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Secondary education

Connect with other parents whose children are starting secondary school on this forum.

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Original poster

Child missing school for open days?

23 replies

BreadandButters · 27/09/2023 07:27

My DD is currently in Y6 and so we have been looking at secondary schools for next year.

Many of the schools seem to have open days or tours during school hours. I guess it’s so you can get a good feel for the school in a “normal” day. But obviously my DD would have to miss school to attend those. My question is, do you bring your child when they would need to miss school?

Last year we got a letter saying DD had less than 90% attendance (due to illness) and it’s made me really try not to let her miss school this year!

what do others do?

OP posts:

Fluffycloudsfloatinginthesky · 27/09/2023 07:30

Most of ours were evening but yes we missed school for the daytime one. It was only couple of hours. They need to see the school.

autumnboys · 27/09/2023 07:30

I didn’t take mine to open mornings. We did the open evening. However there was never any real question as to where they would go, we are 10 minutes walk from their school. If we’d had a genuine choice I might have taken them.

DustyLee123 · 27/09/2023 07:32

Ask the school for leave to attend. My kids school took them for activity days to the closest 3 schools, so me need to miss school.

DelphiniumBlue · 27/09/2023 07:32

Most children in my Y6 classes do take days or half days to see secondary schools and to sit tests.

TwigTheWonderKid · 27/09/2023 07:33

Open days give a much more realistic impression of a school and the primary will mark it as an authorised absence for academic reasons.

MUM2TJ · 27/09/2023 07:34

In most schools its classed as authorised absence when they go for thier visit..my sons school marked him down and was fine when we took him as they said it was still educational and they knew where he was.we just took him back into school after the visit.

TeenDivided · 27/09/2023 07:37

iirc We took DD into morning registration then popped her out for the tour, then took her back again. But either way there should be no issue with going on a tour of a secondary school.

redskytonights · 27/09/2023 07:40

How many school visits are you planning? I'd let my children miss a morning/afternoon for an Open Day, but if I was intending to go to loads and loads, I'd definitely ration the ones with my child to favourite/most likely ones onlly.

Tiredalwaystired · 27/09/2023 08:11

Our school were fine with year six children doing this, but not if they were year five.

We did a mix of day and evening tours (day for our preferences)

Nuttyroche · 27/09/2023 08:20

Open days during normal school days? Really? Never found this. How many are we actually talking here? And surely lots others In her class will also be going

StillWantingADog · 27/09/2023 08:25

Ours have all been in the evenings and Saturday mornings but if they were during the school day I would have explained to the school and gone. I imagine they expect it.

Sirzy · 27/09/2023 08:27

Surely it would only be a couple of hours out for each one? And only a couple of visits?

elliejjtiny · 27/09/2023 08:28

It depends on how many you are going to see. We only went to one school and they had a choice of morning or evening so we went to the evening one.

Growlybear83 · 27/09/2023 08:47

Most schools class attending secondary school open days as authorised absence and it's expected that children will need to visit the schools they are considering at the start of Year 6. When my daughter was looking at secondary schools, most had their open days during the school day, although a couple arranged Saturday visits. I don't remember ever seeing parents without their children at any of the visits we went on - it's really important thst your child has an input into their secondary school choice.

Ohdearwhatnow4 · 27/09/2023 08:53

We went and got the mark in the morning, then went straight to secondary as once they have their attendance mark it's fine. Luckily our secondarys schools didn't start the tours till 9.30.

SortOfMaybe · 27/09/2023 09:13

Our school was fine with it, but the Head did ask that we try to keep the numbers down as we’re in London where in theory there’s lots of schools to visit but most you wouldn’t have a hope of getting into either. Some parents still dragged their kids to those hopeless schools though.

We did day visits only for schools we thought were our top choices, it was important for us to see it when a normal school day was on to get a feel for it. Helped us rule out one school that had put on a good open evening but seemed chaotic when we visited. Made us like another more that had a previous dodgy reputation but you could really see how it had turned round.

SamPoodle123 · 27/09/2023 09:17

The school is used to dc needing to view other schools or take 11+ exams during school. They do not mind. My dd missed some school days for this or if I felt she was tired and needed a rest. TBH they do not do much in year 6. It is a lot of fun stuff and SATs prep (but if dc is doing the 11+ they are prepared already to get good marks for SATs).

ChalkMyDrive · 27/09/2023 09:24

It should be authorised, Ds's went down as being educated elsewhere I believe. Lots of year 6s go to open mornings, or sit tests. It is all well and good saying they have open evenings but there are no classes going on that you can look in on which we were invited to do, any class we walked past we could ask to enter. We were escorted round by a member of staff.

OlizraWiteomQua · 27/09/2023 09:29

Visiting school open days should be recorded as an authorised absense and will not count against attendance stats. It's a specific category of activity that should be authorised and won't be treated as other kinds of day off.

MabelMaybe · 27/09/2023 09:35

I just told the primary school. They recorded him as being educated on another site, or something similar, they recognised that it benefitted him to attend. I did email in details of the open day though, in advance, not just fail to take him to school that morning, so they knew it was a formal event.

WombatChocolate · 27/09/2023 09:40

Certainly authorised absence…similar to going to university open days. But of course you need to request that authorisation in advance.

If attendance has been poor, I’d be mindful of how many you take child out of school for.

When people go to multiple working open mornings (often London independents ) they often do a first look without kids and then short-list and just take the kids to a couple. Some people might go to 6 or 7 and that would be a lot if school to miss. An odd one or two is fine though.

Tiredalwaystired · 27/09/2023 10:26

Nuttyroche · 27/09/2023 08:20

Open days during normal school days? Really? Never found this. How many are we actually talking here? And surely lots others In her class will also be going

Absolutely loads do round here, so the kids and parent a can experience a “real” school day. My daughter is a prefect so she had been doing tours in form time all this week.

Original poster

BreadandButters · 27/09/2023 10:48

Thank you very much for your input. Sounds like it’s ok to take her and I have emailed school to advise them and they said it was ok.

there is only one school where we will do the open day during school hours. The other schools it would be assessment days.

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