Unauthorised absense from school - one day

Spendless

Depends on whether the school is likely to fine or not. I know people on here say schools won't fine unless the absence is over so many sessions, but info on my 2s school websites doesn't clarify the situation. Eldest's is clearer, they wouldn't. Youngest you can't tell. For this reason I wouldn't risk a £360 fine (£60 per child, per parent) for 1 day and would lie.

bylromarha

Agree telling the truth is the way forward.

As an aside, a friend's daughter came home from school having been pinched yet again at school (Year 5). Friend was moaning about daughter not being safe at school (understandably as her daughter was one of several girls in the class at the receiving end of a high need child) and she had a phone call from the school 30 minutes later asking her to remove childrens names from her facebook account.

No childrens names used except her own kids, and referring to the year group in general in her typing. Turns out that some people really DO have nothing better to do.

securityguy

Spendless wrote: »

Depends on whether the school is likely to fine or not..

They can't: the threshold is ten sessions (five days).

Spendless

securityguy wrote: »

They can't: the threshold is ten sessions (five days).

I find a lot of posters mentioning this, but nothing concrete from even my own council. Just had another look and they have this


In what circumstances will Fixed Penalty Notices be issued?

A Fixed Penalty Notice will be issued in three situations:

If a holiday (leave of absence) is taken during term time without the authorisation of the Head Teacher.

If a pupil has unauthorised absence from school and their parent/carer fails to co-operate with the Education Welfare Officer to improve this situation.

If a pupil has unauthorised absence from school and this does not improve following a warning letter.

It makes no mention of how many missed sessions they are talking about, so I would rather lie than run the risk of paying a £360 fine to attend a 100th birthday party.

pollypenny

I'm sure the head would be delighted to authorise a day's absence to celebrate a 100th birthday!

Just ask nicely, teachers are human, you know.

peachyprice

Spendless wrote: »

I find a lot of posters mentioning this, but nothing concrete from even my own council. Just had another look and they have this


In what circumstances will Fixed Penalty Notices be issued?

A Fixed Penalty Notice will be issued in three situations:

If a holiday (leave of absence) is taken during term time without the authorisation of the Head Teacher.

If a pupil has unauthorised absence from school and their parent/carer fails to co-operate with the Education Welfare Officer to improve this situation.



If a pupil has unauthorised absence from school and this does not improve following a warning letter.

It makes no mention of how many missed sessions they are talking about, so I would rather lie than run the risk of paying a £360 fine to attend a 100th birthday party.

From reading that I would say they won't fine a parent for missing one day. They would send a warning letter in the first instance, so as long as OP hasn't had a warning letter before for unauthorised absence, by their on rules they won't fine her for taking the day off for Granny's birthday. Same would apply if you took a week off.

Was this info taken from the full 'code of conduct' on the LEA site? I have found that the info readily available to parents makes no mention of the 10 sessions, lots of LEA's seem to be hiding that, but if you dig deeper for the full CoC that is issued to schools you may find it there.

hippihaz

my mums head of a primary school and said they can only fine after 10 sessions (5 days) have been missed. so in general if you read of a parent fined for taking a week off (5 days) then chances are they have had one other day off somewhere that was unautherised that was forgotten about, then making it over 5 days, or if you go on a 10 or 14day holiday.
So in answer to the question, for one day absence, tell the truth.

hippihaz

and as most people say, this is not well published as it works better just to tell people they will be fined and to leave out the fine details,but any school/LEA policy will have this somewhere in it if you dig deep enough!

DigForVictory

Talk to members of staff with the truth. If they are fine with it, do the paperwork.

If they are not, ask why - will your children miss exams, trips, rehearsals, guest speakers? What is it about this one day that's an issue? If it's someone's GCSE, then yes, that could be an issue - although could they sit the paper early in the morning & be chaperoned (& sequestered from phone & internet access til after the exam's Official Hours) offsite and straight off to family?

And finally, things like a copy of the telegram, discussing All The Changes in 100 years (decimalisation for maths, women & property, health, internet - blimey there a good term's work across most subjects!) & ahem, any remaining cakes will all help teachers reconcile their consciences....

Not that I'm advocating open bribery you understand, but the truth, and educational material, with an "and there were still cakes unopened!" will almost certainly see the school gates held open for you.

Happy Birthday, Ma'am!

embob74

I would tell the truth as I wouldn't trust my kids not to trip me up and I could never ask my kids to lie on my behalf.
I actually thought that schools no longer had a say in authorising absences as government had legislated for it not to happen.
One of my children missed 7 days of school as their nan offered to pay for them for a once in a lifetime holiday and I didn't ask the schools permission beforehand as they had made it quite clear they would never give it.
I thought it would be ok to inform them afterwards but it had such serious repercussions that I wish we had just been fined!

I do think a 100th birthday is such a momentous occasion it is not in the same league as just having a holiday.