oops! just got back from short break to find it was an unauthorised abscence....

[oops]

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I am very surprised if it is as low as 82%.

Thats a bit like a day off a week. as in 1 in 5.

If irrc the alarm bells are set to ring as it dips below 80% but if you are not generally keeping your child from education I suspect it'll be fine even if it did get flagged up.

One holiday would not account for that level of absence. Has dc been ill a bit?

Oh just read further again. As it goes, legally under no obligation to attend education or home ed whatever until the term after they are five.so don't worry it'll be okay from legal pov more about whatever you dc missed and schools covering selves.
So 1) check accuracy sounds unlikely high and 2)stop skipping school

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Oh that was you!

God I remember that, shite thing to happen. good grief.

Look don't worry about the letter. I seriously doubt anything will come of it and even if it did it only takes a moments chat to realise that you are not slacking in trying to educate your child which is all any would care about anyway.

An as I say, he isn't five yet so doesn't even need to be at school (legally).

You did what was necessary and right. don't worry.

Dunno why holiday wasn't authorised. Can only guess it was a general policy of two weeks holiday authorisation and no more. clearly no taken into account your individual circumstances. But hey, don't be too harsh on school it is easy for individual reasons to get misplaced. Terms over now anyway. start afresh in new term. no biggy?

schools are allowed by law to give 10 school days authorised absense. Your child has had more than this which explains the 82%, thats why they had to by law send the letter.

We have had this type of thing happen and it is rubbish but a legal thing that the school has to do. Unfortunatly the 10 days is a legal requirement and anyone who exceeds that for any reason gets a letter. Pity they didnt forewarn you of this though, so that you would know it was coming and that you can probably ignore it.

Even if the EWO was to get involved they would realise what you situation is and back off pretty quick, there are parents who dont bother to keep their children in school or who take 6 holidays a year - these are the ones who get the EWO on their backs

hope all is well now with the builders - not fun having the work done anyway let alone all the other crap you had going on

My local education authority has stopped giving 10 day authorised absense, any holiday goes down as unauthorised.
82% attendance is low but as mentioned he doesn't legally have to be at school yet.

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Yes - that's what happens here - even if you tell them when the child will be away, any absence from school other than illness is unauthorised (both primary & secondary)

If your son isn't 5 yet then he's not statutory school age so legally there is nothing they can do. Don't worry.

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Children don't need to be in school until the term after their fifth birthday as sunnydelight says there is nothing the school can legally do. I've had a child in my class this year with 67% attendance (that means she's missed the equivalent to a full school term) who's mother told me as much when I raised my concern with her.

Nothing they can do at all! He doesn't have to be at school. The only time I've known an EWO get involved with a reception age child is when her attendance was about 60% and there were concerns about the conditions in which she was living.

Does your attendance figure include any part-time attendance at the begining of Reception?

It's the term Aafter they turn 5 - which in your case, in England, would be September 2008.

Our local authoity doean't agree ANY hiday time as 'authorised', and in fact i thought that came from some very complicated code thing that all schools have to use to fill in the register. In most places, afaik, the '10 days authorised' thing is not quite accurate.
Wheras you won't gt 'authorised' absence fo hol, your place at the school will be kept. But in an over-subscribed school in our LA if you took more than 10 days unauthorised absence you would be lkely to return to fnd that your place had been offered to someone else!

Otherwise (as long as it isn't triggering an investigation into v low attendance) all that 'unauthorised absence' means is that the school gets judged on it's levels of unauthorised absence (it is a section in an ofsted reposrt, along wih attendance and punctuality), and nothing a all happens t you.

Tell your DH to chill - if has no implication for you - it's th end of the school year s you won't be taking any more this year.

so it's no prob really with regrads to the being 5 thing.

Yet you didn't tell the school about this at all? then rang in to ask/tell them you were also taking tues and wednesday?

After your dc is 5, you'll have to do this.

don't worry, imho all your child's absences can be accounted for. School are covering themselves maybe. little one doesn't even have to be at school yet..

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Legally he must be in school the term after he turns 5, but would stay with his peer group so would go straight into Y1.

Just to say, the focus is now on persistent absence, but not sure if LAs have switched over to this.

As long as this is a one off, I don't think you should have any problems.

Sorry, haven't read the whole thread.

Your child isn't 5 yet - absence data excludes rising 5s, so don't worry.

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Oops, I wouldn't just bury the letter. Better to take the moral highground and speak to the Head (rather than correspond by letter). Explain to him/her just like you have to us and I'm sure the slate will be wiped clean and you can both move on.

Even once he turns 5 it's no big deal - each parent can be fined £50 but that's the end of it and apparently a fine very rarely happens anyway.

we had 2 weeks holiday this year and DD was sent home from school and was poorly for 2 weeks! we got a letter too, it said that they were monitoring DDs abstances

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