Taking kids out of school for a term - serious advance planning!

[Carveitup]

I know there will be some people out there who'll think what I want advice on is a Very Bad Idea, but it's something I think my whole family will benefit from and I want to see if I can find the best way to go about it.

My husband is self employed and can take time off when he wants, and I have a job I can do living anywhere in the world. I have 2 kids, one is 5 this summer and is in reception, the other is 2 in September. We have a house in a ski resort (that we'd like to sell, only this resort is in the middle of a bit of a property hiccup and it looks as though the market will be stagnant for at least another few years) and it seems like a season out on the slopes would be too good an opportunity to miss. There are plenty of English families out there who's families use the local education system, and there are freelance tutors about too. DH and I are also not thick and would be up for a bit of home schooling. My children would learn to ski, speak Spanish, and have their horizons opened up for them during a couple of months in resort. My thoughts are that taking them from the start of the Christmas holidays and returning at the end of February/mid march would gain the most benefit all round.

I have no idea how I even begin to go about planning for this once in a lifetime trip though, wrt my kids' education. Which would be the best year to go, based on important years at school? The earliest age I would want to take my second child would be the year he is 4 and a half, when he would be still in pre-school. My older child would be 7 and a half then, in year 3. Alternatively I could take them a year or 2 later if that fits in with the academic process better.

Also, does anyone have any experience of taking children out for 1 term, but returning to the same school? Can it be done without too much grief from the head teacher/LEA? Obviously I would be ensuring that my children's education continues while we are away. If it's too hard, we could just go out for the holidays and return in term time, but I think that would defeat the object of the experience, which is to live in a foreign country for a period of time and learn first hand about living in another country.

The school would not be able to keep your place open for you as far as I know. There are a few threads on here about it already, so you may be able to find more precise details there.

Littlefish is right. The school cannot/should not hold your place open. Once you have been off on an unauthorised absence of about two weeks, (someone else will know the exact no of days) the place gets offered to the next person on the waiting list. If you live in an area where places are not highly sought after, you may be lucky and find the space is still vacant on your return.

A friend is a head teacher in east London and had a situation whereby a father took the son abroad for a family wedding in half term, planning to return just a few days late to school. (Authorised). The mum and sister stayed behind in London. Unfortunately a relative in the same geographical location passed away so the father and son stayed on for another 2-3 weeks in all. When they returned despite the head advising the mum that the son's place was firstly in danger of being lost unless he returned v quickly, and then actually passed on to another child, the parents turned up at school to drop off both kids the next Monday after their return. It was not a pleasant situation. The sister still had a place, the son had to go to a different school for the remainder of his time in primary education, as no one left even though he was a sibling and at the top of the waiting list.

I think you need to cook up a reason for moving abroad that isn't a holiday for you and your DH, but a bona fide (or an approximation thereof) professional move. If you have to go abroad for professional reasons and you put your DC in a local school, their school in the UK is more likely to welcome them back.

If the school is not oversubscribed you should be fine getting them back in when you return. This would not be at all difficult at most of our local schools.

Thank you OP for pointing out where I have been going wrong. Instead of telling DD's school she has mental health issues that prevent her from leaving the house let alone going to school (the truth) I should have just told them we wanted to go to Spain for six months. Then they wouldn't be pestering me to get her back or face prosecution and/loosing her place. Sorted.

Just to confirm that the school cannot hold your places open for a full term. If someone else applies for a place while you are away they will get it and your children will lose out. You may be lucky but it cannot be guaranteed.

Sigh! I predicted a biscuit within the first 5 replies, but thanks for at least letting me get up to 6 replies before getting one. To the constructive replies, thank you for confirming what I thought might be the case.

We wouldn't be on holiday, DH and I would both be working. DH works for himself, and I work in the travel trade. In reply to Bonsoir, I travel abroad for professional reasons every time I go to work!

The school is heavily oversubscribed, so not worth the risk.

So there we go - 'you have a fantastic opportunity, but don't take it, keep on the same old treadmill! We don't like our horizons broadened any more than the bare minimum....'

Big risk, but once you have applied for your son's place, and the deadline has passed then you might risk taking your daughter out on the basis that when she returns, she would be his sibling in the school - if school gives priority to older as well as younger siblings, but as PP said, no guarantee and might end up with 2 school runs. Admission might know the ins and out of timing on that option.

I can see your point, and would love to do likewise, but also you would be depriving child on top of waiting list of a place in a great school.

We don't like our horizons broadened any more than the bare minimum....'

But this is entirely your choice, yes?? The issue is that your children would probably have to return to a different school...but its still entirely open for you to decide to do.

No one is stopping you, why sound bitter at anyone else?

You sound very bitter here op.
If you want to go, go. If you don't, don't. Who are we to tell you what to do.
It does sound a good opportunity, and if you are prepared to lose your school place, that's fine.
Or continue to home educate when you get home.

actually i think that a ski season is too short a period of time for a young family to settle into a place. i'd be looking at going for at least 12-18months if you really want the kids to learn spanish and then accepting that you probably won't get back into the same school classes - but after that period of time the classes will be different anyway so not such a loss.

I have known children go abroad (usually for a year) from my DCs oversubscribed school, and get back in. But they were in years 3-6 and they appealed. It is a risk.
I also know one family who went for just one year, and as far as I know never came back. Partly because their son's skiing developed massively.

i'd def go for it, but just accept they might have to go to a different school if/ when you return.

to put it in context though, we have always moved a lot - my 12yo is in her 7th school. we never have any choice about schools, just stick them in the nearest one. mine are 12,10 and 8 now, and have moved schools every year or two at the most.

to be honest, if you are only going for such a short space of time i might not bother - as others have said, it isn't really long enough to get any benefits from the 'experience'.

plan on a year. you can stay longer if you're having a ball.

i should also add that we are now living in our ski 'chalet'. have been for nearly a year.

I took DD overseas at 4 and put her into school. It takes time for acquire a language - you are looking at 3-4 months of listening before they really begin to speak. It is only a year on that I would say she is fluent - and we still have problems with phonics homework because either we can't work out what the picture is, or if I manage to guess I'm then wielding a dictionary. I don't know the Spanish system, but I'm not convinced that spending a couple of months in a Spanish school when they are just starting to learn phonics will actually be that easy for them.

I agree with maybenow re amount of time. I will add that if you can take children abroad - have taken DD all over the place - they get just as much out of it as proper school (some teachers told me that they thought she would get more out of a year abroad than a year in Reception) provided you take the initiative and support their development in english (in our case we read quite a bit and do maths in english etc). Friends think it is the best thing I could have done for DD, so if you can wangle a full year, I would go for it.

Independent schools are often more amendable to holding places or at least keeping you at the top of the waiting list. A friend took her dc to Fr and put them in the local school for a year but their UK school was a small undersubscribed one and youngest not yet of Reception age so coudl accommodate them on return. The eldest who was 9/10 gained and retained the most language but initially found it hard to fit back in, middle child (7ish) was fluent on return but retained less and youngest doesn't remember much about it. I'm not sure 4 months would really be long enough to benefit especially if they were educated at home in English and age may not really make much difference although from the academic pov, ds found it hard to make up ground at age 7 having not previously attended a UK school. Consider also that you/they may not want to return to the same school or routines.

I would go in a heartbeat. Your children are so young and as long as you can continue with your five year olds education yourself and know where they should be at by the time you come home, what have you lost? You may even decide to stay!

OK, you could have lost your school place, but you may not!!! If you have, then you just have to find another one - as Madwoman says, children can move schools OK, there will be other school near you.

Life is too short, enjoy this special time and make some memories, 4 months is hardly here or there either way, I wouldn't expect them to be fluent, but you know what they say about children hearing and being imersed in a language at an early age - they can then pick it up so much easier at a later date. They will however learn something about a different culture and country.

I am sure lots of people move away because of work and then things don't work out and come back again, not really much different in your case.

The biscuit was not because of what you want to do - I think it is a wonderful opportunity and of course you should do it.

It was because the education system in this country would accept you doing it - but it doesn't accept my DD being out of school because of a mental illness.

It was not aimed at you , but the system and I'm sorry. Please take your children for this great experience for at least a school year. Call it home schooling because thats what it is.

Good Luck :)