Can i take my child out of school for 3 days before the end of term ?????

[maltesers]

Apparently things have changed and now you dont get 2 weeks if you wish to take your child out of school through the year .. Is this correct ????????????????? I plan to take my 7 yr old ds out next week three days b4 the end of term.... Is this now allowed in the State system ???????? TBH.... i have already booked the holiday and am going with ds....... Have you any advice please ??????

you are going straight to hell lady, oh yeah!

Yes you can!! You can take up tp 10 days off term time - just need to fill in a form! Ask at school reception.

I think you have to write the education authority for permission.

My neighbour did this but her dc were still marked down as unauthorised absence (sp)

Good luck though and enjoy the holiday

It will be unauthorised absence though. Not that makes any difference to whether you go or not.

May depend where you are though

You are supposed to ask permission from your head teacher before you book.

IME these requests have never been refused (not that we've done it often), but as they get older the schools do get more reluctant.

And different schools are different about it - one of my dcs schools was much more po faced than the other.

It helps your case if your children are a) doing well at school b) have a good attendance record already

I have not heard anything about the system changing.

I would not worry about it. We have taken ours out of school two years running. This year though is different as DS1 is in final year at primary and has a lot going on.

However, it is costing us an extra load of money to go on holiday when they break up in July.

You will probably have to fill out a holiday form and get it authorised by the head.

Schools do not have any obligation to let you take time off school. The "you can take 10 days off" is not entirely true as it is down to individual schools.

School cannot stop you from taking time off - from their own point of view it is better if the absence is authorised (ie they are happy with your child being off) and so the "worst" they could do is to say it is an unauthorised absence.

I think that some schools, if you have an unauthorised absence for a certain length of time will say that your child's place at the school is removed. This seems unlikely to happen in your case.

thanks for helpful advice everyone.

As Idris says, the 10 days is at the headteacher's discretion.

At the school I work at, holidays in term time have always been vaguely disapproved of, but allowed anyway - but we now have a new head who was horrified at the number of days that were being taken - she now insists that all requests are made to her in person, rather than just filling in a form and is mostly not authorising them if it's just for a normal holiday because it's cheaper - she does allow odd days for important family events.

This is of course hugely unpopular with many parents (though there have been approving comments from many others who think you shouldn't take children out during term time anyway)

The 'unauthorised absence' statistics are going to look pretty bad this year, but the head is perfectly happy to argue the case to OFSTED that it's better than a lot of authorised absences that shouldn't have been.

I got 7 days off in May authorised for dd without any problems, just wrote a letter to the head,

We dont get the ten days, unless its for a really valid reason the head wont authorise term time absence. Doesnt bother me in the slightest as I personally dont agree with term time holidays, not sure what other parents think but not heard anybody say anything.

I took dd out for 9 days at end of summer term last year. Filled in a form that was approved by head. We had special circumstances due to my dh serious illness but they did look at dds previous absences and it was allowed because her previous attendance percentage had been good and also because of circumstances. One parent in school once lied and said her dd was ill when they were going away for weekend. She was mortified to discover on parent's evening her childs detailed account of their weekend away in her news diary!!!!So beware little white lies they may return to haunt you!!!!!!!!!!!

ds was in high school and they absolutely will not authorise term time holidays. Luckily he had finished gcses so had officially left school as even with our special circumstances they would have said no probably. I know they have threatened educational welfare to some with unauthorised absences

thnx for input mnetters.....have filled in the form and the head of ds school has authorised our absence as okay !!