I am taking DD to Disney during school days. Help with a letter to headteacher please.

[sississy]

DD is going to be 5 and we are taking her to Disney Paris for the first time.
In fact it is going to be our first holiday since she was born.
We can not afford to go during school holidays...and the park will be too busy anyway.
She will have to be absent for two days, Thrusday and Friday.
How do I write a letter to school, what to say?
Have anyone done that before?
Or am I such a bad parent, and should not be doing it at all?

I know in your case it might not matter, because she hasn't been there long, but sometimes it depends on how many absences she has had previously.
I asked for leave during term time, and the HT said, she can not authorise it as his attendance was already low, for that year.
We had already booked tickets so I told her I would still need to take him off, and she understood, but told me it was unauthorised as that is a standard thing they have to do. I was allowed to do it once, if I did it again the LA would contact me.

hi NKF I just wanted some advice on how to write the letter and I discovered there is no need to write a letter as there is a form. And I also discovered that I don't need to give them details about the holidays and I got nice tips. Nothing to be puzzled about. It is not a dilemma. It is paid for, booked and going to happen. There is nothing I want from school at all. Not even a authorized absence, I don't give a shit if it will be authorized or not.

To be honest 2 days out of school unauthorised is not going to set off any further action from the school. Unauthorised absence is only a concern if the child has poor attendance (nationally lower than 95% attendance over the school year).

By the government guidelines students are only at school 190 days of the year and therefore taking a holiday (this may sound unjust) is not a reason for a child to be out of school. Of course we all know the price of holidays during school holidays rockets sky high and I am sure the government would be better off stopping this. But for the purpose of the childs attendance report schools are more likely to unauthorise the holiday usually as a deterrant.

I made a similar request for DS (also Reception, also Disney). Head teacher authorised it immediately.

I double checked with his firm teacher and asked her if there was anything that I needed to cover with him that he might miss. She suggested we look at the phonic sound that his group will bd covering on that day. Other than that she said to enjoy ourselves.

Try not to worry, put the form in, don't tell any lies. It may simply get authorised. If not you can go anyway, it will be marked as unauthorised absence but provided your DC has no issues regarding attendance or anything else it will be Jo big deal.

Off at a tangent, you could get 3/4 weeks away in the uk for what it will cost for one weekend at Disney.

My father in law passed away last year and my mother in law wanted my DD to go to Jamaica to keep her company. They were due to leave 2 days before the holidays started, I explained to the school and they said it was not allowed and if we took her we could be prosecuted.

And my DD has had 99% attendance for the last 3 yrs

Could be not will be - if your child had attended every day that year and did not have any further days off in the future you cannot be prosecuted.

School I work at work not set anything in action for this, for a child with good attendance generally. It may or may not go down as authorised, but nothing more, amd def not prosecution or fine.

I think it's the local authorities who prosecutes, not the school. The school is just following the rules about absence. . Nothing will happen to parents whose children are usually in school.

We did this. I know cost isn't supposed to be a factor but for 5 of us it was.

I think you should take the tack that you are asking not telling them you need to take dd out.

I think it's ok to be honest about what this is for. Be polite. Make sure attendance and timekeeping has always been A1. I also said I'd be happy to help dc catch up with anything they missed at school. School didn't take me up on that but I offered.