Penalty Notices - Based on days or weeks

[wigglywoowoo]

Can anyone please tell me whether taking a Friday and a Monday (long Weekend) would count as 2 weeks or are the fines based on five days being a week?

Hmm that's interesting Prh47bridge. I may look into that.

these rules take the chance to do so away from them

No they don't. The rules are not rigid. The head can still authorise absence in exceptional circumstances.

None of the heads of any of the schools the children of my family and friends go to are wavering from the line that it's out of their hands, prh47bridge

So whilst you are correct that, in theory, they can authorise absence, in practice they will not.

Some heads aren't aware that they still have some discretion but many are using the changes to the regulations as a way of allowing them to take a strong line on absence while blaming the government.

So, as I said, the fact that legally they do have discretion is essentially meaningless - especially if 'your' head is one of those using it as a way to take a strong line.

I actually don't think it should be the head's decision - I think they are too close to the people involved and it could damage the relationship between the school and the family - there should be a way to appeal to the LEA.

They had more discretion previously, now they can only use exceptional circumstances. Medical grounds do fall under this. So, a head could authorise a family holiday for the mother to take her children to stay with family in Morocco after a year of exceptionally bad health problems. But this would need to be supported by a letter from a GP.

I actually don't think it should be the head's decision

If you make it the parent's decision it will become impossible for schools to do anything about absence. If you move it to the LA they are likely to say no to everything or lay down rules that are inflexible and fail to cover some situations. The head has all the facts and some knowledge of the family so is ideally placed to make the decision. They don't always get it right but I can't see any alternative that would be better.

You can appeal to the governors if you don't agree with the head but I suspect most governors would back the head. Some schools do allow appeals to the LA if an appeal to the governors is unsuccessful but such appeals are very unlikely to be upheld.