What do I tell the school?

[ChalkyC]

I need to take my year 1 son out of his school for a day next week for a taster day at a local prep school. It had never occurred to me to be anything other than completely honest about why he needed a day off....but actually what is the protocol for this? It may be that for a number of reasons we don't go ahead and he stays where he is...in which case I'm not really into having a big discussion about this with the head at this stage!

What do people usually do?

I just told DS's class teacher that it would be happening. You don't actually need permission and it's up to them how they record the absence. DS's school were actually quite supportive as we were clear it was not about the quality of teaching at his primary but about lining ourselves up early for age11. When we had decided DS was definitely moving we did request a day off so he could attend a sports event at the new school before the end of term and the Head said I needn't have put a request in writing for that!

Thanks - that's really helpful - and a similar reason to us for the change!

Hi

I emailed the school, and gave a little detail as to why we were planning on a change. You probably dont need to give any reason at all if you dont want too.
I did leave it as late as possible to inform them though just beacause of the rummor mill in the playground which I wanted to avoid!
We had to do 2 consecutive taster days so I also combined it with a TT day to make it less disruptive to all. They were absolutly fine about it.