School Holiday Fines

Spendless

This is amongst the reasons why I am against the current rulings on term time hols.

Here the HT can go on hol for a wedding and reason cited is because weddings abroad are considered exceptional circs in his area.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/headteacher-enjoys-two-week-holiday-10597415

And here we havea parent that wasn't given permission to take their child abroad for a wedding. It won't be classed as 'exceptional circs' in that area. (it isn't in mine either, though we do have unable to get any other time off work)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4568550/Father-fined-taking-daughter-school-wedding.html

Make what are exceptional circs blanket across the country. Or better still change the rules to what they were prior to Sept 2013.

zagubov

Spendless wrote: »

This is amongst the reasons why I am against the current rulings on term time hols.

Here the HT can go on hol for a wedding and reason cited is because weddings abroad are considered exceptional circs in his area.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/headteacher-enjoys-two-week-holiday-10597415

And here we havea parent that wasn't given permission to take their child abroad for a wedding. It won't be classed as 'exceptional circs' in that area. (it isn't in mine either, though we do have unable to get any other time off work)

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4568550/Father-fined-taking-daughter-school-wedding.html

Make what are exceptional circs blanket across the country. Or better still change the rules to what they were prior to Sept 2013.

I'm puzzled. Do you think these are morally equivalent? And therefore educationally equivalent?:o:think:

Spendless

zagubov wrote: »

I'm puzzled. Do you think these are morally equivalent? And therefore educationally equivalent?:o:think:

I think the rules should be the same all over the country for pupils (and their school staff).

Currently we have different LAs interpreting what counts as 'exceptional circs' if different ways.

My own allows for a term time hol if you can't get any time off work in hols. Other LAs don't have this.

My LA doesn't accept 'to attend a wedding abroad' as an exceptional circ. Other areas do.

Therefore I think if HT in county A can attend a wedding abroad in term time and so can a pupil in county A (which is given as the reason why it was ok for HT to do so) the same should be true for County B, C and the rest...

pollypenny

I'm shocked that a head teacher should even contemplate taking 2 weeks off in term time - for any reason!

Well, OK, for a bereavement of someone very close. That would be compassionate leave, though.

Spendless

pollypenny wrote: »

I'm shocked that a head teacher should even contemplate taking 2 weeks off in term time - for any reason!

Well, OK, for a bereavement of someone very close. That would be compassionate leave, though.

It wasn't 2 weeks, though you have to read through the article it worked out as 3 days due to school hols.

maman

pollypenny wrote: »

I'm shocked that a head teacher should even contemplate taking 2 weeks off in term time - for any reason!

Well, OK, for a bereavement of someone very close. That would be compassionate leave, though.

I tend to agree in terms of leading by example. One assumes that the wedding was for someone really close who might have considered that her relative/friend was a teacher and wouldn't be able to be there when arranging the date.


Similarly I have no sympathy for the father who obviously planned his own wedding date in term time when he knew his children should be at school.


I agree that a country wide set of rules would be easier to understand but that's not the government's style. They don't approve of Local Authorities so they positively encourage academies, free schools, grammars, independents etc and give them freedom to make their own rules. If they don't insist that all schools follow the national curriculum they're hardly going to have a blanket policy on holidays!

foxster99

pollypenny wrote: »

I'm shocked that a head teacher should even contemplate taking 2 weeks off in term time - for any reason!

Well, OK, for a bereavement of someone very close. That would be compassionate leave, though.

It was actually three days of term-time he was off and I think you'd find many schools would authorise three days for a pupil to attend a wedding abroad.

You also have to be a tad wary of comparing apples and oranges.

With students, missing school means they miss out on stuff that is not likely to be repeated. School being a one-off opportunity.

With a head, who likely has few or no regular classes to take and who has a staff to take care of things whilst he is away and who likely works a big chunk of the school holidays anyway, there just isn't the impact of him not being in the building for a while in term-time. In a similar way that non-school people can take a holiday and their company does not fold as a result.

Shannon71

My daughter always has the last three days off in December for our cheap Disney Paris holiday, she has autism and this is door to door, I can't go away in summer its to crowded and yet I am threatened this year if we go with a fine, its so unfair as she will be at school messing about or watching DVDs

maman

If she can't cope with crowds, your GP may decide that going to Disneyland is an exceptional circumstance and could support you to get permission.

Shannon71 wrote: »

My daughter always has the last three days off in December for our cheap Disney Paris holiday, she has autism and this is door to door, I can't go away in summer its to crowded and yet I am threatened this year if we go with a fine, its so unfair as she will be at school messing about or watching DVDs

If that's what you think of her school maybe home schooling would suit better and then you can go on holiday any time you want. Or perhaps you could send her to an independent school as they generally have longer holidays.

Spendless

Shannon71 wrote: »

My daughter always has the last three days off in December for our cheap Disney Paris holiday, she has autism and this is door to door, I can't go away in summer its to crowded and yet I am threatened this year if we go with a fine, its so unfair as she will be at school messing about or watching DVDs

maman wrote: »

If that's what you think of her school maybe home schooling would suit better and then you can go on holiday any time you want. Or perhaps you could send her to an independent school as they generally have longer holidays.

I suspect what Shannon means is her child is not given a lot to do during the run up to the Christmas holidays.

This was something that surprised me a lot when mine went to Secondary. I was prepared at Primary for the last day to be a more fun day. I hadn't suspected that the last few days or even the week, becomes full of 'nothing much' at Secondary school. So my DD aged 14 (yr 9) has watched a dvd in media and done a coloured dot to dot in maths. Another subject teacher who has actually lesson planned for tomorrow (last day) has been told her class won't be going ahead as there's a special assembly tomorrow, as it's about danger near open waters and there's more chance of my DD cleaning our whole house than her jumping into the canal, I'd much rather she was able to sit in class and complete coursework - which is being set for the summer holidays instead! Of course, she won't be permitted to.