New £60 Fines For Taking Children On Holiday During School Term (No 10 Days Grace)!

louby40

Schools also have attendance targets that they have to meet. Ofsted want to know why pupil attendance is so low and can make life very difficult for schools because of this. They can even put a school into 'notice to improve' if attendance (amongst other things) is an issue - and believe me you do not want your child's school to go through that.

We have a number of children at our school whose attendance is below 80% (because of holidays taken/illness/unauthorised absence) - that means they have missed half a term of school work! That time can never be clawed back.

And yes a trip to somewhere wonderful, is educational and has a place but 2 weeks to Spain every year???

Louise

katejo

Perhaps we should have staggered school holidays as they do in Germany . Different regions have their main holiday at slightly different times so not all children are on holiday in the same peak period . I am not sure how much it affects prices .

notanewuser

katejo wrote: »

Perhaps we should have staggered school holidays as they do in Germany . Different regions have their main holiday at slightly different times so not all children are on holiday in the same peak period . I am not sure how much it affects prices .

Problem with that is that quite often parents will have children in different authority's schools and might even be teachers in other authorities themselves.

The school holidays in the next county over from us are always a week out - usually behind. That means that everybody loses out because places (softplay etc) remove all offers and discounts for all the weeks that children could be off. So 7 weeks instead of 6 in the summer; 3 weeks instead of 2 at Easter and Xmas and 2 weeks instead of 1 at half term (x3 a year). My daughter isn't at school yet and it already costs me a fortune!!

budgetflyer

The problem is really that free education in the UK is just taken for granted.
The cheap weeks all inclusive on the the Med is more important than school.
My 3 children never lost a day for the sake of a cheap holiday. We just had to compromise. If all we could afford @ peak times was the Siesta bus to Spain, thats what we did.

Murphy_The_Cat

budgetflyer wrote: »

The problem is really that free education in the UK is just taken for granted.
The cheap weeks all inclusive on the the Med is more important than school.
My 3 children never lost a day for the sake of a cheap holiday. We just had to compromise. If all we could afford @ peak times was the Siesta bus to Spain, thats what we did.

For me, the enormous difficulty is that I own a small company that is highly seasonable, in a tourist area -- and trying to fit everyones holiday within the times that the schools find convienient for them is impossible.

I wonder if I become a convert to the Church Of The latter Day Saints I could get away with going to the American Mid West in term time each year on religious grounds

Mr_Wang

I got the letter yesterday and though I already had sensed a little hysteria around the whole situation I found I was right.

The letter says that it is government guidelines, not government legislation, i.e. schools are choosing themselves as to how they apply and interpret the guidelines.

It then goes on to say how only 'exceptional' absences will be authorised and that only after 'repeated unauthorised absences' will a fee of £60 be payable.

What is deemed exceptional is left down to discretion, and to me it looks like the odd family nipping off on holiday aren't the focus here, assuming of course you can find some exceptional circumstance.

penguin83

My daughter's school has said that the absence will be marked down as unauthorised but the council will only be informed if attendance drops below 90% and then a fine may be issued.

Murphy_The_Cat

Mr_Wang wrote: »

I got the letter yesterday and though I already had sensed a little hysteria around the whole situation I found I was right.

The letter says that it is government guidelines, not government legislation, i.e. schools are choosing themselves as to how they apply and interpret the guidelines.

It then goes on to say how only 'exceptional' absences will be authorised and that only after 'repeated unauthorised absences' will a fee of £60 be payable.

What is deemed exceptional is left down to discretion, and to me it looks like the odd family nipping off on holiday aren't the focus here, assuming of course you can find some exceptional circumstance.

I got the initial letter a week or so ago and and the follow up letter yesterday. We also have had a conversation with the Head and sadly, they are going to follow the party line.

Thats a shame really, as it will threaten to dampen a previously positive & productive relationship that we enjoy with the school.

It will be interesting to me to see if they follow this criteria
Penalty Notices for term time holidays can be issued if
 There have been 10 sessions (5 consecutive days) or more of
unauthorised absence due to a holiday taken during an academic
year; and
 Attendance is below 90% during the preceding 12 school weeks
before the holiday was taken; or
 The holiday was taken during the month of September; or
 The holiday was taken during tests or examinations; or
 It is the second holiday taken in any one academic year; or
 The pupil is in Year 6 or Year 11

maman

Murphy_The_Cat wrote: »

I got the initial letter a week or so ago and and the follow up letter yesterday. We also have had a conversation with the Head and sadly, they are going to follow the party line.

Thats a shame really, as it will threaten to dampen a previously positive & productive relationship that we enjoy with the school.

It will be interesting to me to see if they follow this criteria
Penalty Notices for term time holidays can be issued if
 There have been 10 sessions (5 consecutive days) or more of
unauthorised absence due to a holiday taken during an academic
year; and
 Attendance is below 90% during the preceding 12 school weeks
before the holiday was taken; or
 The holiday was taken during the month of September; or
 The holiday was taken during tests or examinations; or
 It is the second holiday taken in any one academic year; or
 The pupil is in Year 6 or Year 11

Mr_Wang wrote: »

I got the letter yesterday and though I already had sensed a little hysteria around the whole situation I found I was right.

The letter says that it is government guidelines, not government legislation, i.e. schools are choosing themselves as to how they apply and interpret the guidelines.

I always try to avoid such debates as they inevitably turn into 'teacher bashing' threads but....

I'm sure most schools would prefer not to have to administer this system but focus on pupils' learning instead. However although guidelines rather than statutory, schools are penalised by Ofsted if they don't have good enough attendance rates or exam results. A poor Ofsted can have dire consequences for schools and teachers so they toe the line.....

Murphy_The_Cat

maman wrote: »

I'm sure most schools would prefer not to have to administer this system but focus on pupils' learning instead. However although guidelines rather than statutory, schools are penalised by Ofsted if they don't have good enough attendance rates or exam results. A poor Ofsted can have dire consequences for schools and teachers so they toe the line.....

No teacher bashing from me

The hard thing from my perspective is that the control / discretion has been taken away from the Head.
My children are doing very well at school, are rarely 'sick' and any time that we've taken off for holidays have been after talking to the Head. I the past, the Head has been fully supportive of what we are doing.

Because we are as we are, from next term onwards, any time that we take off will be termed as 'unauthorised abscence', c'est la vie, life goes on etc. & our cards will be marked accordingly.

If we were of another persuassion, we'd simply develop a 'sickly child', whose sickness always corresponded with the last week of school in July (heavens forbid that we would miss a weeks finger painting, dvd watching, poster removing, game playing or whatever dross the final week is filled with)