School declined holidays and branded the kids truants

Murphy_The_Cat

sunshinetours wrote: »

My posts have mainly been directed at the (IMO) rather self centered and selfish parents who value their own week on a beach in an AI resort / week at a holiday camp in term time purely because its cheaper

What about the parents that use it as an opportunity to go day tripping from home, or to see family that live at the other end/s of the country ?

blue_monkey_2

There should be a one rule fits all approach and not let the head decide. It is unfair where 2 kids have got permission and another 2 from the same family have not.

Last Friday the kids had a world cup day and spent the whole day playing football based games. They would not have missed anything that day so I could have taken them away for the weekend. Nor would they miss much in the last week of July as they spend the week having free time with no lessons. As we run up to the end of summer term the kids have a lot of time not learning but doing other things and having day trips, I do not understand why it is justified for the school not to teach them but everyone is up in arms when the parents want a week away from that.

Murphy_The_Cat

blue_monkey wrote: »

There should be a one rule fits all approach and not let the head decide. It is unfair where 2 kids have got permission and another 2 from the same family have not.

I'm not sure if I like the sound of that idea - if the one rule fits all had been created by me, that's be grand, but if it has been created my moggie or Malkie, I'd be stuffed

blue_monkey_2

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

I'm not sure if I like the sound of that idea - if the one rule fits all had been created by me, that's be grand, but if it has been created my moggie or Malkie, I'd be stuffed

OK, I meant - there should be 10 days for everyone. They are advised they can have up to 10 days at the heads discretion but the head is only saying no to make her figures look better.

Kind of a bizarre policy to make as inevitably parents will take the kids anyway and pay the fine, or risk heir 'threats' of it going down as truancy. Surely it would be better to have 200 authorised absences rather than 200 unauthorised as, if I looked at the stats all that would say to me is their school is so bad the kids don't want to go there so they bunk off. Authorised absences mean that the kids are not in school with agreement.

It would be interesting to see compare the moral and unauthorised absence records of schools that do not give absences against those that do. I can image there is not a lot of harmony between the parents and the school - and parents are essential for the good running of a school also, as are happy kids, and you have to find a balance. P*ssed off parents do not help with fundraisers and fetes or help out at the school, I cannot imagine that it does them any good at all tbh.

poet123

In a lot of cases parents simply ring their child in sick, and tbh if I was the OP and given that the head had lied to me, I would be very tempted to do just that. Recind the request for permission, and ring in sick. Unethical, yes, but no more unethical than what the head has done.

velvetybubbles

JVRMac wrote: »

Hi all

I've just booked a holiday to Florida for next year. We couldn't afford to go in the school holidays so we decided to book it around Whitweek so the kids and hubby would only be off for 1 week out of the term (my husband is a caretaker in a school). So I handed the holiday forms in and have been advised that as from Sept the law has changed and no holidays are allowed in term time. My kids will be in Yr 4 and Yr 2 at Primary School both of them have had 100% attendance since they started and now I am being advised that there absence will be classed as truancy and we will be taken to court and fined £100 per child.
This is the holiday of a lifetime for us, it's costing us £3K just for flights and room only, to book the same hol in the Easter or 6 wk hols the cost rose to just under £5K.
And to top everything else off my husband has told me that he won't have the holidays authorised either.
I can't believe I'm having these problems when we are giving everyone a year's notice, has anyone got any suggestions on what we can do or what our rights are, if we have any?
Many Thanks

its absolutely discusting :eek:
rip off britain again

blue_monkey_2

velvetybubbles wrote: »

its absolutely discusting :eek:
rip off britain again

Of course, they will just tell you it is 'supply and demand'. The Friday and Saturday that half term starts, flights to Florida on Virgin were £1000 EACH return in economy, a few days before or after they are back to their usual £400-£500 each return.

vodkachick68

sunshinetours wrote: »

Thanks for your concern over my naivety, but there is no real need. Also sorry you overreacted to my post and got your blood presure up

Quite clearly your own children have had a rather different upbringing from most and I am sure it has suited them well. Shame you feel the need to generalise about "the products of todays schooling"

My posts have mainly been directed at the (IMO) rather self centered and selfish parents who value their own week on a beach in an AI resort / week at a holiday camp in term time purely because its cheaper

If that doesn't teach blatant flouting of the rules for one's own purpose then I don't know what does??

Some of your other points I agree with but they have very little to do with this thread

Well that must be aimed at a self centred and selfish parent like me then!! As i have already said in my previous posts,yes i have taken my kids out of school termtime as it is obviously cheaper. That does not mean that we sit around on a sunbed lounging all day every day! We go out and about visiting the local area,learning about the local culture,day trips and sampling the delicious food. Ok one could say that they could do that in the school holidays, but come on as i have said in previous posts,my kids are both doing very well at school and i personally do not see any damage done because i have hauled them out of school for a family holiday. As i have said before the schools should be concentrating on those pupils who rarely or never attend school,and not punishing the hardworking parent who wishes to have a family holiday.

jackieblack

blue_monkey wrote: »

So how many do you get then? Statatory holiday pay for a 5 day week is 28 days but this can (and usually does) incorporate Bank Holidays.

It's not the 28 days, it's the "of whatever date they choose to be able to go on holiday and can choose the cheapest times"!

Many employees have no choice when they take their holiday

From directgov -
"Your employer can decide when some or all of your holidays must be taken. For instance, they may require you to take some of your holiday to cover the bank holidays, or may require the whole company to take holiday during a Christmas shutdown."

sunshinetours

vodkachick68 wrote: »

Well that must be aimed at a self centred and selfish parent like me then!! As i have already said in my previous posts,yes i have taken my kids out of school termtime as it is obviously cheaper. That does not mean that we sit around on a sunbed lounging all day every day! We go out and about visiting the local area,learning about the local culture,day trips and sampling the delicious food. Ok one could say that they could do that in the school holidays, but come on as i have said in previous posts,my kids are both doing very well at school and i personally do not see any damage done because i have hauled them out of school for a family holiday. As i have said before the schools should be concentrating on those pupils who rarely or never attend school,and not punishing the hardworking parent who wishes to have a family holiday.

Not specifically at you personally no, but if you go in term time flouting the rules purely because its cheaper then yes I think that is a bad lesson to teach.
It certainly means you are maybe no different than those who don't bother to send their kids to school, as its just using the rules when you see fit. I don;t see why so many are struggling to see the lesson that actually teaches

Schools and social services certainly should be pursuing those with poor attendance records and as you say focusing on those. that has nothing to do with choosing to go on holiday whne you could go during non term time though does it?

I don't fully agree with Malkie on his one size fits all approach. There may be extenuating circumstances where kiids and parents simply cannot realistically get a holiday together in non term time. That has nothing to do with what yourself and I am sure many others do, which is simply to go on cost grounds (and more specifically do it each year).

The work analogy has already been mentioned.if you work in teh private sector for example, just try and say I am going on holiday for two weeks whether you like it or not and see what reaction you get. I know what mine would be if it was said to me