Holiday in term time not authorised, will I be fined?

poet123

onlyroz wrote: »

So you would be perfectly happy for ALL parents to take the same stance as you, and take their child out of class willy-nilly to suit their own convenience?

All parents do in my experience.

That is, everyone makes their own decisions, who factors in what their friend or neighbour is doing when they ask for term time hols? We didn't/don't do it every year, nor do others, and there are those who for their own reasons wouldn't do it, so, on average, the numbers who do in any given week are not significant. The peak is the last week of term, and tbh that is not a vital period, usually given over to school trips, DVD day etc.

balletshoes

onlyroz wrote: »

I thought such children still had to attend classes etc?

nope - my 13-year old nephew plays for a premier league boys team, and he gets out of school regularly (I'm talking at least one day per school month and at least once a year he is out for 3 or 4 school days when they are involved in overseas tournaments). He does have to maintain a certain grade level and get decent school reports regarding his behaviour etc to be able to stay in the team, but he certainly doesn't attend school as regularly as his sister does.

**Patty**

onlyroz wrote: »

I thought such children still had to attend classes etc?

Where? .....I am talking about competing at International level (hence representing her country)......


The England team doesn't take a barrage of teachers with it as well!

ash28

balletshoes wrote: »

nope - my 13-year old nephew plays for a premier league boys team, and he gets out of school regularly (I'm talking at least one day per school month and at least once a year he is out for 3 or 4 school days when they are involved in overseas tournaments). He does have to maintain a certain grade level and get decent school reports regarding his behaviour etc to be able to stay in the team, but he certainly doesn't attend school as regularly as his sister does.

Correct - my friend's sons are both talented divers and they miss quite a bit of school for competitions etc.

Our grandson had a week out in Year 5 (he's Year 6 now) to go to Wales on the school residential trip.

Our grandaughter is going on a 2 night (so 3 days) trip next week (Year 5) prior to the "big" trip in Year 6

They go to different schools.

Do parents who disagree with children being removed from school during term time let their own children go on these trips?

poet123

My kids are/were county table tennis players they were allowed out of school for exhibitions and comps and in the last year alone my year 10 son has had six days out of school for football, rugby and climbing sports events.

flimsier

**Patty** wrote: »

*puts hand up*

I got a question:

How come, if your child, in their chosen sport, represents their country.....the school is able to permit time off with no reservation whatsoever......

And yet......put in a request for 6 days for a holiday & it's scorned upon?

Time off is time off.....the reason shouldn't matter.

Good question. We are a Sport College as specialism, so face this a lot - especially with footballers, but we have the person who came 3rd in U18s 100m this year for the UK (at 15).

Our solution was to launch a football academy at the school with the football club for post 16 which developed a working relationship.

We then actually put on compulsory extra classes after school with the support (some of which is financial for overtime/ extra staff) of the forementioned football club.

Even having said that, a boy who is currently in Year 10 was not allowed to go for day release at this club because he had fallen behind in his school work, even though his parents got very angry with the school over it. In fact, the football club wouldn't allow him to go without express consent from us.

We take attendance seriously, so even when one of the football teams have national cup matches, and have to leave and miss period 5 (ie one lesson), we plan for it and schedule an extra class for them (and even then, if the teacher for period 5 doesn't think they should leave, they don't - they do the lesson), which is compulsory or they don't get to represent the school again. We fund it.

We can't do that if we give the message that parents can take their kids out for 25 lessons; a day of a teacher costs £200 from an agency and £140 anyway; overtime is about £32 an hour plus on costs.

We also don't trust the football clubs' (or England's in two students' cases over the last 2 years - one male and one female) tuition so we don't rely on that.

I don't think it's acceptable for schools to let students go for sporting activities and not make other arrangements for their education. I do accept that we might call sporting excellence and coaching another type of education that is preferable, but I think there are significant risk factors we have a responsibility to minimise (ie no qualifications and not being professional in the sport).

flimsier

onlyroz wrote: »

I thought such children still had to attend classes etc?

It's token, and not really enforced (according to students who come back) and that's only really happened with England.

Oh the sprinter; I don't actually know what we've done for him, but he doesn't seem to have much time at all.

flimsier

**Patty** wrote: »

The England team doesn't take a barrage of teachers with it as well!

In football they do; or at least claim they do.

ash28

poet123 wrote: »

All parents do in my experience.

That is, everyone makes their own decisions, who factors in what their friend or neighbour is doing when they ask for term time hols? We didn't/don't do it every year, nor do others, and there are those who for their own reasons wouldn't do it, so, on average, the numbers who do in any given week are not significant. The peak is the last week of term, and tbh that is not a vital period, usually given over to school trips, DVD day etc.

We used to take our kids out of school for holidays and we have taken our grandson out too - he lives with us.

Not everyone is in the fortunate position of being able to take annual leave when they like - OH's was dependant on "operational requirements" and there were many years when he would go months at a time without being able to take leave when we would have liked, we used to slot something in when ever we got a chance.

It was never a cost issue it was a time off issue.

The schools were always pretty good about it once they knew.

We took early retirement last year and this is the first time in I don't know how many years that we went on holiday in August - in fact we went away for 4 weeks - because we could - brilliant. And it solved the problem of what to do in the school holidays.

**Patty**

flimsier wrote: »

In football they do; or at least claim they do.

Football is within the LEA's curriculum though.......

In my case, it's not a curriculum sport she does. I'm not going to specify exactly what it is for obvious reasons;)