unauthorised abscence from school

TheImportanceOfBeingIdle

dolly_day_dream wrote:

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.

and your point is what exactly? That it is acceptable to remove kids from school to take them on holiday???

That is part of the idea behind giving them holidays. It kinda defeats the objective.

purplepurple

I think dolly day dream's point was that it is unacceptable to take children out of school during term time as there are 13 non school weeks a year when they could go on holiday.

MegS

We went to Canada for a month in April, two weeks were covered by the Easter Holidays. We were getting married and it was the only time my husband could get off as he's in the Navy and was going to the Caribbean when we got back until Christmas (back in 3 weeks hurrah). The school were very good, we filled in a form and they classed it as authorised leave. We did do some educational stuff, like go the science museums and the like. My son is 7 on Tuesday so may be primary school isn't as fussed.


BTW Becles my husband is in Keano's red and white army too.

tired_mum

oh boy i wish i had never asked this question i wish that some of you teachers worked at our school as we have teachers on holiday in term time and also my child is taught sitting on the floor in a corridor as they dont have enough classrooms to use her school has been opened for 3 years and thy are sometimes taught by a TA which i think personaly insults teachers who have worked hard to qualifyas i said before i am going to take them as to leave the 2 older ones behind would be devastating to them and would probably cause more problems when i booked this i worked in the furniture del buisness and have an enforced hol for the 2 weeks after xmas and also we have enforced hol during the year as well as times at the end of every quarter when we cannott take time off making it hard as i only had 22 days a year this was one of the deciding factors we will not be taking them out again whilst they are at school after this as my daughter will be choosing her options soon and feel that this is not right but on the flip side do i send them on the 1 week educational trip to eurodisney? that the school does

purplepurple

I don't know any teachers that can take holidays during term time - blimey, even if my best friend dies, i'm only entitled to one day off!

andyrules

Gosh, tm, where is this school? We aren't even allowed to miss weekly staff meetings, lol. I do take your point re TAs teaching, it is a contentious subject at the mo. I suspect they are covering PPA time to keep school budget on track.

It's a tough decision for you, but as a rule of the thumb if children have holidays in term time personally I would say end of term is better than beginning.

but on the flip side do i send them on the 1 week educational trip to eurodisney? that the school does

If a child misses school to join a school trip, then they won't be missing any planned lessons with their class, and will pick where they left off on return.
HTH.:)

sleepy

I'm a science teacher, and I'd like to give you an idea of what your children will be missing.

If your 13 yr old were at my school they would miss 6 science lessons. In these lessons we would cover:
4 lessons on photosynthesis, including - experiments on how to remove cholrophyll from a leaf, how to test for products of photosynthesis, transport of "food" around a plant, how leaves are adapted to their function (including labelling complex diagram), and how glucose is used by plants.
2 lessons on gravity, mass and weight, an introduction lesson, then one focussing on gravity and masses in space.

If your 11 yr old were at my school they would miss 4 lesson covering:
Dissolving, solutes and solutions, naturally occuring salts, separating a solvent and solute including particle diagrams, distillation and solar powered water stills.

And all that is just for one subject, think about how much they would miss across their whole timetable, I certainly wouldn't want to try and catch up all of that in my evenings and weekends, and in the case of some practicals there won't be the opportunity to try them. The photosynthesis lessons for your 13 year old will almost certainly appear on their SAT's.

joaniemerc

dolly_day_dream wrote:

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

:eek: Not Greensward College by any chance?!

PS: it's distil, not distill - please write out one hundred times.......
:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

silverbirch_3

Both my 13yr old and 14yr olds schools have a policy of no term time holidays allowed. They are very strict on this and parents are told when they apply for a place that doing this would result in there place at the school been withdrawn as parents are not supporting the schools policies which they have to agree to in order to get a place. This means our family holiday has to be in august which for 8 of us (my parents come as well) costs a fortune. But we see it as the price we pay to get our children the best possible education available in our area. Other schools in the area are regulated by the lea and aren't as strict but we wouldn't want our children at those schools.

november

purplepurple wrote:

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

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

Small point but by law parents have the reponsibility for ensuring their children of school age receive a suitable education at school or otherwise , as your link says. It is not 'by law' that they should be at school.

In actuality I didn't take DD or DS out of school for holidays while they were there but had we been offered the opportunity of a holiday which I saw as educational I may have done. There is more to education than SATS etc and I cannot see the difference in taking a child out to go somewhere abroad and a school doing the same (e.g. ski trips at DD's school which we couldn't afford anyway).

Taking school attending children out on a regular basis is one thing but IMHO a one off opportunity like the one the OH mentions is something different.

Actually my DD ended up with unauthorised absense on her record anyway. We still don't know why. I suspect phone calls, letters etc were not logged when she was off sick as thats the dates they seemed to match.

I'd take them