unauthorised abscence from school

purplepurple

It is well documented that attainment is directly linked to attendance.
Every school has an attendance target (ours is 97%) and every time a pupil has an unauthorised absence it brings that percentage down. This impacts on everyone and can be a factor in whether the school is seen to be successful or not. At my school that last year, we had over 900 unauthorised absences. Half of them were due to pupils going on holiday. That's a lot of absences and a lot of missed learning opportunities.

babyblooz

Our local authority is now fining £50.00 per child for unauthorised absences, school is just following guidelines issued by them.

Parents often moan about it, but it makes sense. How can kids learn if they're not in school. And don't evan think about saying they were sick, cos the kids love to tell everyone about their holiday when they are in the playground, and the sun tans and the hair braids do tend to give the game away!

Another point, schools are judged by the results they get for sats and stuff, and if kids take time off, they bring the ratio down, and the school looks bad compared to others that have a stricter line to absences. Thing is, you choose which school to put your kids in, so choose, but accept that you have to toe their line, if its a good school, thats probably why.

everythingblogcast

School is NOT jail so why do you need to ask to take them.

joaniemerc

Seakay wrote:

This page from the Essex County Council site has some more information:

http://www.essexcc.gov.uk/vip8/ecc/ECCWebsite/dis/faq.jsp?channelOid=16355&guideOid=14701&oid=17668

Thanks Seakey - absolutely spot on for me the Essex CC website.:T Found out on Thursday that AS level exams will be taking place during the week in May that we had booked to go to Turkey (which is one of the school holiday weeks:mad:) Am now going to change to first week of June and take 16 and 14 year olds out of school for 5 days. Mind you - it's going to cost me an extra £140 to do so. You just can't win with some of the schools nowadays.:p

seven-day-weekend

Is it OK to take the kids out of school to help the parents do the shopping? (which happened a lot in the school I did Teaching Practice in).

If not, then why is it OK to take them out to go on holiday?

Go in the school holidays - downsize your holiday. My husband was a teacher for twenty years. We had to have school holidays -we went camping.

.IMHO, of course.

purplepurple

everythingblogcast wrote:

School is NOT jail so why do you need to ask to take them.

.... because by law your school age children should be at school.

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/management/atoz/a/attendanceandabsence/

TheImportanceOfBeingIdle

With all the holidays kids get at school nowadays, I find it a bit strange how people can remove them from school to take them on holiday.

Your kids are having a holiday over christmas and you're wanting to take them abroad when they should be at school???

I agree with the school. Infact I'd go as far as saying the school should say no it isn't allowed. I think it's a bit irresponsible.

dolly_day_dream

I teach and our last (and only) holiday abroad was in 2000:o It simply cannot be afforded during the holidays. Neither was I able to take days off for things like going to University open days with my children. sports days, nativities etc all have to be missed It is part of our job to be there for our class during term time end of story. So why should it be different for the children? If I am making this effort why not their parent's? You are teaching your children it is ok to break the rules to get what you want.

I have known children who have lost several weeks of their schooling through these 'educational holidays' and cannot honestly say that they have benefitted from it. One girl (aged 11) was taken for 3 weeks to an Indian Reservation - wow how exciting must that have been - to consolidate the educational benefit from it I asked her to write about it when she got back. She didn't even know what country she had been in:eek: and couldn't tell us a single thing about it except that she swam in the sea:rolleyes:

One thing though don't take your children out and then come back and demand the extra work that they have missed so that they can catch up. As previously mentioned this takes up so much of our time trying to put something together as most of our work is talking and experiencing in class and this is difficult to distill into a sheet for your child to complete. Too many times I have done this for it never to be completed.:mad:

On a plus note for you I teach in Essex and it is unlikely that you will be prosecuted.

dolly_day_dream

TheImportanceOfBeingIdle wrote:

With all the holidays kids get at school nowadays, I find it a bit strange how people can remove them from school to take them on holiday..

Would just like to note that children get exactly the same amount of holiday they used to. They are in school for 190 days each year. There are an additional 5 training days for teachers each year.

Dumyat

Spendless wrote:

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.

no I asked ahead of time, that they would miss the last two days of school. I got a standard letter back saying that it would be logged as unauthorised absence. I just felt that because I was honest I had a black mark. If I had said they were sick nothing would have been said.