taking children out of school at term time

eezer

vodkachick68 wrote: »

Hi all

Hope this is the right place to post this. We are off to Tunisia on the 15th July. This means i need to take my 2 children out of school for 6 days before the beginning of the summer holidays. Now i know i should have booked this within the school holidays but financially it was £500 more to go a week later! Anyway being the honest parent that i am,i filled in the request form,which came back today and they have refused her the time off.
What i want to know is has anyone else had this happen? Also will i get a fine?

Thanks

What I do every year is write to the school explaining that because of my job I am severely restricted in the amount of annual leave I can take during school holidays. The school accept this and authorise the leave. If for some reason they were to suddenly decline, I'd go anyway. That family time is precious and it'll be gone all too soon. Enjoy it while you can.

Have a great holiday.

lynn44

I agree the last few days of every half term kids dont do alot...
I take my son out every year and never had a problem or been refused sure I was told my the school generally they do allow 10 days per year
good luck and I dont blame you, yes schooling is important but as we said its nearly end of term anyway...ENJOY YOUR HOLIDAY

( and we went with first choice and was amazed at what they learnt at the kids clubs, my son loved it and said it was just like being at school )

Calvinandhobbs

alwaysonthego wrote: »

Actually you may find that you are incorrect! A headteacher has the discression to allow a parent to have 10 days authorised absence, whether the HT agrees to it is another issue.
Personally I am taking my daughter (shocker, horror) out of school for 2 weeks in June (she is 4 years old) and the school have authorised 10 days, but we have to take 2 days unauthorised.

You are taking your 4-year old out of school??? Disgusting, how will you feel when she fails her GCSE's due to that absence???

mum2one

I totally agree with the OP, I can understand where she is coming from with the finnacial matter, had she of taken 2 weeks together in mid term, then I could understand the stress and all the negativity of it, but she has gone for the last few days of the school term, a time when the children and the school is on slow down time.
That £500 money is a major factor, as soon as the schools break up the travel industry shoot up the prices, its ok all saying change plans etc but it isnt that easy.
My daughter has had some time out from school this yr for holidays, she had 3 days in Sept, I suffer from Post tramatic stress disorder with flashbacks, due to a violent and abusove relationship, and there are trigger points that set me back, and unfortunatley through no fault of my daughters her birthday is a trigger point, so i either stay at home drugged up to the eyeballs just to get through, (for want of a better description) or get away with family and spend a few days living a normal time and actually enjoying my daughters birthday without feeling like I'm haveing to look over my shoulder.

So please dont judge people, as there well may be under lying facts that the Op does not want to bring out.

I'm also taking my daughter to Tunisia, (we go Easter), but I have had to encroach into 3 days of term time, as the financial difference was nearly £300 dearer if we spent the whole school hols away. I am being peanilised by the travel company as the rooms are sold on 2 people basis, so my 6 yr old daughter, I have had to pay an adult price for her. I have had to save damm hard for this holiday, its the 1st time she will of been abroad, and I have made sacrifices so we can go. That £300 I have saved in theory, I will use for our holiday, I want my daughter to see some of the sights, go on the trip to the Sahara desert, ride a camel, walk around the safari park, see the tradational country, visit a bazaar and barter, is that so wrong.
Our school has a new head, who has now decided she can not have the 3 days holiday as she previuosly had the 5 days last yr, at the end of the day we are going. I have contacted my local education authority who will investage on my behalf if and when he makes a complaint.

So instead of haveing a go at the OP or anyone who takes a holiday in term time, think about lobbying the goverment and get them to put pressure on the the travel industry and make the holidays affordable all year round.

photome

sturll wrote: »

Its not my fault your career choice has turned out to be one you don't enjoy - count yourself lucky that teaching these days is one of the few safe careers. Millions right now can't even get a job tossing burgers.

And ill not take you up on trying to plan a lesson for kids thanks - its you who has been trained for that - not me.

I have little time for a lot of teachers - my sons is one such example. She went on strike last year with no concern to my childs education, his school has teacher training days in school time, closes when we have 1 inch of snow, i mean talk about work dodgers.

Not only that but when my son gets sent to the headteacher for playing rough games (rugby) is it any wonder our schools are churning out the type of child we have today. (not all)

Besides, my sons teacher can't be older than mid twenties and she drives a brand new Mini Cooper - so she cant be that skint.

And as for finishing work when work finishes - does any professional? I know i certainly don't. And i can guarantee you what i do outside of work is a damn sight more boring than marking the output of the amazing imagination of children.

Dont agree with much you say sturll;) but totally agree here. Just one more thing, my sons education suffered more last year in science because he had 10 different teachers and of course they didnt know wht each of the previous had done. he may as well have missed the whole year of science lessons of year 8.

angela110660

How true Photome - at my daughter's secondary school there are constantly staff changes - luckily she has not been too affected and so far at Year 8 still has the same class tutor - but some of her friends have had a couple of tutors already, different lesson teachers - it is all very unsettling but at least year 8 is not quite so important - but we are still starting to choose her options just the same so from Year 9 - hols in school time might get dodgy but as I said in my previous post - the school will still be arranging foreign trips eg New York; 1st world war battlefields; ski trip, exchanges etc and those will all be in school time in the main.

andyrules

have little time for a lot of teachers - my sons is one such example. She went on strike last year with no concern to my childs education, his school has teacher training days in school time, closes when we have 1 inch of snow, i mean talk about work dodgers.

Just so you know - a teacher does not make decisions about the school closing for bad weather, nor does he/she have any say when the training days are. If you think teachers are work dodgers, maybe you should become one. :rolleyes:

sturll

andyrules wrote: »

have little time for a lot of teachers - my sons is one such example. She went on strike last year with no concern to my childs education, his school has teacher training days in school time, closes when we have 1 inch of snow, i mean talk about work dodgers.

Just so you know - a teacher does not make decisions about the school closing for bad weather, nor does he/she have any say when the training days are. If you think teachers are work dodgers, maybe you should become one. :rolleyes:

Im not at the point where there are no other options yet

The old saying "Those who can......." springs to mind.

pinkpong

You are taking your 4-year old out of school??? Disgusting, how will you feel when she fails her GCSE's due to that absence???

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh How I love this coment!!
I took my kids out of school for 2 months!
That time they were 6,7,9 years old. They went to school in my native country as an experience to learn the language. This was authorised, with a little dificulty.
When we came back my children fell inthe speed(?) of learning as they were before they left. They were still the top in the classroom!!! ( do I need to say anymore? and this was a very good primary )
Teacher saied that they missesd alot, but what I could see,thye never missed a thing, infact the opposite.
If your child is keen and healthy, I would not worry about their acaeavement, they will catch up in no time, if they missed anything that is - lol!
My DD was bored to death the last 2 weeks in July- this is a secondary school! , all they were doing is watching DVDs every day . Therefore I will be taking them out of school two weeks earlier next year, because they will learn a lot more somewhere other that the grotty old classroom.


There was one year where my kids would have been better off staying home, because the teacher was ill , but kept comming back ( so she could get paied) , they never found a solid supply to teach the kids,they had a new teacher every day just for playing. The kids learned ZIRO that year, Now I wish I could make them pay for that!


I would write back to your school explaining that you are not able to take time of work in term times, that is if you haven`t used your 10 days allowence .

Enjoy your holiday, your kids will have a wonderfull holiday of the country and spending time with you.

itzmee

I'm also worrying about asking permission to take my kids out of school for 6 days just before whitsun half term as we're going to the South of France. My kids have had a lot of sickness this school year, all of which was caught at school! My oldest son has also had a lot to deal with this last year with his dad dying, when again he took time off school, but we desperately need a holiday and we're going whether they approve it or not. I tried to book it during half term but there was nothing available where we wanted to go. Besides, it will be educational as they'll get to practise their French!