Fined for holiday in school time

dizziblonde

The 10 days are discretionary and may not be granted anyway - as some people have said, some schools are adopting a zero tolerance to any absence now (rightly or wrongly)... anything more than that and you were never going to get them approved. Three weeks near the start of the school year is a huge whack of school to be missing - like someone mentioned, it's a whole Maths or English unit of work, almost a full half-term.

Ultimately though you were notified the head wasn't going to authorise this, therefore obviously it's going to go down as unauthorized absence by its very definition - and you chose to go ahead in that knowledge, so this is the consequence of that action. Whether you make a fuss and try to get it overruled is your choice - but the absence WAS unauthorized and the school have just invoked the proceedure for when those absences go above a certain percentage - which has invoked the LEA and EWO.

As for half-term dates... go onto your local council website and they should be up there for at least the next school year - I think some of our provisional dates are out for up to 2012. Always worth printing a copy off and having them to hand, yes they get adjusted as schools put INSET and the like on there, but at least you've got the picture in your head of when term dates are going to be falling... which when you work in four different LEAs (occasionally five) like I do, you need in order to know if you're coming or going sometimes! You can get them well before schools post their finalised calendars then, and the school dates will only ever be a day or so either side of the LEA dates - which you're likely to have no problems getting authorized anyway.

RoxieW

I've applied for holiday for my children to take them to lapland next december but it has been granted for one child and not the other. This is because my oldest child has health problems and has to have time off due to this and compulsory appointments. I find that really unfair. He's top of his class (working 2 years above his age group) so they cant argue that he is behind because of it.
It is a stupid system. But £50 is a drop in the ocean compared to the cost of a holiday in the summer school hols. We went way in the summer hols one year, trying to be 'good' parents but never again. I'd rather my kids got the chance to experience different countries and travel as much as possible (so therefore do it as inexpensively as possible). I'll go school time and take the fine thanks.
All they've done the past week at school is watch dvd's anyway so what's the point in them being there? Surely its better for them to be in a different country experiencing a different culture and seeing the snow, mountain, landscapes, skiing, tabogonning etc then watching the snowman with 20 fidgetty kids??
V annoying!

PolishBigSpender

Mupette wrote: »

In school term time?

Do they stop being their parents' children during term time?

They can always make up for the lost time in school. What they gain on a trip far from home and spending quality time with their parents is their forever and no one will take it from them.

And anyway, she's only five.

elisamoose

A fine is issued if the holiday was not authorised by the school ( only the school can authorise any absence) and the child was still taken out. It is irrelevent whether the school knew she was going. Usually the LA attendance service check each application for a fine very thoroughly to make sure it is legal and appropriate before it is issued.

If you wish to appeal , ask for a copy of the school absence policy to see if there are grounds on which you should have been allowed to go.

TBH once it has got to the fine stage , the school and the LA are usually sure of their grounds for issuing it!

( I work in a school and deal with all the attendance admin . I complete the forms for the fines and helped write the school absence policy)

thorsoak

Morglin wrote: »

I have heard of this being quietly dropped when parents engage a solicitor, and look like causing trouble, so up to you whether you think it may be worth that.;)



Lin :rolleyes:

Employing a solicitor is going to cost more than the £50 fine, methinks!

zara*elise

I would contest it had it only been a few days, but three weeks is really unacceptable imo.

I don't think it's teaching them good lessons for their future, if they see that despite the rules being in place, mummy breaks them then what's to stop them breaking YOUR rules? You tell them they can't go to their friends house, 'but you took me out of school even though the teachers said no!'

I'd pay the fine and learn the lesson.

gabyjane

Hi i started a thread about this some time ago when i booked our dd off school..she is off school for 7 days in total in january (actually away for 16 though) as they go back much later than they normally do so i was thinking she would have over her 10 days they tend to allow..it was authorised though by the head and her teacher so once it was all signed off i was ok but we did book it before we asked and would of tbh paid the fine if need be. She is in year 6 and all her tests, 11+ etc are all over with so figured she would be ok..she does well at school and that's all that matters to me.

Reading through if the head didn't authourise the trip then i dont think you have much ground tbh sorry.

seven-day-weekend

chika wrote: »

The fifty pound fine was to discourage some parents whose children are persistantly absent, however from my experience it never works.

Three weeks is a lot of time to be taken out of school, its a whole unit (or even two) unit in literacy and numeracy. And who knows how much work she has missed in the foundation subjects and science. At five the child is just learning the basic skills that will take her through primary education. Also lots of work for example in maths depends on skills that have been learned in previous lessons. The teacher is now going to have to spend extra time ensuring that the child can do the work, taking away from time that she has to spend with the other 29 children in the class whose parents didn't take them on a three week holiday.

I wish I could thank this post more than once.

welshmoneylover

I think 3 weeks away from school is an awfully long time, personally I'd never do it.

My tuppence that's all.

gabyjane

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I wish I could thank this post more than once.

Hmm well there is a lot of conflict over this tbh and not sure it applies in all schools? some give the child the work before hand to take away with them (my dd's school) some don't bother and let them just run through when they return..it depends on the school..personally iv'e never known a teacher sit 1 to 1 with a child and leave the other kids while helping them catch up..not sayig they don't just that my dd's school don't

Was it actually 3 weeks off school (21 days) or 15 days? in which case yes it is over the '10 day' criteria schools allow but still not a total 21 days?