Unauthorised absense from school - one day

pollypenny

Ooh, meri. We are usually in tune, but this is over the top.

Very few parents are fined, let alone jailed.

If it's a very rare holiday, even a week in Magaluf, I'm sure there would be no problem. However, there are families who do it regularly, with the start of a term being particularly problematic.

securityguy

meritaten wrote: »

I have been sitting on my hands trying not to say this - but! These are your children, and while education is important, parents rights are being eroded by these 'rules' which are now in law and parents can actually be jailed for not sending children to schoo

No they can't. They can be jailed for failing to provide an adequate education. That has been the case since 1870 (Elementary Education Act 1870, S.74(4)). You are perfectly entitled to do that by home education, private education or "otherwise". If you don't like state schooling, you're perfectly at liberty to do it yourself. It sounds like you should.

peachyprice

meritaten wrote: »

the reasons parents want to take them out for a week or so are to benefit the child.

Unfortunately not all parents take their children out of school 'to benefit the child'. What possible benefit is there to a child sitting by a swimming pool in Benidorm? You can't argue that they are learning about a new culture as a lot of holiday resorts are the same as going to Blackpool except warmer.

GobbledyGook

The main point of the fines (imo) is to make people think about when they book holidays. When you have the same children missing the start of terms/subjects (or important dates) repeatedly then it can become a big issue. It's not (imo) designed to punish the parents who take the odd day off at the end of the year after making sure their child is not missing anything.

I wasn't a teacher, but I worked 1-to-1 with children in schools and my job was to help kids who struggled. We went back to the basics to try and give them some building blocks and the number of parents who booked the first week or two of the year staggered me. This is the point that all of the new topics start and if you've got a child who already struggles academically to take them then is crazy imo. The kid is then playing catch up for the rest of the year. Parents then expect the school to help the child catch up without any thought to how and when that is supposed to happen.