My son goes to a preschool that is part of a primary school, so all admin etc goes through the school office. We took him away on holiday last week, the week after half term, as this is the last year we'll be able to enjoy a term time holiday for many years. We've got a few other trips planned before September.
The last day before half term when my husband mentioned he'd be off the first week back, the teacher asked us to let the office know. When we spoke to the office they asked us to fill in a holiday request form and handed it to us. It's clearly just the standard one they use for school, but there was a space to write why there were exceptional circumstances for the holiday. I simply wrote that my son is only 3 and attends nursery.
When he's returned today, we've been handed the form back with the "unauthorised" box ticked and the head teacher's signature on. This feels ridiculous, there's no requirement for him to be at school, so there's not going to be any fines issued or anything. In the grand scheme of things it makes no difference which box they tick, we're still on holiday and there's literally nothing else that happens. But it's made me feel really upset as though I'm doing something wrong by enjoying a term time holiday while we're still legally allowed to. I'm don't think I'll even bother letting them know in advance for the other holidays and just calling up on the day to let them know.
Has anyone ever heard of this before? Part of me wants to complain about the process, but I also don't want to get a reputation for being awkward when we'll be dealing with the school for the next 10 years.