Fined for holiday in school time

msb5262

Hello kdmercury,

The reason your child's school has only approved 10 days is simple - schools are only allowed to approve 10 days. This is a maximum over the school year.

You sound worried about it; I would suggest writing to the headteacher and perhaps copying your letter to the chair of governors, explaining your reasons for taking the children on holiday at that date and for that length of time.

HTH

MsB

kdmercury

thanks for fast reply msb5262,i am aware that schools are only allowed to allocate 10 days max but it did state that more can be approved in certain circumstances and didn't know if i was applicable for this or not,also read that i don't think no one has mentioned yet is that a fine is only issued if you have had a unauthorized absence of 20 half days(10 full days) in a 10 week period,anyone heard about this ?

thorsoak

Why didn't you go over the half-term holiday?

kdmercury

my son gets distressed with alot of noise and crowds with his autism thats why we wanted to go during term time as any holiday during school holiday time for our family is impossible

thorsoak

A fortnight at Disney is going to be far too much for him - Disney is absolutely bombing every day of the year - its not like "out of school holidays here" - just because its not half-term holiday doesn't mean it won't be noisy and crowded - you'll have US and now Cuban families there ...its never ending noise, colour and heat! Why not make it just three or four days - cutting the holiday down to 5 days or so - that way he will enjoy it, you can settle him back for school again - and then maybe, another time, take your daughter on her own (obviously getting respite care for your son) so that she can enjoy herself at her own pace!

Because you will be penalised for taking her out of school as well.

elektra-2007

Reading this has made me wonder what's going to happen with all the bad weather...will kids be marked as unathorised if they cant get to school?
My lad has been off for a week and today coz the weather is so bad where I live I cant do the 7 mile journey. I hope I wont get a fine for it.

kdmercury

thorsoak i never said i was going for 2 weeks at disney,we are doing 16 days in orlando and would probally do about 3-4 days at disney as you mentioned plus rest between this and universal as well but personally i dont agree with doing this twice and leaving my son at home as the idea of it is to spend time as a family and try to be as normal as a family as possible altogether but needed a couple of days extra because of my son needs and would of thought the school would understand and have this approved under there certain circumstances(dont know what is applicable for this)but have already booked flights which is my own fault as should of checked first but thought school would understand but i guess they dont

thorsoak

But its not only your son who will be missing out on his education - but your daughter will too - and at 10, won't she be in the year prior to going up to Senior School? You'll be fined for her as well

I do understand about wanting a family holiday for you all - I was trying to "think out of the box" and thinking that maybe it would be of benefit for your daughter as well as your son to have some special "me" time.

Believe me, Florida - Orlando - will be humming in November - it isn't as hot, the hurricane season is over and US citizens seem to try to go before Thanksgiving.

Spendless

You'd have been better off going for a 2 week holiday BEFORE half-term. That would have given you the few days your son needs to recover when you came back without it eating into any term-time. What the school will do I don't know.:cool: Some will just mark the absence as unauthorised and nothing else, some fine. Have a look at your council's website to see what they have to say about unauthorised holidays.

Becles

Will your daughter be in Year 6 during the holiday?

Year 6 is SATS year and I know our school are extremely strict about holidays for Year 6's in term time before the SATS. The children are under a lot of pressure to do well in them and every lesson counts (yes I know SATS and pressure is a whole new can of worms!)