Our kids refused time off school during term time - please advice

onlyroz

ringo_24601 wrote: »

You may have to pay a fine. We didn't when we took our son out of reception for a week.

Had your son reached statutory school age?

Janetta

Hello,
In this instance you should have just taken the kids without asking permission - by giving them notice they have time to plan and prepare the consequences.
If your children have the good attendance you write taking them for 5 days may/ could have slipped under the radar ( could have said they were ill)
You may now find that your punishment is a example to other parents - just a thought

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

geek84 wrote: »

Hi Folks

Many thanks for your replies.

I have twins aged 13 years old. They are in year 9 at the moment.

The reason for refusal the school gives is - This is not currently an exceptional circumstance

Are you suggesting it is not worth appealing against the decision?

Looking at my school's calendar, you're taking them away just when the first assessments are due for their GCSEs. And they'll miss the half term work. Which isn't great, to say the least.

arbrighton

geek84 wrote: »

Hi Folks

Many thanks for your replies.

I have twins aged 13 years old. They are in year 9 at the moment.

The reason for refusal the school gives is - This is not currently an exceptional circumstance

Are you suggesting it is not worth appealing against the decision?

You want to take them out during the first couple of terms of year 10?

Which will be an unauthorised absence. And affect their reference for that super good sixth form you want to get them into....

susancs

geek84 wrote: »

Hi Folks

Many thanks for your replies.

I have twins aged 13 years old. They are in year 9 at the moment.

The reason for refusal the school gives is - This is not currently an exceptional circumstance

Are you suggesting it is not worth appealing against the decision?

IMO you will just waste your time and effort appealing as the school will no doubt just point you in the direction of the Local Education Authorities attendance policy and the schools own policy. As the absence will be in year 10 ( following the GCSE course for most subjects), the school will also probably send you the information about the correlation between high academic performance and high school attendance. I know my children's secondary school regularly like to remind all parents of this.

As you have already booked and paid for the holiday you will just have to be prepared to accept it will be an unauthorised absence, you will probably pay a penalty charge (fine) and have to provide extra support at home upon their return to school, going over texts books or using e- learning materials, to help them catch up on any topics they may have missed in school.

gettingtheresometime

So in one thread you're wondering how to get your son to into a top notch sixth form and then you're off taking him out of school for a jaunt.....so sorry he'll learn so much more in India on a holiday wont he

GwylimT

Firstly schools are unable to say yes or no to holidays, so I don't know why you're blaming the school. Secondly you have picked the time that virtually all schools carryout ISAs.

pinkshoes

I think the whole thing is ridiculous, and I'm a teacher!

5 days off school at the beginning of Y10 will be fine, and the trip to India will be fabulous. My aunt and uncle did the same when my cousins were in Y10 and Y12, and what they learnt gave them a lot to talk about in interviews.

I would WRITE to the school, requesting them to change their mind, agreeing that the twins will catch up with all school work missed, will take some holiday work with them (if possible), and then go on to highlight the educational purpose of your trip, and how it will benefit them.

If their grades and attendance is good, then the school is being rather petty to refuse.

Jagraf

geek84 wrote: »

Hi Folks

My wife and I are planning to go on a 2 week holiday to India with our twin children, in late October this year. The two weeks would be made up of the one week half term holiday plus the week after. So in reality, they would only be missing 5 school days. Going to India in late October is very popular and the travel agent advised us to book the holidays asap since it would have been very difficult to book a reservation after the month of May. We booked our tickets in mid May. We do know that it is difficult to get reservations for late October, if you inquire about them in June - so the travel agent wasn't telling us any false information.

Anyway, before booking, we rang the school, and the receptionist said there shouldn't be much of a problem with getting time off school, since it would only be 5 days. She said, when making the decision, the school mostly look at grades achieved so far and the attendance record of the child. Both our kids have satisfactory results in the school work and have almost 100% attendance record. She also stated that we need to give definite dates for our holidays, so both my wife and I decided to book the holidays before giving in the kids school holiday forms.

After booking and paying for the tickets, we gave in the holiday forms for the children to school. However, today we received a letter from the school stating that they would not allow the kids time off school !!

Both my wife and I are very upset about this, since we were hoping that our kids would be allowed time off school, especially after speaking to the receptionist, and it is now very likely we will not get the money back from the travel agent either !

Would this be the end of the matter or can we take things further i.e. appeal again the decision?

Any advice offered would be greatly appreciated.

I take it you would see it differently if it were the week he did his duke of Edinburgh.

Do you really want advice or are you just winding people up. I wish I had never tried to help now.

Jagraf

pinkshoes wrote: »

I think the whole thing is ridiculous, and I'm a teacher!

5 days off school at the beginning of Y10 will be fine, and the trip to India will be fabulous. My aunt and uncle did the same when my cousins were in Y10 and Y12, and what they learnt gave them a lot to talk about in interviews.

I would WRITE to the school, requesting them to change their mind, agreeing that the twins will catch up with all school work missed, will take some holiday work with them (if possible), and then go on to highlight the educational purpose of your trip, and how it will benefit them.

If their grades and attendance is good, then the school is being rather petty to refuse.

I was also a teacher and I disagree with time off for holidays. Why not have education and holidays? Maybe as a parent as well I can see both sides, I never took my daughter out of school, education is too precious.
Do you teach GCSEs? Do you have a year 10 tutor group?