Schools no longer allowed to authorise holidays

Tigsteroonie

peachyprice wrote: »

Make sense really, if schools have previously had a large number of applications for term time holidays at certain times of year they can now decide that they will have their holidays to suit their community, surely that means everyone will be happy?

If only schools would be that sensible ... but I doubt it.

mumps

Mr_Wang wrote: »

I guess I should've pointed out that I believe teachers to be amazing and often altruistic individuals.
I am lucky enough that my children are both at outstanding schools and this is a reflection on the teachers and the standard of education they receive.
But I believe heads of schools should still have the power to grant or deny time off on an individual basis.
The fact that the government has in one swipe completely removed this is what concerns and bothers me.

Glad we cleared that up.

Janepig

peachyprice wrote: »

Make sense really, if schools have previously had a large number of applications for term time holidays at certain times of year they can now decide that they will have their holidays to suit their community, surely that means everyone will be happy? The school won't have unauthorised absences messing up their stats and the parents can have cheap holidays/time off for religious festivals without being penalised.

I'm not saying it isn't a good idea (although it could become problematic if you have children in two local schools with different term dates, etc...), however, I don't see how the government can say that schools should have more responsibility by making their own decisions on term dates, yet they've taken the responsibility for allowing parents to take term time holidays away from the same schools.

Jx

meritaten

Janepig wrote: »

I'm not saying it isn't a good idea (although it could become problematic if you have children in two local schools with different term dates, etc...), however, I don't see how the government can say that schools should have more responsibility by making their own decisions on term dates, yet they've taken the responsibility for allowing parents to take term time holidays away from the same schools.

Jx

and completely removed all parental rights! which is what concerns me most.

penguin83

We have had a further letter today from the school. They have said that all unauthorised absences will be forwarded to the Local Authority and they will issue a fine if their attendance is below 90%. I am guessing that most parents wouldn't dream of taking their child out if their attendance was so low but it sounds like although their absence will be marked as unauthorised a fine won't follow. x

securityguy

meritaten wrote: »

and completely removed all parental rights! which is what concerns me most.

If you feel that adversarial towards your child's school, you are perfectly at liberty to home school them.

meritaten

nope - my kids all went to school - in the bad old days when the truancy officer investigated absences. We were on first name terms with him. youngest son was severely asthmatic and normally spent two weeks out of four in hospital - but the 'welfare officer' still had to call in to verify!

I would probably have been better off by homeschooling - but, I thought it important that my son attended when he could.
and sometimes we HAD to have holidays as the doctors thought it a good idea for him to get to the seaside and away from the high pollen levels in our area.

peachyprice

meritaten wrote: »

nope - my kids all went to school - in the bad old days when the truancy officer investigated absences.

We still have truancy officers here, as well as home visits instigated by the school they do regular sweeps of shopping centres, parks etc., looking for school-age children out with their parents, those parents can be issued penalty notices too.

timbo58

I wasn't going to wade through all 11 pages: so JIC it hasn't been asked before -HOW do you get 'fined'?
Is it a real bona fide court fine, or just a speculative invoice from the council/school?
What happens if you refuse to pay?
Do they expel your children?

Genuinely interested as I though only courts could issue fines?

tgw1980

:(I received the notification from my son's school on Friday about the rule changes.

The existing situation is that the school will authorise up to ten days of term time holiday once a year.

Now, I have a big problem because, only two days before the letter came out, my partner and I booked a wedding abroad in October 2014. We are out there for two weeks (straddling the half term holiday).

My son who is 7 would never have been taken out of school during term time; but as this was a special occasion and the existing rules allowed it, we thought we were ok to book when we did.

Changing dates is not an option - mainly due to the large deposit we would lose.

As soon as I saw the letter, I wrote to the school, explaining what has happened.

I'm eagerly awaiting their response; but am not feeling very hopeful