Term time school holidays

[FWN1987]

I needed abit of help as am really stressed out.

I have booked a family holiday in October for 4 weeks. 2 weeks will be when it is school holidays and 2 weeks out of school holidays.

I see the rules have changed and getting a 3rd fine in 3 years will take you to court.

Now the part where i am stressed out is we have had 2 fines in the last 2 years. Will the fines from the previous years count to this year and ultimately this holiday will land me in court?

TIA

They do, this can happen in the holidays. The extra 2 weeks is completely unnecessary.

Go in the holidays, it's what they're there for. Leave your kids in school so they can one day have good enough jobs to afford to visit family in the holidays too. Pakistan is just as great IN THE HOLIDAYS.

For 12 years I’ve managed to get back to NZ and never take the dc out of school for more than 1-2 days max. Always discussed and agreed with the school in advance (private school so a bit more flexible but they don’t let you take the total piss like you are either).

change flights so they’re not out of school for so long or go over the Christmas holidays if they’re slightly longer. Or go in summer - you have 7 weeks then! Or take a ridiculously long break and end up in court.

Its definitely not about the prices at all. Not all Pakistani children manage it. And living in the country matters as well as it becomes manageable.

Have a look at this article and then tell me people manage it in Pakistan:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn05rz3w4x1o

I would suggest you save a trip to Pakistan for the Easter holidays. The weather is not too hot, or too cold. Less load shedding with the electricity and no monsoon/mosquitos/malaria risk either. Plus prices lower than summer. You can easily go for 3 weeks and the kids only miss 4 days of school if you time it right.

That has to be the funniest comment 🤦🏼‍♀️ there's more to life than 4 class room walls half of the day is busy work and if you condensed the time of actual focused learning it's roughly an hour a day for primary school kids. Plenty of studies on it

13 school days is almost 3 weeks.
It's important to see family but with two weeks half term, you could have taken fewer days than this.

Looking at the rules, it says something about parenting order or possibly taking to court. Not sure if this is backdated prior to August 2024, but it's possible as you are visiting family that maybe you would receive another fine and not have to attend court.
Were your previous fines also for the purpose of visiting family?

@3xchaos I'm with you. It's really no drama to kiss a couple of weeks.

If this is stressing you out, stop doing it!

Clearly you are the hilarious one as this is really not the case. Children who miss school never truly catch up and this is shown in their ongoing results.

Yes there is more to life than school and plenty of holidays that can be used for travel and other experiences.

13 school days is nearly 3 weeks. Surely you could reduce that down if you also have a 2 week half term?

So pleased to see there a still compassionate people in this forum. Agree with all that is written here.

People can't seem to ask a question without judgement these days..

Full DfE guidance here, it might help you OP.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/working-together-to-improve-school-attendance

13 days off school is ridiculous, irresponsible, that's nearly 3 weeks not 2! Education matters, nobody needs a 5 week holiday, relative visiting of not. How are you going to ensure your children haven't missed anything without causing work for the teachers?

I hope you get taken to court. Taking a day or two either side of the half term is understandable for long haul but not 13 days

“Some” children who miss school struggle to catch up. Fixed that for you. Not all will. My dd aged 21 has had a term time holiday throughout most of her school life. She’s now doing a masters in psychology. My Ds aged 13 has autism and the only way we can have a family holiday together is when everyone else is at school otherwise he can’t cope with the crowds / other children. Neither Ds nor dd have ever struggled academically. The opposite in fact.

I really can’t get upset over people taking their children out of school for a short time every year to have a family experience that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives which they may not be able to do so if a family has to pay the huge price increases that get slapped on booking a break during school holidays.

omg the vibe in this forum! Visit your family and enjoy it! Children are only children for such a small amount of time. If they are lucky enough to still have grand parents alive take them and let them make memories! Understand fully the previous posters about it makes extra work for the teachers but let’s be honest the school system is an absolute shit show. The government have for to many years underfunded schools and now we’re all paying the price for that. Class sizes being at capacity where quite frankly it’s impossible to get the most out of any child. Educational needs not being met through no fault of the schools. May be worth seeing if they can let you know some key things they’ll missing and you do some work for an hour or two a day to ensure they aren’t completely clueless to what they’ve missed when they return. But I say go, enjoy it and you’ll children will have lovely memories.

School attendance is important. But people are being a bit dramatic. I had two weeks off every single year up until GCSEs for a family holiday and am sitting here with certificates for the best GCSE and a level results in the school, and a first-class astrophysics degree. My education and life chances were not destroyed.

Agree, my child has about 9 school days off each year and is exceeding at everything (except French where us is as expected). This is because we encourage lots of reading and I do half hour it maths with each day.

First to the actual question you have asked: no I don’t think this will count as your third strike so to speak as these are new rules. However, you should double check with the school.

Secondly, I hope you don’t take the previous comments slating you for taking your children out of school to heart. I hope you have a wonderful time in Pakistan, those two weeks out of school will be far richer in experiences for your children than two weeks in school. My parents took my brother and I out of school for three weeks to visit family in Africa. We did the school work that the class was going to be doing for 1-2 hours each morning while we were away, and came back ahead of the class. The fact that people have been brainwashed into thinking you need 100% school attendance to become a functioning adult is ludicrous. Success in life is just as much down to personality and attitude as it is academics. The things I saw when I was 10 in Africa that were completely different than anything I had ever seen in the U.K. shifted my perspective completely and I truly believe caused a change in me. And I still remember more about the great fire of London than many of the subjects I was taught in the actual classroom 😂

I think it's ridiculous at primary school and secondary.
With the amount of subs at secondary school. We should be fining the govt. Not the other way round.

No you won’t be prosecuted as they will not count the fines that occurred before 2024-25 academic year. The relevant bit of guidance from the government is this:

For several years my attendance was in the 70s and 80s percentage-wise. I've two masters and a professional job and in one of my S6 exams I scored 99%. Guess I caught up 'cause, I assure you, I'm far from special.

@FWN1987 enjoy the holiday! What will be will be in terms of fines. It's not the be all and end all, unless a fine would mean missing a bill or less food!

It's Mumsnet, what did you seriously expect to read? People praising OP and telling her it's a wonderful idea? Get real. This site loves judgement, criticism, and making assumptions.

One was for a holiday and the second which was last year was for a religeous trip to Saudi (even though just 4 days off school).

We always have an hour or 2 reserved for education with the kids when away so they are never behind. Our kids have always been on track or ahead on there end of year reports as well.