by a 1 year delayed start do you mean a child that turns 5 in September (as this one does) can start reception the following September so when they're turning 6? Or would they go straight into Y1?

If you request a delayed start, they would start reception a year later.

Wow, some deep responses. Thanks for your replies. It's not something I would do regularly, and highly doubt I would do it once she's compulsory school age anyway. It would be a few days Christmasy break Nov/Dec time, I don't think at 4/5 years old that will damage her education and mental well-being at all. Didn't we used to get up to 10 days or something a year authorised term time leave until they recently became a lot stricter? My mum used to take me out for a month to visit family in abroad every December till I was in my teens, school was always fine with it, they'd give me some work to do whilst away. Not a holiday but I missed a lot of days of school and it didn't impact me my education or friendships in any way at all. I'm so grateful I got to spend that time with my grandparents growing up. So it was obviously accepted as ok by teachers/schools for years....I know some places in UK/Wales still do for primary schools allow a number of days term time leave. In the grand scheme of things, missing 5 days out of a whole year (where they could of been sick, or a holiday) I don't think will make any difference. Life's short, do more of what makes you happy

It's all connected though, because there isn't enough time to do it all and not enough staff to do it all.

So, by adding more workload into the system through holidaying in term time, there is a knock on effect on other things which then can't happen.

I'm not against term time holidays but would defiavaoud the first half of receptyear as I do think that even a week will have an impact. Learning can be caught up but I may be separately from her peers and this could really impact on budding friemmndships - at that age it's very 'out of sight, out of mind'. It may be worth asking how your preferred schools settle them in, my dd distant u till 3rd week of September, so plenty of time for a holiday. Additionally she didn't strat full time u till after Oct half term so definitely would avoid November as the first bit of full days

@Redlocks28 which I understood was possible for summer borns but not for children that were born at the start of the school year? So they could potentially have classmates nearly 2 years younger?

We have several deferred starters in our reception class-none are summer born this year. They usually have a different reason for requesting the deferral, tbh-S+L delay, ASD etc

What a load of nonsense. I took my own child out and I'm a teacher. Many children can cope with a few days out, especially in EY or KS1. There is learning outside school.

We got a long letter with a sentence right at the very end (presumably copied and pasted for 4 year olds) saying as she was not of compulsory school age they could not take action. She wasn't off compulsory school age til Sept of Y1.

So will that still apply even though my daughter will be 5? Should would be 5 years 2 months ish, but not compulsory school age until the following term. I just got a bit confused because I see lots of posts saying 4 year olds won't get fined but wasn't sure if it makes any difference that she will be five. However after reading she won't be compulsory school age until the term after therefore should not get fined. I don't want to be fined, the break we are looking at is cheap but not really if we have to pay the fine, so if there was a risk we just wouldn't go. Thanks

Stupid statement, no teachers take their kids out because they can't ffs. I am a teacher.

@wafflingworrier the OP said a long weekend, not 2 weeks.

It would be similar to when a child is off sick for 2/3 days.

Calm the dramatics.

I generally disagree with term time holidays and wouldn't take my kids out unless necessary or something that can't be rescheduled. Due to disruption to their learing and the rest of the class. BUT I think the first term of reception year is not a big deal at all. My DD was way ahead of her class at that age and has a July birthday so we had a week in Cornwall in June of her reception year. She's now in year 8 and hardly ever even has a day off sick and is still top of her class.

Go for it.

Her school starting age is 4, but compulsory age is the term after they turn 5.

You will be held by the school policy and her attendance will be measured.

But there are no grounds for reporting unapproved absence until she is compulsory school age, as that is when legal attendance kicks in.

So it's fine. It will really depend on whether a few days out will effect how well she settles. Every kid is different.

In that case your school/colleague have their priorities all wrong and the nurture group should have happened, not phonics catch up for the girl who went on holiday.

Completely agree with this! I’d have recapped at the start quickly what the class did the week before for everyone (and the missing child) and then carried on with the lesson. If there was new stuff that was sent home the week before for everyone that the child missed, they could have it that day instead. Stopping a nurture group to do catch up for one, is a crazy idea.

There was last week when I was away. I purposely book time out of school holidays to avoid children.

I don't want to see kids when I'm away in my hotel during term time.

They should be at school.

😊

Different schools different countries have different terms/holidays so you can't expect to see no children at your hotel in term time 😂 also why are you on a thread about term time holidays while on holiday surely you've got something better to do while on actual holiday than come on here and moan 🤔 @SleeplessinSeattle53 @Mademetoxic