School declined holidays and branded the kids truants

Pollycat

JVRMac wrote: »

And to top everything else off my husband has told me that he won't have the holidays authorised either.

I'm curious why the OP's OH said the above.
WHY won't his holidays be authorised?

slinga

What annoys me is that airlines etc etc take advantage of the school holidays to increase fares, rates etc.
Does it cost them more during that period or are they just cashing in.

easy

Pollycat wrote: »

I'm curious why the OP's OH said the above.
WHY won't his holidays be authorised?

Is this some sort of blackmail I wonder ? "We wont authorise your holiday from work, because we know it means you'll take your children out of school"

Overstepping the mark.

But then I resent the idea that school (i.e. the govt) think they can dictate when I may or may not have time with my own children. AS I say, I'm a scxhool governor, but do think the authorities are OTT on this regulation.

Hannah2

Why do people think it is acceptable to take a child out of school because the holiday is a bit cheaper at that time? Does this not show a total lack of respect for the system/school? A total lack of respect to the teachers who have to deal with enough problems without dealing with children that then need special attention to catch up with the rest of the class? And what does it teach the children? that it is ok to bend and break rules if it means you get what you want? Isn't lack of respect in the classroom one of the major problems of schools at the moment?

How would you feel if the teacher sent a letter home saying that they wanted a holiday to Florida when they could afford it, so your children would not have a teacher for 2 weeks?

When I was at school noone took children out of term time to go on holiday, it was simple, if you couldn't afford a holiday in the school holidays you didnt get to go... straight forward enough! Either that or instead of going for two weeks you went for one.

And as for OP booking a holiday of that cost without getting written authorisation for the OH annual leave, then that to me is just absolute madness!

maxtweenie

peachyprice wrote: »

You have no right or entitlement to term time holidays.

Did your school not advise you of their term time holiday policy when your children first started? Have you really not heard of this much publicised policy? There was plenty on the news about it when the fines were introduced a few years ago.

If your saving all that money on the holiday by taking them out of school all you can do is pay the extra £400 in fines (£100 per child per parent)

The problem is that the policy is not applied consistently across the whole country. Neither does it seem to be consistent between schools in the same local education authority.

I have one child of school age, and I fully understand the reasons for the policy. Are you sure the fine is £100 per child per parent? If so, I find that offensive as yet again it discriminates against the already minority 2 parent families.

Incapuppy

easy wrote: »

The OP doesn't say she has disregarded the terms of her OH's employment contract. She apparently had no inkling at all that term-time holidays would be a problem for her DH

I must have misinterpreted this then....

JVRMac wrote: »

As for my DH, he hasn't yet asked at school for his holidays but it does state in his contract hols to be taken outside of term time.

Kate78

Why are holidays more expensive during school holidays?

Why is food always more expensive at motorway services?

Why does it always cost more to buy sweets at the cinema?

Because that's where the demand is

OP - the hols would cost £5 in the hols, instead of the £3k to go in term time. So even paying the £400 fine, it still works out £1600 cheaper to go in term time.

Proves the system is an a$$

thommy

wallbash wrote: »

Rubbish , the tour operators are in it to make money , Why shouldn't they .If I owned a holiday home , peak demand means peak prices. Law of supply and demand.

And before anybody starts , I am a husband of a teacher , so holidays are always taken at peak times , this will be for 40 ?? years not just the years your own child is in education.

...and you've just proved the op's point, in your first paragraph, in case you didn't realise....so, not really rubbish, is it?

it's so simplistic to claim it's the law of supply and demand. peak holidays are sold at a premium as soon as they are offered. do you see queues of parents at the travel agent snapping them up? hence, pushing the prices up? there is no choice, unless you can get a last minute deal for a better price. and we all know how difficult it is too that with children. maybe 'exploitative' would be a better word to use on the part of the tour operators?

JVRMac

Guess I've opened up a can of worms here!
Firstly at no point when I was booking this holiday did I think there would be a problem either with the kids or with my DH. My DH gave me the impression that it was OK to book it, like I said his old boss used to take his holidays in term time every year, so never dreamed it would be a problem, especially with the amount of notice we were giving. Also I booked the holiday around when the school was off so there is only 1 week of school being missed.
The whole reason for me posting was that I was concerned about my children being accused of truancy, the fact that my children have attended the school for 5 years with 100 attendance would have been taken into consideration. I value their education and if I thought that missing 1 week of school would have an adverse effect then I wouldn't do it, as it happens I believe they will get a lot more from being on holiday than they will from being at school that week.

BTW DH has been told worst case scenario it would be unpaid leave, which I can live with that phew!!!

Spendless

JVRMac wrote: »

Thanks easy.... my DH has worked for the school for 8 years and has never requested time off whilst outside of term time before, like you mentioned he is a caretaker for 52 weeks of the year, it's a large school so there are another 2 who all do similar roles, so it's not as if there is no-one to look after the school.

Also he has to pre-book his whole years holidays in March to run from April to March which is why he hadn't asked about them yet. I've rang him at work and told him to ask now, so fingers crossed.

In response to Robin Banks the holiday would have been £5k if we booked the holiday at Easter or in the 6 weeks holidays, that is not what we are paying.

Also just to set the record straight this isn't a holiday on a whim thing, this is our family holiday of a lifetime, we got married in Florida and next year would be our 15th wedding aniversary as well as being my 40th, this is also the 1st holiday abroad the kids have had. I waited until the kids would be at an age to both enjoy and remember the experience and before the oldest gets to secondary school where it would have more of an impact on his education.

OK rant over, I do concede that this is not the Schools fault but the holiday operators who are holding us all to ransom.

Many thanks for the replies.

I hope your husband can sort out his work situation so you can go. I went on a similar trip to Florida a few years ago taking our eldest, then 5, out of school for 2 weeks. We had a similar situation to your own, married in Florida and decided then that we would go back for my husband's 40th birthday and be there on the day, as well as my own 39th which fell a week before. Short of asking our parents to time travel back and conceive us to be born in school holiday time;) we were going in term time and DS's holiday request was authorised.

In your case if your husband can sort work out I'd just pay the fine. How is it allocated? A few years ago my council had it on their website that a fine would be £50 per child, per parent, so £200 in total.