Leave declined for wedding....

[eleanorrubysmummy]

Oh dear! My husbands brother is getting married in Feb (on a Friday), been planned 2 years, hub is best man & DD is bridesmaid. just moved up to year3 at a new school so did the right thing & applied for authorized day off......declined & also intimated that an application to fine us will be made if we go!! I'm so stuck......can anyone help/advise/guide us for this pls???

[Bramshott]

Tiggytape - maybe "absolute right" was a bad turn of phrase. I guess what I was trying to say is that the school cannot physically stop you, nor take away your child's place, nor refer you to social services if you take your DC out of school for a small number of days (and I thought that was up to 10) each year.

What they can't do either (except in truly exceptional circumstances) is record it as authorised, or have any influence over whether the LA will fine you or not.

When we discuss this on here I think people fail to understand what schools can and can't do, and that it isn't a moral judgement rather just rules and regulations, and I was trying to cut through that!

[NoMoreMarbles]

My DDs school has always had the policy of not authorizing holidays in term time.

Every July we go to the Cotswolds on a camping trip and go to RAF Fairford air tattoo (since DD was about 7 months old she is now 7 yo)
and when she started full time school i asked for permission to take her out of school. I always had a letter back to say no and intimating there may be a fine etc we couldnt afford to go in July 2012 so DD had 100% attendance and i asked her what she had been doing in school on the one day we asked for...she said "watching cinderella and colouring in"

This year i wrote a short letter to the head advising him we would be going, where we were going and what we would be doing whilst we were there. I decided that i wouldnt be asking permission to take MY DD out of school for 1 day when her attendance record is otherwise impeccable and she would literally spend the day colouring in etc whether She misses 1 day at school or not is MY decision and if they felt there would be an issue with this then i am available to discuss it further. I didnt hear from the head about it.

In your shoes OP, i would write back thanking the head for his response and advise him that your DD will not be in that day as previously advised and leave it at that.