Extended settling in process, would it be awful to take ds out of reception for a Fri and Mon when he's only doing 2.5hrs a day anyway?

[thegrammerpolicesic]

Ds starts reception soon and has a ridiculous settling in process of weeks of less than 3 hours per day which he just doesn't need.

I have the opportunity for us to go on a lovely long weekend away in October after he will have been going maybe 3 weeks. He will be settled in almost immediately, if not immediately as he's that kind of kid (he's also had five settling in sessions last term and was dashing in without a second look by the second one!) and missing two 2.5 hour sessions surely won't harm him.

Will school be really sniffy about it though?
I wouldn't take him out if he were doing proper half days or full days but given the protracted ridiculous process I can't see it will do any harm.

Views please.

If you think he will be fine settling in, then go for it and enjoy.

You will need to decide whether you are going to get permission from the school or just send in a "sorry, DS was ill..." letter after the fact. If you're upfront with the school, the may get sniffy, although, of course, they may not. They might make you fill in holiday forms, otherwise it will go down as unauthorised absence.

Will have to be upfront as too high a risk of ds telling them all about his lovely weekend away if I pretend he is ill!

I don't mind filling in the forms etc. as I'm used to that from preschool but I don't want to give the impression that we don't take the settling in process seriously or won't prioritise school normally (within reason).

Any other views?

A year ago I'd have said - don't do it.

But, having just been through Year R with my DS, with all my newly-acquired wisdom (!) I say, Go for it! It's just one weekend.

Don't make a habit of it though!

I had to pick DS up from school at 11.45 every day for the entire Autumn term last year. Ridiculous.

Of course you should go.

Right, am going to do it (subject to approval of course...)!

It's their own fault for having such a ridiculous settling in process - I wouldn't have thought about it if they were starting proper days within a week or two. I am bitter about it . It's like bloody nursery hours.

We did similar. Like MummyDragon's experience, my dd1 did half days for a whole term. I took her out for a day or two in the run up to Xmas to have a weekend away. No-one batted an eyelid. I think the stance on authorised absence varies from school to school though.