school fines for out of term holidays?

tinkerfairy

London50 wrote: »

OK until the " Little darlings" tell all their friends what a great time they had in "xyz" while a teacher or other staff are within earshot ;0)

If they did the parents could say they went on holiday over Xmas, before the schools returned.

tinkerfairy

Mojisola wrote: »

Not any more - the law changed in 2013 and Headteachers have to comply with the new regulations.

As you say, the LA should have information about it like this -
https://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/schoolseducationandlearning/schoolsandcolleges/parentadvice/studentbehaviour/truancy/educationwelfareservicepenaltynotice.htm

This was under the new law. We had exceptional circumstances .

Morglin

Write notes saying the kids were off school through being unwell, as they can't prove otherwise.

I wish some schools would be as keen for the kids to have to be at school during a teacher's strike or when more than a single snowflake falls!

Lin

Mojisola

tinkerfairy wrote: »

It depends on the school, each school is different.

We took a term time holiday under exceptional circumstances so wasn't fined.

My county council's website has the policy under their education section so worth looking on yours.

tinkerfairy wrote: »

This was under the new law. We had exceptional circumstances .

My reply wasn't saying that you shouldn't have been given permission - it was to your comment that "it depends on the school" which is why I put it in bold.

Headteachers used to have a lot of flexibility in deciding whether to authorise absences or not so things varied between schools.

Now the rules are set down centrally and Headteachers have to comply with those or face problems from OFSTED when their schools are inspected so there will be very little difference between the decisions made by different Headteachers.

bestpud

When approached about authorised absence for a holiday, a local primary HT told the parents that he would have authorised it but now he can't.

He then went on to say it won't deter parents anyway as they will say the child was ill and they don't have the time or inclination to check up on children who gave a good attendance rate and are progressing well. Nudge nudge, wink wink!

So that's what the parents did and they made no effort to tell their 5 year old to keep quiet so she is sure to have talked about it!

Mojisola

bestpud wrote: »

When approached about authorised absence for a holiday, a local primary HT told the parents that he would have authorised it but now he can't.

He then went on to say it won't deter parents anyway as they will say the child was ill and they don't have the time or inclination to check up on children who gave a good attendance rate and are progressing well. Nudge nudge, wink wink!

So that's what the parents did and they made no effort to tell their 5 year old to keep quiet so she is sure to have talked about it!

I think this kind of thing will happen quite a lot.

It will be interesting to see the statistics in a few years' time - I suspect that "sickness rates" will have gone up by about the same amount as "authorised holidays" have gone down.

FR_262

YES, YES, YES. Take your little precious darlings out of school! They're probably (text removed by MSE Foprum Team) that are disrupting the rest of the class.

This gives everyone else a chance to actually get their education without disruption.

Everyone knows that school holidays are more expensive to book a holiday. And if you didn't? Well you must be thick.

I hope you get a big fine.

If you love your children you'll get them the best education they can get.

As an ex-teacher I know how important it is for your child to attend every day. If you miss the start of term then your child's best friend is likely to find a new best friend. If you miss the end of term then your child misses out on the friendship bonding activities conducted through the last few days of the term. I always worked my class to the very last day of term (party day) because there is so much for them to learn that even one day of partying is one day too much.

London50

tinkerfairy wrote: »

If they did the parents could say they went on holiday over Xmas, before the schools returned.

While I agree with what you say {and I am VERY glad that my children are LONG past schooling} I was just trying to point out that it COULD cause some embarrassment to the OP if that thought had not been taken on board.
Personally I have no thoughts one way or another as to a] if this is a good idea or b] the "legal" outcome of taking your children out of school during term time, yet I hope that the OP has read the full thread and will then make an "informed" opinion from it.
I do think this question will carry on being raised as more and more families find the cost of a holiday within the periods outside term time sky rocket and "stop" the norm of family holidays away.

bestpud

:rotfl:

Such self importance!

FR_262

Not really. It's not me that's important, but the children's education.

I'm just the education provider.