Term time holiday fine question.

jellyhead

Our school hasn't said anything much - they just told us what the government said.

A few people missed the first 3 days of school and as far as I know they weren't fined. One family are away this week - I'll ask next week if they were fined. One mum said yesterday that she is going to lie and say her year 6 boy is ill for 3 days. Another said that if her husband goes to visit his family abroad he has to take the little one with him, otherwise she can't fill in for him at work. I wonder if having family abroad who you only see once a year might be considered to be special circumstances though.

katskorner

Lying about illness is not a good idea as the chance are that the child will tell the teacher where they were anyway - a six year old back from a holiday is going to tell his mates so school will find out! Inevitable.

seven-day-weekend

I wouldn't have thought lying about your whereabouts is a very good example to show a six-year-old.

Just have your holidays in holiday time, if you can't then have days out. School days don't last for ever and a holiday away is not compulsory.

Spendless

Jellyhead said 'year six' not 6 year old, so a 10-11 year old child.

seven-day-weekend

Spendless wrote: »

Jellyhead said 'year six' not 6 year old, so a 10-11 year old child.

Well it's not a good example to show a child of any age!

mandy

Spendless wrote: »

What info has your child/res's school given you re the changes? My kids schools said if you had already had a holiday authorised before the new school ruling came in even if the hol was to be taken afterwards you would not be fined. Did you put in a holiday application at school?

Thanks for your reply we booked our holiday in Feb but our eldest only started new high school last week so we could only put in the holiday request last week,at the time of booking our holiday in Feb we didn't even know which school he was to be accepted into, I can obviously provide proof to the school that it was booked in Feb but i find it a bit hard to accept that it was booked 7 month before the law even came into force and still be expected to be fined.

jellyhead

He's year 6 and almost 11, but I still think he's going to tell people. They're going to Butlins.

I couldn't lie about it - my boys wouldn't be able to lie anyhow, even if I wanted them to. Only one of her children is school age, so I think I'd just pay the fine anyhow.

The mum whose husband is going abroad to visit family has changed her mind and will not be sending her youngest away. She's arranged for people to fill in at work, older siblings to babysit while she works, etc. so the youngest will be staying in school.

So, it's working, if sending parents a message that their children's education is important was what they were aiming for. While many parents will argue that their circumstances are special, I bet that lots more will simply not even consider taking a term time holiday.

Mojisola

mandy wrote: »

Thanks for your reply we booked our holiday in Feb but our eldest only started new high school last week so we could only put in the holiday request last week,at the time of booking our holiday in Feb we didn't even know which school he was to be accepted into, I can obviously provide proof to the school that it was booked in Feb but i find it a bit hard to accept that it was booked 7 month before the law even came into force and still be expected to be fined.

Under the old system you would have had to ask if your child could have the time off. Booking the holiday when you couldn't be sure if the time off would be granted was a gamble. It sounds as if you would have gone whatever the school said.

angelil

This 'lying about being ill' thing flummoxes me. In our school it simply wouldn't be possible, as absence for illness is simply not authorised without a doctor's note. So unless you can bribe a doctor you know to write you the note, it just won't happen...why do schools in the UK not have a similar policy in order to prevent this?

thorsoak

Basically it comes down to - how much are you prepared to pay for your holiday? If you insist on going in term time, you must factor in the fines that schools will impose.