holiday during term time

[JustAnother]

WWYD? I booked our family skiing holiday before DS started junior school. It is only one week and I didn't think for a moment that they wouldn't authorise it. They always did in infants. Well, today, the letter came back as "unauthorised". What shall I do? I've paid 3K for this holiday, so I can't afford not to go!!!

If you go away it will be just that, unauthorised leave. Schools are having to justify the absences from school and are tightening up on absences during term time. If your son has not had any real time off for sickness etc in the autumn term then it should not be a major problem. If however your son has had time off then you open yourself to visits from the EWO and also potential fines, but they are not going to come anywhere near £3K!
Maybe next year you need to consider whether there is really a need to go away on holiday in term time

My reply isn't to the WWYD bit because I wouldn't book a holiday for a school-aged child without first checking the school term dates...

Your reference to Infants and Juniors implies that your DS is now attending a different school (or at least one with a different Headteacher). I think you need to write to the Head, apologise for making the assumption that s/he would authorise such an absence and explain that you will be taking your son out of school for the week beginning X/X/2011 but that you understand it will be recorded as an unauthorised absence.

The 'ten days authorised absence' isn't automatic nor is it a right - in some LAs no school will authorise absence for term-time holidays and in most schools Headteachers are under a lot of pressure to be seen to be discouraging term-time holidays because of the disruption it causes to a child's learning (and the learning of the rest of the class in the case of primary where learning moves quickly and topics in maths etc. are in weekly blocks). If you choose to send your child to school and choose to take him out for skiing holidays you are, in essence, choosing for his absence to be unauthorised.

well said

OK. I understand how it works now. Yes, they are two separate schools within the same grounds. The headteacher from last year didn't seem to have a problem with it. I booked my holiday 11 months ago, so at the time it was fine. However he left and we have someone else standing temporarity, and she's of a different opinion, obviously. Anyway, it will have to go as unauthorised and I'll learn for next year. Luckily DS has never been sick, so hopefully we won't get the EWO round.

I'll send a letter apologising, as SE13Mummy suggests.

Thanks for your answers.