WOULD YOU TAKE HOLIDAY IN TERM TIME IF THREATENED WITH PRISON OR A FINE?

[ibizagirl]

I am a single parent and each year my mum pays for dd and i (plus mum) to have a nice holiday in Ibiza to same hotel. Usually go some time in July for a week so only 5 days are taken off school. In primary school there was never any problem. Dd is now in year 8. Upon starting year 7 i went to school secretary and asked about policy for taking holidays. She told me up to 10 days could be taken in one go and to fill in form. I filled it in the same day and took it back to same secretary. She looked at it and said it was all correctly filled in and as it was the last but one week of July it would be fine as school doesn't do anything and that my dd's attendance was 100% and work was excellent. Then told mum and she booked holiday and managed to get a free child place - first one ever! Xmas came and went. In February i received a letter saying that Dd could not have time off because it was term time and would not be classed as exceptional circumstances! If i was to take Dd out of school i would be liable for a £1000 pound fine or prison. Sounds nice! Although school secretary told me all was fine. Went straight round to school and showed letter to SAME secretary and she denied saying anything to me about being able to take time off and that it comes from lea not school. I was livid and asked to speak to someone else. The head came out and said that school policy was no time off. I felt stupid and went home. Told mum who changed booking to August, lost free place obviously and had to pay just to change it too. That i was not bothered about. Come July when our original date was and i knew of at least 5 children who were taking holidays and indeed did go on these holidays. I was straight back to school, had my say and asked what would happen to the parents of these children. Was told nothing would happen as school cannot really stop them. Would they get fined? No. Prison? No. And nothing was said to them on return. Now mum is thinking about next year. Would you book it and give holiday form in straight away or leave it to last minute and just go? Sorry post was long but i am still mad about it now!

I would take the holiday during term time. I have done it in the past, and no doubt will do it again.

I do not expect the school to help play catch up though. What we miss we miss, and it is up to me to teach anything missed.

Apart from that, I see absolutely no problem in taking a holiday during term time. I think if parents accepted it is their responsiblity to ensure the child does not miss anything, then schools would be more lenient about it. But asking teachers to set work for them whilst they are away or expect them to teach anything missed is taking the piss.

well this seems unfair to me, considering you were told that it would be fine and as far as you were aware up till February, there was no problem with it. To tell you otherwise after everything was booked is unreasonable IMO and then to hear that other families have done exactly what you had asked about in the beginning and are not going to be fined would have annoyed me too. So it seems that when you received the letter about the fine/imprisonment, you could have simply ignored it and thrown it in the bin by the sounds of things. Altogether a bit odd.

Dds old primary school would have got an outstanding if it hadn't been for the high levels of unauthorised absence. The ofsted report even mentioned it but said that the high levels of absence were down to the high proportion of traveller children in the school. So they only got a good rating.

What is with the desperation to get an 'outstanding' Ofsted, just because of attendance? It would not put me off a school, just because a load of people decided to take their chidren on holiday during term time. It would be the actual school, the education, the welfare of the children blah blah, not whether young johnny takes a week off for a holiday in november.

What impact did the 'good' rating have on you personally Viva?

No I would not take the holiday

Such a fuss about 'missing' a bit of education these days. I was at school decades ago, but we always took our holidays during the last week of June and the first week of July - in term-time. Parents filled in a holiday form, and off we went. And I passed the 11+; one of 4 out of a class of 40

Thank you for all your opinions. Still not decided about date (or if we are going anywhere yet) but it would normally be last week of term in July where dd's school doesn't do normal lessons anyway. They do silly activities or day trips so she wouldn't be missing any lessons.

kerrygrey - i totally agree with you. i really don't know why some parents get all pious about this. i quite often had three weeks a year off school on holidays. some were package holidays and some a bit more educational, but even on those package holidays we went to museums, churches, castles, old towns etc.

anyway, I left school with high grades in the ten GCSEs i gained so the argument that term-time holidays harm a child's education is absolute rubbish. and if someone wants to abide by something just because 'rules is rule', then more fool them. not all rules are fair and just, and some deserve to be broken until they are changed. these rules are simply punishing the vast majority of responsible parents (who wouldn't disrupt their child's education in the more crucial years anyway) for the few irresponsible ones.

Thank you for your opinions. I hear what you are saying, HenriettaRHippo. Some of the rules are just stupid these days. The schools don't seem to get their priorities right if you ask me. I am forever seeing the same children from local schools wandering around and i bet nothing gets said to them. My dd is very hardworking, top of her year, exceeding her targets etc, no time off, no lates and its still sorry you can't go on holiday in the last week of term. Ridiculous. More annoyingly, i found out this week that one of her friends (who HAS had time off) is going to have monday and tuesday of next week off (the last two days of this term) BECAUSE HER NAN IS COMING TO STAY!!!! APPARENTLY THIS WAS EXCEPTIONAL CIRCUMSTANCES!!.

A few observations:

The school secretary should not have told you it would be OK. Please don't listen to school secretaries - they are not authorised to take decisions and often give the wrong information.

Schools have 12 -14 weeks holiday per year and as you say it wasn't too much of a problem for the holiday to be organised in August then this is what you should do.

Schools have duty to provide a certain number of guided learning hours. If the last two weeks of term comprised, tv, crafts, general mucking about, and very little learning I have never understood how the GLH are fulfilled.

Exceptional absences should be for things like unavoidable celebrations or funerals, not for cheap flights. Although I think a lot of teachers have issues about other families getting cheap flights when they can't and are not always as objective as they could be.

At the DC's primary school there was once a remarkable term where the Head sent a letter telling parents they must not book holidays in term time - and yet four governors took their children out .

Our dd go to independent schools. For two children we pay a total of about £34,000 after tax after extras. It may interest you that very few parents take their children out of school for holidays - I think they value the education they are paying for and I can understand teachers' frustration when they feel families don't value the education their children receive and which is free at the point of delivery.

We have always taken holidays outside term time and always will - not because of the threat of a fine / prison, but because we don't want the DCs to miss school.

However a couple of years ago we asked for the DCs to have a day off as their GPs were visiting. The school agreed under the special circumstances ruling as PIL live abroad and it was one of the four times that DD has ever seen her GPs.

Last couple of weeks in July? Just go! Unless the school is planning in starting work for next term with them, they will be doing nothing constructive. Go and have fun with your Mum and kids!!

Thanks forceslover. Its only the last week in July anyway and not two! And i only have one child, but i know what you are saying! And school did nothing with them. A lot of the time my dd said they were just going into different classes and messing about. We still haven't decided anything yet as i am a carer for my grandparents and have to organize someone to stay etc and as they are worse than last year i probably won't leave them.

Thery are talking bollocks.If they fine you it will only be £50 and you definitely will not go to prison!!! Your DCs attendance has to be below 80% before court action is taken.
They can catch up with schoolwork at any time (and end of July won't be doing much anyway), but family holidays are important .They are only children once and you can never get that time back again.

On a side issue, I've often seen people justifying a term-time holiday by saying their child has had no other absences and "works hard." How could that make a difference? Do you really think that a Head Teacher could say to one set of parents "sorry I won't authorise your holiday abesence because your child was seriously ill in hospital earlier this year. Jimmy Smith, however, can go, because he's enjoyed good health all year!"

I mean, come on, really?

I am a teacher so normally I wouldn't (as I can't!) and don't generally agree with people who do.

But am on maternity leave so plan to exploit the cheaper prices next summer for one year only.

I am a hypocrite.