Term time holiday fine question.

Spendless

FBaby wrote: »

But it states that this is 'advice'. Ultimately it is still up headteachers to decide what THEY consider exceptional circumstances.

That's what I'm saying. There doesn't seem to be any Government ruling over what is 'exceptional circumstances' Therefore schools are making their own judgement. Where I live the Head teachers of all schools are deciding to go by advice issued by the LA, even if the school is a foundation one (as DD's is) or an Academy (as DS's is).

Another area, or even individual schools within a different area may interpret 'exceptional circs' in another way.

SmallL

My parents took me out to Thailand on exceptional circumstances as my grandma on mums side (shes thai) was quite unwell so we wanted to see her incase it was our last chance.

However we also wanted to take my boyfriend, he couldnt get permission so his parents called him in sick.

I think we were 16/17 at the time.

Yorkie1

Guest101 wrote: »

The term out of court settlement is used in the descriptive sense. I think you'll find that there is a guilty pleas involved.

You are offered the option of pleading guilty, by accepting the PCN, and your punishment is the 'fine', and in some cases such as Motoring offences, points on your licence.

No-one can just add points onto your licence, without you first accepting, and acknowledging, your guilt.

A civil ut of court settlement is slightly different, as indeed there is no guilty plea in that case.

I agree with you that this is not a fine.

The accurate term you need to use is not 'out of court settlement'. This is a purely civil law concept.

The accurate term is in fact 'out of court disposal'.

FBaby

Spendless wrote: »

That's what I'm saying. There doesn't seem to be any Government ruling over what is 'exceptional circumstances' Therefore schools are making their own judgement. Where I live the Head teachers of all schools are deciding to go by advice issued by the LA, even if the school is a foundation one (as DD's is) or an Academy (as DS's is).

Another area, or even individual schools within a different area may interpret 'exceptional circs' in another way.

Sorry, I had read your message too quickly. I agree that this seems to be the case. I had a feeling without anything being officially said that the HT of my DD school wasn't supportive of it. He turned the school into an academy and I think he likes to be in control of things and not told what to do for the best of his pupils.

I get the same feeling from my DS's school too. Still no letter or item in newsletter about it!

When I took my kids on holidays in May, I had to take them out 1/2 a day. As it was to get to the airport on time for a flight to our holiday destination, I assumed it wouldn't be authorised anyway so only wrote a letter that morning to explain why my DD would leave school early. She was told that if I had written sooner, it would have been authorised!

Guest101

Yorkie1 wrote: »

I agree with you that this is not a fine.

The accurate term you need to use is not 'out of court settlement'. This is a purely civil law concept.

The accurate term is in fact 'out of court disposal'.

Thank you for the accurate terminology, as i said i was using it in the descriptive sense, but thanks for correcting

jellyhead

Spendless wrote: »

You did! Some local authorities or even different schools within the same LA had different rules, some would authorise, some wouldn't, some fined, others didn't. New rules come in from September. Some schools may have applied the old rules to a holiday authorised before they were informed of a change forthcoming. Some schools applied a period of grace. Daughter's Junior school said the new rules come in in Sept (this was around April/May time) and are applied with immediate effect. Son's Secondary in next village and in same pyramid of schools sent out a letter weeks later and said we'll apply old rules if you put in a request by x date (about 10 days away)

Wow, you had lots of notice. We were informed of the new rules yesterday

jellyhead

SmallL wrote: »

However we also wanted to take my boyfriend, he couldnt get permission so his parents called him in sick.

I think we were 16/17 at the time.

Isn't school voluntary at the age of 17?

I wonder how these rules would apply to my teenagers ... 17 year old will be at college and the other one will be 18 and in the 6th form of an academy. The academy refuses to authorise holiday anyhow, and has done for a few years.

We're not even his parents ... I wonder if they would fine his birth parents? At 18 surely he could go on holiday anyhow, without needing a parent or their permission. We know a couple of girls in 6th form who have their own flats at age 17. You can get income support if you're estranged from your parents, so who would they fine?

We're not planning to need time off school, but last time my husband took my eldest away he needed an afternoon off school in order to get to the airport in time. My 8 year old would get a fine, I assume, even if he only needed half an hour off school to get to the airport.

Guest101

jellyhead wrote: »

Isn't school voluntary at the age of 17?

I wonder how these rules would apply to my teenagers ... 17 year old will be at college and the other one will be 18 and in the 6th form of an academy. The academy refuses to authorise holiday anyhow, and has done for a few years.

We're not even his parents ... I wonder if they would fine his birth parents? At 18 surely he could go on holiday anyhow, without needing a parent or their permission. We know a couple of girls in 6th form who have their own flats at age 17. You can get income support if you're estranged from your parents, so who would they fine?

We're not planning to need time off school, but last time my husband took my eldest away he needed an afternoon off school in order to get to the airport in time. My 8 year old would get a fine, I assume, even if he only needed half an hour off school to get to the airport.

At 18, no the school/college/academy cannot fine his parents for absence. Chances are they will not fine him either, however if he misses so many hours in a year, then he could be removed from the course.

(using the word 'fine, for ease)

jellyhead

Guest101 wrote: »

At 18, no the school/college/academy cannot fine his parents for absence. Chances are they will not fine him either, however if he misses so many hours in a year, then he could be removed from the course.

(using the word 'fine, for ease)

If there is a need for half a day or whatever off school it won't have too much of an impact because his attendance would still be at least 99%. He's not a sickly child and has a good work ethic.

Come to think of it, the academy 6th form allowed my 16 year old to leave at ordinary hometime one day last year which meant skipping a twilight lesson. It was for a one-off important event and the tutor understood. My son had only ever had one half day's holiday leave in his entire 5 years of high school but perhaps if his attendance had been poor they would have been less understanding.

itzmee

I applied for 3 days holiday last October, just before DS was due to break up for half term. The school had previously authorised holiday and looked more favourably on allowing time off just before/after half term, combined with good attendance. However as we had a new head teacher she refused our request, disregarding DS's previous good attendance and the fact that we weren't disrupting his schooling in the middle of the term. I wrote back appealing the decision but that was refused as well. The final straw came when a letter was sent home advising that the last day of term would be spent doing circus skills as a special treat, in what way was that educational??!! I immediately wrote back to the head teacher giving her a piece of my mind as our holiday plans were much more educational than circus skills. This time we were finally given authorised time off and DS still ended up with over 95% attendance over the year.