Taking an under 4 year old out of school during term time not allowed?

[ImbarbaraB]

My child will be starting reception in september. He will be one of the youngest in the class.

Holidays obviously have been cancelled/postponed from last year and again this year.
We can rebook again next year for the same dates but its during school term time.

The school say that children in reception class will not be granted holidays during school term.

If a child is under 5 do the rules in law apply?

If we rebook during school holidays the cost goes from £800 to £2000, so quite a hefty increase if we have to change the dates

Under 5 years education is not compulsory so if you took him out for a week the LA can't fine you. Take the opportunity while you can!

The law does not apply until the term after a child’s 5th birthday. So for example an April turned five year olds could go on holiday right through reception l. School policy does not trump law no matter what they may try and claim.

When my kids were at primary stage, because I’m an emergency services worker we sometimes took term time holidays, always trying to tag it onto Inservice etc
I once got the bullshit letter back from the school telling me “permission denied”. I responded by telling them I wasn’t asking for permission, I was telling them the kids wouldn’t be into school.

Im in Scotland though

Can’t find you until the term after they turn five…although schools may record it as unauthorised absence

The DC does not have to be in education (school, in your case) until they reach CSA.

But if you choose to enrol them before that then yes they are expected to attend

You cannot be fined, but other attendance management measures can be used.

In practice, it'll go down as unauthorised, but little else will be done. The school won't like it because obviously they want the DC to be present and the class to cohere. It's been very disruptive for DC to miss a week or two because of need to SI - out must be able to see why they dont want that happening for holidays.

I'd make sure the re-booking is not in the first half of the autumn term (so your DC settles securely) and I'd avoid the last week of a term (they miss the fun stuff).

I took DD out the last week of the autumn term of her reception year, when she was 5 in the autumn term, and she didn't get a fine when my other DCs who were older did.

There is no unauthorised absence recorded below CSA. There is a separate register for such children.

You can send them as much or as little as you want before ther term after they turn 5. And that's the first full term, not half term, to be clear.

The school should record any absence for non-CSA as non-CSA. Ask for a copy of the register to ensure its been recorded correctly, but it's in their interests to record it correctly too - it looks worse on their attendance stats if it goes down as unauthorised.

I sent dd 4 days a week until she was CSA and we also had 1 week hol. Fortunately her school were well acquainted with it being my right to do so, so I had no challenges to it.

If your child is registered at a school then you are not permitted to take them out for holidays unless you meet the exception criteria. So even if your child isn’t yet five if they are enrolled into Reception you can’t just take them out.

@Seashor that is completely incorrect ,why post something you have just made up?

@Seashor

If your child is registered at a school then you are not permitted to take them out for holidays unless you meet the exception criteria. So even if your child isn’t yet five if they are enrolled into Reception you can’t just take them out.

This is wrong. You cannot be fined for taking a child out of school unless the child is of compulsory school age.