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

poet123

flimsier wrote: »

Haha, so my underlying assumptions are not what I think they are? That's a poor effort at an argument by anyone's standards. "You say a, but I am arguing against b and argue you are saying b but you don't know it". Pathetic.

I don't agree with you; no. You are wrong about how attendance affects a schools' inspection. Then you write a load of bluster about reasons. If a school has an attendance problem, it is usually a wide variety of things; one is condoning absence by not challenging holidays. It's certainly very rarely about one aspect but not another as schools are not binary institutions in the way you want to point out in that post. The problem is that when it suits you, you're happy to claim that broad generalisations can't apply (such as the very strong correlation between attendance and achievement/ progress and hence attainment - well you can't take that into account when looking at an individual), and then you make other sweeping generalisations (alongside stating some "facts" that are wrong - such as attendance being in its own category).

I've successfully worked closely with a national strategies consultant on changing a school's systems to improve attendance as it was judged that the attendance was the primary factor in it's poor attainment. It was a secondment; and the first thing to change was the attitude amongst the school that "it's only one day".

As for Fbaby - stressed - yes, I'm quite stressed by my job at the moment; and my ill child. I'm far from stressed by words on a screen from a stranger though, and certainly not stressed/ upset/ weird enough to post up personal details about a child's report.

To quote you;) methinks the lady doth protest too much. The whole tone and content of your posts re term time holidays smacks of control, and from that I infer that you do think that you and only you (you in the form of school) have the child's best interests at heart. Arrogance of the highest order. If that is not what you think then I suggest you re read your posts to see why/how you are implying that.

Attendance may be tied into attainment, but there is a% target that stands alone, one that is examined against the previous target to see if that has been met. That target is also examined by Ofsted to see if it is challenging, and questions asked re snow days etc. That is a fact.

The word generalization is self explanatory, but fyi here is the definition;
Generalizations posit the existence of a domain or set of elements, as well as one or more common characteristics shared by those elements. As such, it is the essential basis of all valid deductive inferences. The process of verification is necessary to determine whether a generalization holds true for any given situation.

Therefore, it is you who are using sweeping generalisations when applied to a few days term time holiday as opposed to large tracts of time off sick, truanting, or longer holidays. I haven't generalised at all, my contentions are common sense, longer periods off (including the summer break)will obviously will have more effect on kids than a few days within certain parameters. Some children will be more affected than others and some not affected at all. I have in the main spoken personally, about my children, so no generalisation there either. You on the other hand are speaking in general, based on general research, not personal experience.

When you worked with the specialist was attendance not categorised? I would be surprised if it wasn't, and if so what was the primary reason for UA? was it term time holidays?

FBaby

flimsier wrote: »

As for Fbaby - stressed - yes, I'm quite stressed by my job at the moment; and my ill child. I'm far from stressed by words on a screen from a stranger though, and certainly not stressed/ upset/ weird enough to post up personal details about a child's report.

That's not what I was referring to but I'll leave it to that!

gregg1

FBaby wrote: »

why do you think I put it in brackets then!!!!

Quotation marks or inverted commas (informally referred to as quotes or speech marks)[1] are punctuation marks at the beginning and end of a quotation, direct speech, literal title, or name. Quotation marks can also be used to indicate a different meaning of a word or phrase than the one typically associated with it, and are often used to express irony.

I also wasn't referring to any one in particular on this forum, just the overall pressure put on parents. Is there really a need to stop and analyse every single word written as argumentative means??

Hey - you are the one who used it !

I agree completely with Flimsier. Terrible use of the word, even taking into account the punctuation

gregg1

FBaby wrote: »

I think I am going to leave it here flimsier, there comes a time when arguing for the sake of arguing becomes boring and pointless and you are probably a bit stressed at the moment

That is below the belt but predictable as you come across as someone who throws their dummy out of the pram if they do not get their own way or if they are losing the argument. I actually think Flimsier makes some very good points which seem to have struck a chord with some people!

sunshinetours

Plenty of people have made valid points on this thread - sometimes its the way you make them that overrides the content.

I never cease to be amazed how much personal information people sometimes put on here though and how upset some get on an anonymous internet forum. Noone is right all the time (apart from me ) and there is always more than one side

flimsier

poet123 wrote: »

Therefore, it is you who are using sweeping generalisations when applied to a few days term time holiday as opposed to large tracts of time off sick, truanting, or longer holidays. I haven't generalised at all, my contentions are common sense, longer periods off (including the summer break)will obviously will have more effect on kids than a few days within certain parameters. Some children will be more affected than others and some not affected at all. I have in the main spoken personally, about my children, so no generalisation there either. You on the other hand are speaking in general, based on general research, not personal experience.

On the contrary, I'm talking of personal experience. I suggest you read my posts. They're reinforced by research. One of your posts seemed to suggest that an opinion was more valid (even though one can't have degrees of validity) if it comes from a parent!

You have generalised (and now you're calling it "common sense") - so no research but based on your children. A sample size of 2.

When you worked with the specialist was attendance not categorised? I would be surprised if it wasn't, and if so what was the primary reason for UA? was it term time holidays?

Yes, but attendance now comes under a whole different section, recognising the impact it has across the board. However, the school I was seconded to had a few problems, one of which was that parents assumed they could have up to ten days off for holidays per year. They no longer assume that. I believe that's held to be a very common problem in schools who are categorised as Persistent Absence schools.

flimsier

sunshinetours wrote: »

I never cease to be amazed how much personal information people sometimes put on here though and how upset some get on an anonymous internet forum. Noone is right all the time and there is always more than one side

Agreed 100%.

vax2002

Trial
Judgement
Punishment
NO RIGHT OF INNOCENCE
By a school teacher ?
Why are we standing for this rubbish ?

flimsier

thatgirlsam wrote: »

Flimsier I find your posts really offensive!

You do sound quite bitter about something - Can you just not accept that people have different opinions?

I'm not bitter, but thanks for the feedback.

Of course I accept that people have different opinions, but I also believe that opinions are formed, developed, enhanced, changed, or reinforced by discussion and argument.

I'm sorry that I offended you.

flimsier

vax2002 wrote: »

Trial
Judgement
Punishment
NO RIGHT OF INNOCENCE
By a school teacher ?
Why are we standing for this rubbish ?

It's not quite as simple as that. There's no trial. There is a judgement, but you can take it to court. The punishment, ditto. I don't know what "right of innocence" means. It's not by a school teacher.

Cheers.