Missing a school term

[Wineandrun]

I know I could go directly to the school and ask but I’m not ready to yet, just putting the feelers out. I want to take my children out of school for a summer term so we can do 4-6 months of travelling. They will be P2, P7 and S2. I’m not worried in terms of education, we will home educate and I’m lucky that my children are extremely bright and motivated. The education they will get from the travelling will be an incredible experience. However I am concerned about my son missing his last term of primary school. All his friends will be going to the same high school and they already do some classes there and know the building but he will miss the proper settling in sessions etc. I know nothing about secondary education so no idea how it will impact my eldest. She is concerned about missing her friends and I am very aware that 13 year olds have quite specific social needs but she also loves her family and understands how amazing the experience would be.

most importantly, would the school even allow this? I know term time absence for holidays are unauthorised but I don’t really care about that. I’m more concerned they will lose their place? Would I have to deregister and then re-register?

any advice or thoughts from teachers and parents welcome!

I don't think the timing is right for your older two. Your son in P7 will miss a lot by missing out on his last term there, all the transition stuff to high school but also his leavers assembly, leavers dance if they have one etc. It's also quite an important time for your S2, picking their options for going onto National 5s in S3.

The schools are unlikely to want a whole terms unauthorised absence for a holiday on their books as absence data is looked at during inspections and need to be explained etc. Schools have to try and reduce absences so I don’t think they will want to authorise a terms absence for a holiday. I think it’s likely they would want you to deregister the children if taking them out of school for that long in which case you would then need to re-apply for your return. However the only way to know for sure if you need to deregister would be to speak to the school.

I’m pretty sure you would have to de-register them.

Thank you, this is the kind of thing I need to think about. I wasn’t sure when the S2 would need to choose options etc.

If you have to deregister and reapply, are you sure your children will get places at the schools they're already at / scheduled to go to?

No, that’s what I need to find out. There’s only one high school locally so that should be fine and I don’t think the primary is oversubscribed but you never know what may happen, there’s a lot of houses being built locally!

You're right, school would be able to remove from roll and you'd have to reapply for the places. If the schools have waiting lists those places may be gone.

Do it! Might be a bit harder for your teen but definitely no issue with missing the end of yr6. Ime most kids start afresh in yr 7, as they've had 6weeks to forget about school!
But I think you have to accept you'll need to off roll your kids and they might not have a school place on your return. Talk to your teen's school first and the home ed officer at you LEA (or the Scottish equivalent), and go from there.
I'd do it in a heartbeat, but others would take a more cautious approach. You need to get more information before you look at all the pros and cons.

Thank you. We will be doing it, I can’t possibly see how the cons can outweighs the pros. I don’t mind having to sort the school admin out, my son will get over missing transition and he’s not the sort to care about a leavers dance etc. I will have to go softly softly with the eldest but hopefully it will work you!

Tricky with your S2. In ds's school they would be picking their NAT5 options and the timetable would be changing at easter to the new S3 timetable.

You won't know what subjects your S2 will be taking to home educate them in. ds was lucky he got all the options he wanted, but some friends were told no and to pick something else, either due to perceived ability or the classes were too full. One friend was told no to 2 choices he was keen to do, due to popularity, and it really impacted his attitude to school. If you have to take yours off the school roll, they will be less likely to get back into popular subjects.

P7 transition into S1 can be tough socially if they lose contact with friendship groups.

The P2 will be fine!

For your S2 they must be making their options now? SDS held National webinars in January explaining the qualification levels etc, we’ve had a year group webinar for parents, parents night and S2 report card to help with the choosing. Our options form has to be in at the end of the month? S3 starts May/June.

I think you need to firm up your ideas a bit more before talking to school? There’s a difference in taking them out for 4-6months. Are you thinking you’ll take them out until the October holidays or taking them out easter and back for August 24? Personally taking them out until August would be the least disruptive. Taking them out until the October hols will mean missing a lot of S3 curriculum.

I don't have any experience of what would happen if you stated it would be for a few months they'd miss school as opposed to taking them out permanently. But as others have said it's likely they would say no because of how it would affect their attendance figures. Especially in the current push to increase attendance rates. If you have to take them off roll , have you had a look at the process for doing this? There's no deregistration as such here , you have to ask for consent to withdraw from the school roll. It's not done through the school , the request goes to the education dept at the council. This request can not be reasonably withheld , there are just a few exceptions , usually if there are current safeguarding concerns. But along with the request for consent to withdraw, you have to send in an outline provision. This gives detail of how you would educate each child, your ethos, what kind of resources you'd use . You don't need lots of detail but there are certain things you'd have to tell them in it. The education department will look at your outline provision and tell you if it's adequate, before giving consent to withdraw. This would apply to each child if they are already enrolled in a school. The only way you don't have to request consent to withdraw is if a child is between school stages ie finishes p7 then just doesn't attend for s1. But they may still ask you for an outline provision. Anyway, this is the usual procedure with taking them off the school roll, not sure if you'd find a way around this taking them out for a few months . Apologies if you already have looked at this process !

I can't be of much help with your main questions, as I'm not in Scotland and haven't used school. But just to echo a PP, in Scotland deregistration is not "on demand" as it is in the other countries of the UK, so you'd need to factor in time for obtaining LA consent. In principle it should be straightforward and it's rare for consent to be withheld. However, I understand that some LAs can be slow with it.

More info and support with that process is here https://homeeducationscotland.org.uk/

Thank you so much, this is exactly the kind of advice I was hoping for. Google hasn’t been very helpful and I don’t want to approach the schools until we have a firm plan! But this is really useful to know, I’ll have a better look at the council website. My main concern is making sure they get back into the school again!

She will be S2 when we go, currently only P6! We’d be taking them out from Easter holidays 2027 until august 2027.

I wouldn't, your older 2 will be at important life stages.

The P7 will miss all their transitions to high school, leaver events etc (but they might not be bothered about that?). How will you home educate in a way that will collerate with the topics being taught across all the subjects? I don't disagree they would learn a lot from travelling, but in terms of keeping step with their peers, you would need to know the topics of the curriculum?

Your S2 will miss the first month of their S3 timetable, from the start of June - they usually have a few weeks grace period to allow any subject changes (e.g. they pick History and realise after 2 weeks they'd rather be doing geography). How would you know what topics to home educate in? Would you expect the school to offer work? As a PP said, you would miss all the critical events to help with choosing their Nat 5 subjects, parents evening, reports, webinars etc - it's quite intensive!

What's the reasoning behind your travel plans? Why in 2027? Where to? Could you break it down to 6 weeks of summer holidays over 3 years?

Aaah, I understand. In that case I think you’ll have to wait until they start S1 then speak to pupil support for advice? There’s so much unknown about how they’ll settle into high school, subject choice etc.? Likewise until you’ve gone through P7/S1 transition it’ll be hard to judge the impact of missing it for your other child? One of mine could easily have rocked up to a new school and class where friendships had been formed after Easter, but there’s no way the other one could.

I also think you need to be honest about the idea that you’ll be homeschooling when travelling so your children don’t miss anything academically. It’s one thing doing that with a wee one and some reading and maths, but there is no way you’re going to cover S3 subjects? I couldn’t keep up with the S1 Maths and science homework and I have highers!

You will get no help from schools with it as you are deregistering and leaving Scotland so would have to sign up to a homeschooling curriculum online. I really couldn’t be arsed but I did my travelling before kids so am looking at it through a different lens!

You should be fine for re-registering them if they are in their catchment schools.

In Scotland we do education a little differently and everyone in the catchment can attend the catchment school. The Council must fit them in.

The council doesn't have to fit you into the catchment school if you register outside of primary/secondary registration dates@TerrysOrangeScot. They will try but if there are no spaces you will get a slot at a different school with space. There a limits to class sizes so they can't just slot in a child if the class is already full.
OP says that the schools in her area are not very busy so if that's the case it shouldn't be an issue.

Why not now when they are younger and not at critical stages? You can't say they won't mind on 3 years... my 11 doesn't like her school (friendship issues) but is excited about the residential, the school play, the leavers party and all that stuff.

Well I’d do it - I have an s2 and she will have options finalised by end Feb. Most of the parents I know found the endless ‘transition to high school’ events in p7 went on and on and stirred up anxiety about the transition in some.

I do think that’s probably your last feasible window wrt the eldest though.

Yes, options are before Easter at our school.

Thanks everyone. In terms of why 2027- that’s when my husband and I can both get sabbaticals/ extended leave. It gives us lots of time for saving and practising with shorter trips! The children are used to travelling in the van but we are getting a new one which will require different sleeping arrangements etc. my children are pretty easy going, they’ve already been to too many schools due to is having to move with work but we’ve settled now and they do appreciate the stability. If we could go a year earlier we would, it’s definitely something we need to consider in more depth. I’m not worried about the transition at all, it’s my eldest I need to ensure doesn’t miss out on important stuff, socially and academically.

In the secondary school DD goes to all the kids move up a year after the exams have finished - so mid/late May time
So it might be if you have an S2 child they miss out on the start of S3 work, which could be important for exams
appreciate not all schools will do this - but it might be at least worth finding out about it

Are you doing this for you and your dh? I don't think it is in your two older children's best interests. Taking children out and home educating is one thing, but you are planning to take them out and then slot them right back in to a system that was not set up around long term absences like this - the eldest will miss a month of the new S3 classes. The middle child will not be arriving with the same sure footing as the rest of their class at secondary, and will miss out too on whatever is on the P7 curriculum at that point.
Please do not think of asking the teachers what you will be missing before you leave, and expecting it to be laid out for you!
Travelling is great. Camping greater. You could do it for two whole months in the summer by taking off one week either side of the holidays. Much less disruptive.