Will attending his dad's wedding on a school day count as absence and result in a fine?

[Saralocky28]

My sons dad is getting married in a month and it falls on a school day. If I send an absence form into school I'm guessing it will be authorized but does this still count as a day they use against you if you've taken them out for family holidays?

We've just returned from holiday and DS had 2 missed school days unauthorized but they were aware it was for a holiday.

Do I just say he's sick as it's one day? We are planning taking him out 2 days in October too for a family trip. So if we include all of these he will have missed 10 sessions. Likely will result in a fine.....

Not sure whether to be fully honest or not as I feel you have to work the school system these days!

But it won’t as paying the fine is still cheaper than paying the increased rates during school holidays. Substantially cheaper!

You've just contradicted your own response!

I HAVEN'T taken him out for regular holidays. He's had 2 days in 5 years.

Yes I would like to and it's my choice if I do. I simply asked about what's authorised and what isn't.

I am very much aware how important education is but so is family memories, I think I'll take the hit on 2 days.

If holidays weren't so expensive and catered to SEND children within the holidays, I'd not be asking these questions. But they don't so....

Exactly that because it is cheaper to get married on a weekday. You could say a holiday doesn’t need to be expensive, why not just go for a weekend away in the country you live, that will be far cheaper than a week or two abroad but that’s not people want. Why should someone pay for a weekend wedding when they don’t want to or maybe can’t afford it? A wedding doesn’t have to cost a lot correct however if that’s the wedding the bride and groom want they can have what they decide.

This is exactly how it works in our LA too.

I haven't. I took my child out for an immediate family wedding not a holiday. Which will not be repeated in my child's education.
The 10 sessions before the fine have to be unauthorised so therefore if your school authorised the day for the wedding it wouldn't count against you.

I would class regularly as more than one a year to take a child out for a holiday. You don't mentioned in your OP that this isn't what you do every year or that you haven't done it in 5 years. What is stopping you doing it next year as it was easy this year and then the year after.

I completely sympathise with having to do go outside of holiday time for a SEND child, but I don't agree with lying as you originally asked. And I also strongly don't agree with taking children out for holidays which you other days are.

I find posts like this so cringe-worthy. Don't you think those hours have been worked at another time? Or do the teachers at your school just magically not do statutory training for things like administration of medicine, GDPR and safeguarding? Failure of which to complete annually would cause an instant Ofsted failure.

It depends on what your local authority rules are. Here you have to miss 5 days (10 sessions) in a row before you get a fine. So missing 2 days for a holiday and then another day for a wedding wouldn’t result in a fine where I am. If you call him in sick they can’t do anything to prove that you lied really. I’d just be honest personally and get your child’s dad to pay the fine if it comes in.

Detriment my arse 😂 I just took my kids on a 3 week holiday to Australia that wasn’t detrimental to them or their education, i fact i can guarantee they learned more on that holiday than they would have at school in the last week of term. I’ll just pay the fine I couldn’t give a shiny shit.
Also i completely disagree that fines are aimed at stopping families taking term time holidays, there are parents out their that simply cannot be arsed to take their kids to school - that’s who it’s aimed at.

If it were me I would just tell a white lie to avoid a nonsensical fine if they decide to make an example of you.

Difficult to prove someone wasn't sick for one day.

I am not advocating for poor attendance or skipping days willy nilly, but it sounds like the decision has already been made to keep him off for a genuinely worthy occasion, and it is just a case of whether you make yourself vulnerable to an unnecessary headache or not.

Who knows … isn’t that part of the role.

genuinely asking: aren’t those things done
on paid PD days? I wouldn’t expect teachers to be doing them in their free time?

If you live in England you might want to read this thread from last year: https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/amibeingunreasonable/5417392-kids-missed-3wks-school-council-taking-me-to-court.

Edited to add that I can now see you might have only taken them out of school one week, not three so this might not be relevant to you. Unless you do it three times in three years of course.

Yes they only missed a week 😬

I’m not a teacher but how on earth is a training day a day off?
I have to attend training and meetings in my role, and I can assure you I never ever think whoopie! A day off. I groan inside as I really don’t want to do it.
Perhaps the posters moaning would prefer teachers not to receive training and for their DCs to be taught an out of date curriculum.

Training Days/Inset Days are mandatory 5 days per school year, brought in by the government in the late 80's. Schools can pick what dates to hold these Inset Days, during the term. Inset Days, are not allowed to be held during the school holidays, again mandated by the government. Schools have no choice but to set these Training Days.

If you tell them the dad is getting married I think they will authorize

Check your school’s absence policy. Ours states that an immediate family member’s wedding is authorised, but only the actual day of the wedding, not any additional days round it if needed for travel.