unauthorised abscence from school

Lillibet_2

tired_mum wrote:

dont know if this is the right board please move if neccesary
ok we are going on hol to the carribean on the 1st jan for 2 weeks and my 3 kids will miss school for 7 days now the junior school has said ok 5 days authorised 2 days unauthorised but the senior school has said no it will be unauthorised now what:eek:
my hubby and i have saved for 3 years for this trip and thought long and hard as to when we will take it as the kids have no exams we decided that this would be the final year we could remove them from school they had 5 days off in oct as my mum paid for us to go to butlins for our 16th wedding anniversery i cant understand how 2 schools in the borough can have different rules
in an ideal world we would not have taken them in term time but the cost for 5 of us in holiday time was too dear
any advice

I am going to go totally against the majority here & say that I do not think it is acceptable for children to be taken out of school to go on a family holiday, no matter how great the learning experience (and I have been on some fab educational holidays in my life, and don't doubt the educational part of them but they have the rest of their lives for this & only one shot at school). I except when you plan family holidays & the school doesn't meet usual holiday dates or maybe your holiday overruns the last day or 2 of term. Otherwise, When you have children & send them to school you know that they will be expected to attend school for 9 months of the year & that family holidays, however special, will have to be taken during the 3 months of annual school holiday, the extra cost & busyness of those periods are just unfortunate facts of having kids. To say that you have already taken your children out of school once this academic year to go to Butlins, which can under no reasonabel circumstances be considered educational no matter how you try to justify it, then to expect to disrupt their education again I think is just downright reckless & thoughless. If I was on the board of Govs at your kids schools I would be asking a lot of questions! Having kids brings many many rewards but also invloves sacrafices, re-schedluing your 2nd annual holiday is just a small one IMHO

Now I'll get down off my soap box:o:p

inkie

I agree with Lillibet - this is something that we have avoided thus far with our DDs. We go in school hols, and afford it by compromising the places we go - usually UK hols.

tired_mum

if my kids had not been going to the dominican with us this year they would have gone to a scout world jamboree in Aus but we could not justify 13000 pounds to send them so we have had to let them down once already this year this would have been in jan also
i have to agree that butlins was not really acceptable to take the kids too but it was a gift from a relative and would have been churlish not to go we have not had a hol for 3 years as we have always given our time freely to take the local scouts away using our precious holiday time and the summer holiday coincide with the rainy season in the dominican so this has been a difficult choice to make

Spendless

tired_mum wrote:

ok we are going on hol to the carribean on the 1st jan for 2 weeks and my 3 kids will miss school for 7 days now the junior school has said ok 5 days authorised 2 days unauthorised but the senior school has said no it will be unauthorised now what:eek:
they had 5 days off in oct

In my area the head can only authorise up to 10 days in any academic year, which is why the junior school is not authorising the other 2 days. My guess is the secondary school isn't authorising at all for any student, because these are the years the kids works towards their GCSE's. I think you need to find out what happens next if you go ahead. In my town they do fine. It is £50 per child and goes up if you don't pay it.

tired_mum

this is just a quick note to say i knew when i posted this there would be different opinions a couple of people have pmed me and i just want you all to know that i dont take it personally and with hindsight would probably not have taken this path but i have so will have to deal with the consequences
thank you all for your opinions everybodys are valid in ony way or another
many thanks

Becles

I agree Lillibet. I wouldn't normally take mine out of school in term time. It was just unfortunate that the school holday dates changed after we'd booked all the wedding bits and the honeymoon.

hilstep2000

I am a teacher too, and have to take my holiday in school holiday time. We are not allowed time off in term time, and neither are our kids, but parents do itall the time! One of our classroom assistants is going away to Hawaii next Easter. It is a one off adventure holiday, which comes back two days after term starts. She asked for the two days unpaid, and was told no, if she takes it she'll be dismissed under "gross misconduct"! She's booked it already, and is now worried that she'll have no job to come back to.

Dumyat

I have taken the kids out for an odd day at the end of summer term. however I wouldnt take them out for long periods during term time.
however these days have been counted as unauthorised absence which in a way I have felt aggrieved about. the lessons have stopped and if they were off sick for two days nothing would be said. because I have been honest and not said they were ill its marked against them.

Spendless

dogrose wrote:

I have taken the kids out for an odd day at the end of summer term. however I wouldnt take them out for long periods during term time.
however these days have been counted as unauthorised absence which in a way I have felt aggrieved about. the lessons have stopped and if they were off sick for two days nothing would be said. because I have been honest and not said they were ill its marked against them.

Are you asking in advance for permission to take your kids out of school, and the form is coming back unauthorised, or are you not asking, just telling them when they get back, cos that will be classed as unauthorised.

One of the mums at my school, her 2 got 2 days worth of unauthorised absences last year. 1 day she had gone into labour with her baby a few days early, gone into hospital, kids had had to go to a relatives who was unable to get them to school (lives too far away) and no-one had thought to let school know. The school sec rang later that day to ask where the children had been, and when told about the new baby said they had wondered if that was what had happened but they still marked it as unauthorised.

On the other occassion, the mum got married and told the class teacher, they may not be in, due to the wedding celebrations, late night etc. I do think the mum would have been better off asking for day after wedding and then it wouldn't have gone as unauthorised.

Tom_Saunders

just go on your holiday of a lifeitme and enjoy yourself.

What can they do ? ? ?

I took my kids to Eurodisney last week, the teachers were thrilled for us even though I told them they were going to miss school.

They are both at different schools 4 & 7, we would have still gone regardless of what they thought.

As someone said they are YOUR kids. It's not as though you are taking them to Skegness or Minehead ! :T