Term-time holidays to be banned, with fines.....

[LilyBolero]

Discuss

LilacWaltz - you can self certify for work for 7 days so can't see gp's being forced into giving sick notes for children unless the education department pay

WELL!!!!

I am taking DS to Butlins this year in the last week of term.
If I leave it until the following week it will cost me £500 more (same holiday).

It will be the first time I have EVER done this AND maybe I will send Gove a postcard calling him a fucker!

Ivy..... Just saying as I think the government will pre empt every attempt parents make to 'get round' these rules. Not saying I agree with any of it, just that if they are THIS determined, then it will be watertight

I wonder what will happen to snow days though!

If you have a d&v bug you are specifically told not to go to the Drs and spread it around,and as Drs no longer do home visits,well whaddaya gonna do?

This really hasn't been thought through,has it?

codandchops I love the postcard idea,mabe we should all do a postcard protest.

Lilac - but trying to make it water tight is ok - but can't see them paying for sick notes, as gp's will refuse to do it for free and therefore I think it will not be possible to make it water tighter,which again will leave it open for parents to lie about their childs health and take them out of school and get a sun tan .

I was sorry to see staggered holidays go but I can see that staggered holidays throws up alot of problems.

Only in last 5 years or so has our area (in Lancashire) adopted the standard holidays. Prior to that schools finished end of June for the wakes holidays. Went back mid August, then had another 1 or 2 weeks off in September - so 2 bites at off peak holidays.

Problems were apparently teachers contracts were central and ran from 1st september - so children would have old teacher for 2 weeks and August born children started reception aged 3.

Many businesses esp factories still adhere to the old wakes holidays though and shut down. If your parents only get 2 weeks early july and 2 weeks off at xmas it does seem very unfair that a child can never have a family summer holiday.

I took mine out of school for holidays. As a single mum we couldn't afford to go in school holidays. All our holiday contained an element of culture as well as lazing on the beach. Her education did not suffer as she made up the work and was a top achiever at GCSE.

Ivy... They will figure something out! Maybe you will have to send in samples to some new government lab??

The Olympics this year also affects all NHS workers - we have to have all applications for leave of more than 2 consecutive days in by the end of Feb, and there will be heavy restrictions on any holiday over the period of the Olympics (i.e. many will be denied holiday during the school hols this year)

Staggered holidays can work if you do it for the entire country -- not city by city or county by county, but region by region. France has just three regions for holidays, for example.

My hubs is overseas and only gets 2 wks leave every 4mths...our HT says he sees our visits ( I tag a few days either side of main hols ) as a family thing to let us have more than a week together for the 16wks Jan to end of April... some schools may not be this caring though

Mr. Gove also thinks poor kids don't get enough school. here

He's proposed 2 more weeks in the summer and an even longer school day. Using Gove logic, kids should go to school 7 days a week, for 10 hours a day, and they'll get 2 school years in one. Progress!

If his ideas actually see the light of day, in the future it'll be against the law to take a holiday (if you are poor).

I never thought I'd consider home education,but I'd be tempted if all these ideas come to pass.

We have decided to take our two children out of school for 6days at the end of may they will miss the last week of term before the 2 week break they get, the school have not authorised these holidays, we are going on a family holiday with extended members of the family so there were 4 people having to get time of work two of which could not take time in the summer holiday as they have to take time in what's called shut down, we are very committed to our children's education but personally feel that spending time with family members is an extremely important time for children, one they shouldn't miss out on, we would never have missed this opportunity to spend family time because school says so.
we could of lied on the firms or rang in to say children sick, as many do, but we teach honesty is the best policy to our children, in this case we have been penalised for it though.

How come you have been penalised for it? It hasn't happened yet!

Lilac
yes it has
the fines system has been in place for several years
£10 per pupil per day for unauthorised absence

the whole thing on the weekend was Gove testing policy by seeing how the daily fail readers reacted
and its amazing how few people seem to know the existing law!

Why all the smokescreen crap about the Daily Mail - it was headlined in the Telegraph and the Guardian, tucked away on page whatever in the Mail....

Tis true that it was Labour who introduced a regime, not just of fines but of imprisonment.

Lilac you can already be fined between £50 and a £100, per child, per parent for a period of unauthorised absence. It's a fixed penalty notice, no court appearance unless you don't pay, then it's a bigger fine and possibly prison.

I'd like to see the data that suggests that kids on annual leave are dragging down school performance.

Are children with families that are keen to go off and spend time with them really the problem with educational attainment in the UK?

We have family abroad. Missing some school around the Easter holiday was a difference between playing £2000 for plane tickets and £8000 for plane tickets. I bet they won't fine me £6000. If we have to pay to go away during school time, we may as well put that money into private schools.

the two families that got fined at my DCs school
one ALWAYS took the last week of the Christmas term off - every year for 8 years - to go to Disney (how MANY times does one need to go)
the other took the kids out for a week on either side of half term, three years running, to go to Florida just to bum around.

There are statistics linking attainment with attendance but they don't specify the reasons for absence afaik. And probably don't take into account the miriad of other reasons why a child with poor attendance may not achieve his/her potential.

saggar
in the cases of persistent absence I am aware of (as an ex governor)
one was due to severe illness - sometimes a term at a time
another family were just disorganised (even with social workers going to the house and feeding the kids breakfasts) and the Mum had no inclination to get them to school

at secondary the two main ones I know of are attention seeking / malingering and their parents do not make them come in

in all cases, the chances of academic success are bugger all

So,will the penalty for taking chidren out of school in term time still apply to privately educated children? I know they have longer holidays,but if my neighbour,whose kids go private takes them outside of the holidays,will she be liable to the same fine as I would?