School now banning all "out of term" holiday leave

[fairytale]

HIya All.

As some of you may know every October my family and I travel to WDW for three deperately looked forward to, weeks in Florida.

As a rule we travel the two weeks prior to the Half Term, returning in time for the children to commence the first day of the new term. This 10 day period was always authorised without any problem by the schools head teacher.

However, all of us in the area in which I live, so not just my childrens school, have recently received letters from the local authority advising us that not one day leave will now be authorised by the head Teacher unless its for a "unavoidable circumstances" ie funerals etc.

I am therefore wondering if any of you guys have this policy in place where you live and have regardless taken your children out of school. If so what were the consequencies if any?, did you still write to the school advsing of them of the holiday leave?

I feel I must point out that my children are only young been DS8, DS7, DS4 and DD3. Between ourselves we have already made the decision that once our eldest has started Senior school we will then stick to School Holidays, but was really looking forward to have a little flexibilty before then.

I think I fear been met at immigration upon our return by the Police and led away to face a week in prision as punishment

 

[Lizzy Lemon]

I feel for you I really do. Fortunately mine are in the last couple of years at school now, taken them out on a couple of occasions with no problem. Its not cut and dried that everyone can take term time holidays, both DH and I have real problems getting school holidays off. I have to put in for mine a year in advance to stand a chance while he has to wait until after Christmas every year to have his authorised. If he can't match mine we don't have a break. Luckily its worked out reasonably well up until this year. We have got a 4 day break at Easter and two weeks in the summer holiday and that's it till next year.

 

[Grumpy McScrooge]

We are taking our oldest child out of school 2 weeks prior to our half term, after consulting a few teachers I know, they said it is not a problem. They don't advise you to take your child out of school but can't stop you from doing so. The worst that could happen is the child gets an unauthorised absence.......more than worth it!!!

 

[Young Pooh]

Our local authority started this last September. I had to take DD(5) out for 3 days and had to fill in a form which was returned stating she would be marked down as unauthorised absence - to be honest I am not too bothered about this at her age.

The thing that annoyed me though was that the LEA sent me a letter a couple of months later saying that if I did it again they would charge me £100 (reduced to £50 if I paid within 7 days!). This really annoys me as I now work in a school and we have children who are constantly absent for no reason but the LEA doesn't seem to take any action - only with those who request the time off.

 

[tennisfan]

We are taking our oldest child out of school 2 weeks prior to our half term, after consulting a few teachers I know, they said it is not a problem. They don't advise you to take your child out of school but can't stop you from doing so. The worst that could happen is the child gets an unauthorised absence.......more than worth it!!!

Not necessary, in England the LEA can fine the parents & worse case scenario take them to court

 

[jtlover]

I would argue that it is an educational holiday and a child that is young, it is educating them with fun.

Anyway a child could be sick for several days so that would be no different.

My daughter is now doing her A levels so that is an important time, not when a child is around 5

What also makes me really cross is when the teachers have teacher training and we cant complain about that taking place during the school term.

 

[2Tiggies]

Our local authority started this last September. I had to take DD(5) out for 3 days and had to fill in a form which was returned stating she would be marked down as unauthorised absence - to be honest I am not too bothered about this at her age.

We have the same. My daughter has only ever missed 2 days (with a doctors letter) in four years. Last year I went through similar and the letter I got was more than just snippy. They said it was unauthorised.

The thing that annoyed me though was that the LEA sent me a letter a couple of months later saying that if I did it again they would charge me £100 (reduced to £50 if I paid within 7 days!). This really annoys me as I now work in a school and we have children who are constantly absent for no reason but the LEA doesn't seem to take any action - only with those who request the time off.

My sentiments exactly and on those grounds, after some persistence, they actually authorised it.

Ask the school for a copy of the full terms of this policy. They are obligated to have them available. I say this as last Monday I had to go into the school and waiting outside the office I found a leaflet about absences and started reading. This is specifically DD's school, but grounds where absence for family holiday in term time will be authorised actually included economy, low income families and a whole list of other things that many people could apply to their situation. As a single parent I will be cashing in on at least one of those - coupled with the fact that there are times of the year where, although my employer won't stop me, are unsuitable for me to be off. It is a small firm and one person off has a significant impact on the others there (especially my boss as I discovered last year when they were so happy to see me on my return from WDW - you would have thought I had reported for duty bearing winning lottery tix to share What I am saying is that legislation always has loopholes. If you need to use one, you sometimes need to delve a little deeper to find it.

 

[jen_uk]

IWhat also makes me really cross is when the teachers have teacher training and we cant complain about that taking place during the school term.

Trust me us teachers hate teacher training days just as much as you!!

 

[2Tiggies]

I would argue that it is an educational holiday and a child that is young, it is educating them with fun.

Quite!

Anyway a child could be sick for several days so that would be no different.

Exactly!

What also makes me really cross is when the teachers have teacher training and we cant complain about that taking place during the school term.

Oh yes. But we have to foot the bill for additional child care since other sectors of employment don't have this - in addition to ludicrous amounts of holidays over the course of the year.

 

[2Tiggies]

Trust me us teachers hate teacher training days just as much as you!!

Just to be clear, it's not the teachers who are the problem - it's the system.

 

[DISWolves]

My daughter is in year 6. I did take her out once, for the last 2 weeks of term in July when she was in year 1. Each year since then, I have bit the bullet and got ripped off by going to Florida in the main holidays. It does annoy me when I constantly hear the same names of teachers at my daughters school, who are away regularly for 1 or 2 days on sick leave. Because of this ,a classroom assistant takes over, disrupting the learning flow. Where do you draw the line of fairness?
As said in a previous post, the holiday can also be a good learning experience for the children

 

[Cyrano]

We took the kids out of school on the week before the start of summer term and got a letter of unauthorised absence from the school on behalf of the Local Authority. To be honest I did not ask for authorised absence, so did not loose any sleep over the letter. It was only an extra sheet to add to the recycle pile

I agree with the comment about in-service days that are often announced with little warning and another impact on working parents juggling the balls.

With LEA fining parents for absence I wonder if parents will be able to reciprociate when teacher placements are not filled and other teachers have to provide baby-sitting service, rather than children getting taught properly

 

[Andrea26]

We have booked to go next May which means DS who will then be in Yr5 will miss the last week of term before the Whitsun break. This week has always been Art week where the curriculum is dropped. The headmaster has issued letters saying he won't be authourising holidays in term time unless it's exceptional circumstances, but we are still going! My husband has set holidays which are 2 weeks Whitsun and last week July/first week August. We don't want to go in July due to the heat and more chance of rain. Taking our DS out in Yr5 is the only year we can do this holiday as in Yr6 he will have SATS and then he will be in secondary school. We have never taken DS out of school before and are willing to pay the £100 fine for our much longed for holiday of a lifetime! My DS has always had excellent attendance and i will be writing all the above points in the letter to the school.

 

[Andrea26]

. It does annoy me when I constantly hear the same names of teachers at my daughters school, who are away regularly for 1 or 2 days on sick leave. Because of this ,a classroom assistant takes over, disrupting the learning flow. Where do you draw the line of fairness?

One of my DS teachers had 2 weeks off to get married!, perhaps i should mention that in my holiday request letter

 

[scojos]

as a teacher i have 2 heads on this one
yeah take the last week before a holiday off, litlle work is done in december or july but be there when they come back-sept is v important!
2ndary school has down times too,use them
im stuck taking my kids in school times and would argue that costs shouldnt be the massive increase not far
be sensible, but dont ask teachers to provide work, i refuse, if you choose to take your kids on holiday for the last week , thats fine but dont expect me to do extra prep and marking so you can save money.
i would expect you to put yourself out for me
tracy

 

[luke]

I'm with you totally on that Tracey

 

[2Tiggies]

My husband has set holidays which are 2 weeks Whitsun and last week July/first week August.

Our local authority has that particular issue listed as an "acceptable exceptional circumstance" You may want to check. If you can have it authorised, all the better.

but dont ask teachers to provide work, i refuse, if you choose to take your kids on holiday for the last week , thats fine but dont expect me to do extra prep and marking so you can save money.
i would expect you to put yourself out for me
tracy

I do agree that this is fair. However as every treacher has his / her own methods and this again varies depending on the level / year they are teaching, I will offer as I did last year to. The teacher said there was very little being done in the week DD was going to miss and I told her if it was easier for her, I would be quite happy to copy the homework set out from a classmate's homework diary and ensure this was done on the return. The teacher was great about it. When I came back she had simply put the worksheets/books aside for DD and I didn't expect her to mark it as it was up to me to check it.

But again, the problem is not the staff, but the system. Teachers have no choice but to follow the guidelines whether they agree or not. Too many people lash out at the wrong person. That is like yelling at the waitress because you don't like the flavour on your steak. So I will work with the staff quite happily, but if I choose to go at a certain time of the year for whatever reason and it is during term time I know that I have done it considering whether it would be detrimental to my child.

 

[the ringmaster]

Look at this from the other point of view.

You have a class of 20 kids, every week they cover one item of math. week 1 they cover the 2x table. that week child1 is off on holiday. So 19 children learn the 2x table.

The following week they cover the 4x table. child2 & child3 are off. So 17 children are learning the 4x table and the teacher is teaching child1 the 2x & 4x tables at the same time.

week 3 and they are on the 3x table. Child2 is still on holiday and is joined by child4. There are now 16 children who are on track with learning the 3x table, child1 is trying to catch up and is coving the last half of the 4x table and the 3x table. child3 is trying to learn the 4x table despite having had a break from the 2x table and thus is finding it harder. Child2 is learning the 2x, 3x & 4x table at one. The teacher is thus teaching 4 different classes.

every week the situation gets worse with different students missing different parts. And this is in every subject not just math.

The teacher is only human and because he cannot split themselves 15 ways the students who went to school every week are falling behind where they would be if the entire class had remained in school, due to having to keep going over the same areas.



Now do you see why for your childs benefit and the benefit of the teacher and the rest of the class you should take your holiday in one of the many holiday periods in the school year.

 

[Shazzie B]

Schools around here are all changing their policy too. They use to 'authorise' holiday - with the usual letter advising against it etc.

Spoken to our Headmaster-he's under no illusion that most people will still take kids out whether authorised or not. He's a common sense sort of guy and as long as you are sensible i.e. not missing start of term, tagging onto school holiday etc. he's always been Ok-we've only ever taken ours out for a maximum of a week, fortunately they miss very little school due to ill health -probably max of 2-3 days a year (some years none).

I get the impression it's more about Ofsted reports etc.

 

[sandshal]

We had exactly the same thing in 2008 ......... went for just under 3 weeks either side of Oct holiday. Both my husband and I received seperate official letters from the LEA informing us that if our son took even 1 day off between then and the 6th December we'd be fined x amount of money.

Would point out that this was the only time he'd taken off in the school year. Thankfully he wasnt sick between the holiday and the deadline so everything was fine.