When term time holiday is not authorised...

[Lukethe3]

....how do you politely tell the school you are going anyway? An email on the Monday morning or a letter? Or do I just tell the class teacher?

i wouldn't bother being polite. someone like my DP has his performance - what enables him to keep his job - measured on things like attendance.

so don't pretend you are being polite as it wont really wash.

That's quite harsh faster. I am trying to be polite as I don't like messing up the school attendance record. You have no idea why we need the week off but we absolutely do.

We asked to take ds out of school to go away to scatter my mums ashes and were refused. Sharnt bother asking in future. Ds will miss the last day of the year as we are going away that day rather than the sat as its about 200 quid cheaper. Ill just phone in sick for him.

So it's likely that OP's request for term time absence was declined so your DP could get a good performance review? How beneficial.

the school cannot authorise absence. they don't have any authority to do it. they are not choosing not to authorise.

I have always filled in the form detailing the dates they will be away from school.
The form is always returned as unauthorised.
I then email the school office on the day before to remind them that the children won't be in school.

Usually I get an email back saying thank you & have a good holiday.

So why does a parent need authorisation then if the school don't authorise? Or am I missing the point !

Our school certainly does authorise!

In fact our head thinks holidays for primary school kids can be very educational and I agree.

I am aware some heads say they can authorise holidays, but DP says they do not understand education law and it will still be recorded as unauthorised absence.

I think the school can authorise educational or enriching activities. So a trip to war graves, or safari etc may get authorised whereas a week at Disneyland would be hard to get.

We have had term time leave authorised

Absence is authorised or declined at the headteacher's discretion.

Faster- is that so people can get better performance reviews?

Sorry posted too soon

We have had leave authorised for:

• wedding in another country
• to compete at sport
• participate in royal visit

OP to answer your last question...Because in certain exceptional circumstances a Headteacher may authorise an absence in term time. There is no entitlement to in term holiday. The correct process is to request the absence, the Headteacher will then respond - in line with absence policy at the school. If there is no authorisation and you decide to go ahead with the holiday the absence is marked as unauthorised. You should confirm the child's absence before you go so that school does not have cause to alert the educational welfare officer if your child is absent and you are not contactable to explain why - most schools will follow up absent pupils if there is no call or note from a parent/carer.

Yes, the headteacher's discretion....but with guidance from County and the Government

thistlelicker Fri 19-Apr-13 17:39:08
Faster- is that so people can get better performance reviews?

no strangely its to do with education of children, what with it being school...

I sent in a letter and was told tht no way would it be authorised, so i asked the secretary, well shall i just not bother with the letter and she said no, please send it anyway as if ofsted look at our attendence we can say that we didn't authorise it and this is better than just not pitching up. So i would write and ask for permission, if its not granted then you just tell them ok, thanks, but i shall be taking it as unauthorised leave. It is then up to the school whether they report you to the LA

guidance from County and the Government and what's the guidance?

FAster, why are you so defensive?

Our school doesn't authorise under any circumstances, but they still prefer you to fill out a holiday form so they can account for each child. They send it back unauthorised.

'The law' allows schools to authorise absence under 'exceptional circumstances'. This is just vague enough to give heads the authority to authorise term time holidays. For example, an armed forces family may have very restricted holidays based on leave.

It is entirely up to the head (in some LEAs) to decide what constitutes exceptional circumstances.

Our headteacher regularly authorises holidays. Another primary school in our LEA never authorises holidays. Guess which has the best overall attendance?

Yes faster why the defensiveness?

Our school authorises holiday. I had two weeks authorised last year and this year I'm taking dd out of school for two weeks in June.