Parents - Please be Truthful!

[RiversideMum]

A young lad in my class has been very excited all week about a trip to a "well known place with indoor pools where you can either go M-Th or F-S". Yesterday, Mum called in and said he'd been sick on the way to school. HT on the warpath on Monday!

I must live in a parallel universe to MN, as children in my school are taking just as many days/ weeks out for holidays as ever.

Clam same as ours.

Think they go down as unauthorised but then it is up to the head as to whether he/she will take it further.On asking our school office they said he was keeping an eye on it and would clamp down if needed.Clearly things are fine.

I have no intention of taking my dc out but have no problem if others wish to do so,I may do the same further down the line.Have quite enjoyed hearing about their exploits.Most parents can be trusted with their dc's education.

Clam - maybe those families have been fined. The fine is a lot cheaper than having a holiday during school holidays.

No I asked if we'd get fined if it went as unauthorised.Office said no- for now.

Looked on County website and it said unauthorised may get taken further,not that it automatically would.

Agree with Maria.

Riverside:

There's been a lot of posting about the affect this new policy is actually having on people...

People having to make tough decisions about whether their child should attend a family wedding/ funeral/ etc... or not.

As with many policies from DofE these days - this is in fact devolved down to individual schools and herein lies the problem. One school (e.g Clam & Retropear examples above) will be reasonable about this - track absences, record holiday time as unexecused absence but not report pupils to the LEA unless there is an issue (chronic absence/ declining performance/ etc...) and other schools (e.g. ours) will report children to the LEA who've actually been out with chronic illness (asthmas, tonsilitis, etc...) and most rational people would see that as a totally justifiable reason for absence.

In fact this is the problem generally - In England, at least there does not seem to be any attempt at establishing a general approach - the 'best left to individual schools/ communities approach' means there is real disparity between delivery of such general and unspecific guidance.

Finally - I don't think you can blame a parent for lying in this situation. They don't want to get in trouble but also last year they were allowed to do this (and some families plan several years ahead for big trips - like disneyworld).

I also find it slightly difficult to understand why a PGL or ski-trip (or indeed an end of Year 6 trip to a major theme park) during term is considered educational when the school does it - but NOT EDUCATIONAL when a parent takes their child on a roughly similar trip as part of a family vacation.

If teachers are allowed to strike in term-time and thus cost working parents an arm and a leg in childcare fees or to use up a day of annual leave, and result in their child missing a day of education (that is not made up later in the year) then I think it is very unreasonable for HTs to not turn a blind eye to the odd day off.

Oh ffs, teachers' strikes have nothing whatsoever to do with the Government's decision to clamp down on term-time holidays. It is also very different when the whole class are not in school, as nothing will be taught that day, whereas if one individual is absent, then the rest of the class are surging ahead, potentially leaving that absent child behind.

Also, for the zillionth time here on MN, school is not childcare, and therefore parents' arrangements for their children on a strike day is up to them.

They still miss a day of education when the teachers are on strike in term time. It's nothing to do with childcare. It is a case of the child can't miss school when it suits the family as they are missing important education, but they can miss the day when it suits the teachers to be on strike...double standards?

As a teacher, I would do nothing and pretend not to know anything about the trip. It's not part of my job to investigate absence.

Although in my school, the Head is authorising all holiday requests still anyway. They can use their discretion and how one interprets 'exceptional' is subjective.

Im sure my Head believes that it's better to authorise holidays than have lots of unexplained 'sickness' absence, when the attendance person from the borough comes to check.

You are not a detective and you have no evidence. If I was to believe what my children say about their teachers I would be on the war path every day.

Well I think he should be kicked out of school and his parents sent to prison for 10 years.

Honestly have you or the school not get anything else more pressing to worry about :(

But Tiggy don't Ofsted look at absences,they must be impossible to hide,sure they're on the report.We've just been done and got a good report so absence is clearly not an issue. If parents aren't taking the piss and absence rates are fine even with no fines because of county policy then surely nobody can complain or accuse schools of wrong doing.

ICantFindAFreeNickName They haven't been fined. I know this for a fact.

I agree in principle parents shouldn't take dcs out of school for holiday. However for many people they may either have to lie or never be able to afford to have any holiday away. For me many my family members are not in the uk so I really don't know if my dcs will see their extended families again during school ages if ever. I am finding school test results seem to dominate childhood so much nowadays.