unauthorised absence?

[jen333]

Just one day!! - last day of term, to enable us to take holiday (flights Fridays only) in school half term. Did the honest thing and made official application. Just received letter to say that it is unauthorised. One other day requested two years ago - my dd has excellent attendance otherwise. Has the world gone mad??

Stopthinking,

take them. it might not be authorised. If you think it confers enough benefit to outweigh the disadvantages of absence from school, and your absence record is otherwise good, there will be no practical consequences.

But the school would be quite reasonable in not authorising it as from their point of view, they wish to send the signal that all children should always be in school.

OK, I get it now :) Thanks

teacherwith2kids I quite liked your example and may use that at work in the future, if you do not mind

How does this work with children being taken out of school for sport during the day. If they are there for each registration period does it go down as absence?

"as an absence"

Isn't the situation with the treatment of absenses a hypocrisy though? From September till Christmas DS (Y2) had a supply teacher, his actual teacher was ill. Last year (Y1) half way through the year, a teacher on maternity leave got back to school, so he had to have a new teacher. Every Monday they have a supply teacher. Every so often, last day before holiday would be announced half-day. But if the parent wants it to be a half-day, it's a criminal offence!

I am unhappy with DS school, I supplement his learning every evening, doing literacy, numeracy; I've basically become a primary school teacher for my son as with the school teaching he just was not progressing. He was falling so behind being bright that I thought at some point that he might have some SEN and took him to get tested. There, I've been told that DS is of an extra superior intelligence with no SEN issues. The woman doing the test was suprised he was not in any top group in any subject and I felt I've been bullied by DS teacher into believing I was a paranoid mother of an average child. So now I teach him myself, and he skyrocketed.

And so his school, unable to teach him, can absolutely intimidate me and block me from having a day off with him, a day in which he actually learns much more than at school! HE and formal schooling are too far apart. DS loves his friends at school, and his social life is very important. I also work full-time.

I remember perfectly well how my mother allowed me to stay at home and just have some rest sometimes, and I skipped school. I have a PhD now and teach in a Uni, and this intimidating and mad attendance policy makes me sick.... Unless the parent is absolutely oblivious to what the child learns/is supposed to be learning, and never does any work with him/her, I cannot see how not attending 100% can affect education. Currently, it feels more like a prison than a school.

The example with ''being married'' made me laugh.

So if someone has an affair or one night stand on the divorce papers would it be written as ''unauthorsied absence''

olgus,

I look at this from the perspective of someone who teaches in a school with a challenging intake, where a large proportion of parents are illiterate or sub-literate, where there is a definite absence of 'MN' type mums who want to take children out to do educational things with them and a proponderance of parents who fail to take their children to school because a) it's their birthday b) they overslept c) it's PE day and they don't much like PE d) the baby was awake in the night etc etc etc.

Taken at this 'macro' level, I can hand on heart say that there is a staightforward correlation between the progress of each child and their attendance. That applies not only to our children from challenging backgrounds - I can also say that the children who are routinely taken out for a week or two of holiday during the year 'because it's cheaper', or who have a number of day trips scattered through the year ON AVERAGE make less progress than their peers who do not. I don't think it's the absence itself that necessarily causes the lack of progress. I don't think it's that simple. I think it's also that those parents who value school and education ON AVERAGE (I emphasise that these are average comments on a school-wide scale) do not routinely take such holidays and it is that value placed on education (also reflected in e.g. reading at home, discussion of school topics at home, enrolling at the library etc) which also contributes to progress.

If what you have reported is your son's school experience, move schools. It is not the school system which is wrong, it is your particular school.

. It is not the school system which is wrong, it is your particular school

Never a truer sentence written.

A change of HT - new impetus from the LEA can make a huge decision as to whether you are fined or not.
DH has a job that means he can be re-called from holidays (has happened ) and has to book holidays in-between work. My DCs have all excellent attendance. Under 1 HT, there was poor school attendance. For 2 days out of school we were fined £600. The following year - same school, different HT, we missed half term by a week and it was totally accepted - and authorised.
Working in a school - yes I can see how affected children are by persistent absence. I am primarily against taking children out for holidays.
I am also against our DCs sitting in front of a dvd for the afternoon at the end of term - its a waste of everybody's time - and they could be on holiday!
From the posts on here, I think what is lacking is a standardised policy. It shouldn't matter what your LEA decides, it should be a national policy, so we all know where we stand.