Holidays in term time

Nicki

Schools aren't required to keep children on the roll if they take unauthorised absence. If the school was oversubscribed and has a waiting list of kids, personally I'd be nervous about whipping my child out for 2 weeks before a relationship had been established with the school, as you could come back to find she hasn't a place to go back to.

This sanction is used in our local area, which doesn't have enough school places for the children living here already (so some kids are sent out of area) but it is legal everywhere in the UK.

nwc389

Spendless wrote: »

You must have missed this bit from the OP.

There are plenty of job/industries where your annual leave is allocated to you, rather than you being able to choose when you go. A large proportion don't allow people to be off at the same time as other colleagues and some jobs don't allow school holidays at all. I read a job ad within the last month that said they would prefer any applicants to not be taking any annual leave within school hols and this was for an admin position at a physiotherapists, so I couldn't even work out why this was the case. It's not the first time I've read an ad like that either.

Also the OP mentions a 2 week break which is longer than most schools break up for half term. The only school hols you can fit a fortnights holiday into are Easter and Christmas, often disallowed by employers as it's also their busiest time or the summer holidays where you are competing for the same weeks off with other colleagues.

For years I have brought up exactly this in the many online debates that I have taken part in on the subject of term time holidays ! Usually always gets ignored by the 'holier than thou ' brigade .
You're spot on with this , when I was working part of my job was helping sort out the holiday requests - believe me it took weeks to organise an acceptable holiday rota and that was just fitting in about 40 staff . Some places just wouldn't be able to do that and some employees would be unable to get school holidays off.
I just think that all families deserve the chance to be able to take a couple of weeks TOGETHER, wherever they decide to go . We occasionally couldn't get the time off in the school holidays so ended up taking the last week of term .

georgie262

I wouldn't because they move through Phonics at such a lightening pace in the first year of school I would worry that they would fall behind - my little boy (youngest in class) really struggled and he had 100% attendance. Probably a different story though if you feel they have a strong grasp on phonics/numbers etc

georgie262

Nicki wrote: »

Schools aren't required to keep children on the roll if they take unauthorised absence. If the school was oversubscribed and has a waiting list of kids, personally I'd be nervous about whipping my child out for 2 weeks before a relationship had been established with the school, as you could come back to find she hasn't a place to go back to.

This sanction is used in our local area, which doesn't have enough school places for the children living here already (so some kids are sent out of area) but it is legal everywhere in the UK.

I've never heard of this. I work in the inclusion team at a secondary school and we are not allowed to take a child off roll until they are confirm as starting at another school. That's utterly shocking that your LA allows this how many children would' fall through the net'!

Bufger

Before answering that for my own situation i'd ask the question, what is the purpose of EYFS, will these 2 weeks affect the outcome? Is my child doing well or do they need those two weeks? What could i replace his missed learning with, could i take anything with me so he could learn whilst on holiday?

In my own situation I would do it as long as the holiday had some good cultural learning attached to it. I cant tell you what to do in your situation but I can advise you to think about all of the factors above and read your schools/academies policy on this to understand the implications.

Nicki

georgie262 wrote: »

I've never heard of this. I work in the inclusion team at a secondary school and we are not allowed to take a child off roll until they are confirm as starting at another school. That's utterly shocking that your LA allows this how many children would' fall through the net'!

Here are the government rules which allow it

http://www2.schoolcircular.co.uk/lib/attachments/sc_off_roll_procedure_updated_guidance_24april2013.pdf

They can be removed from the roll if they take 10 days unauthorised after any authorised period, or 20 days unauthorised. In my area there are lots of first generation immigrants, so a big problem with families going back to their countries of origin with their children for 4-6 weeks, combined with less school places than there are school aged children, so IMO it's fair enough to give the limited school places in borough to the kids whose parents will ensure they actually attend.

It may be your head teachers practice not to take a child off roll until they have another school place guaranteed, but that's not a legal requirement

maman

Nicki wrote: »

Here are the government rules which allow it

http://www2.schoolcircular.co.uk/lib/attachments/sc_off_roll_procedure_updated_guidance_24april2013.pdf

They can be removed from the roll if they take 10 days unauthorised after any authorised period, or 20 days unauthorised. In my area there are lots of first generation immigrants, so a big problem with families going back to their countries of origin with their children for 4-6 weeks, combined with less school places than there are school aged children, so IMO it's fair enough to give the limited school places in borough to the kids whose parents will ensure they actually attend.

It may be your head teachers practice not to take a child off roll until they have another school place guaranteed, but that's not a legal requirement

Same in my area in that schools warn that school places may be lost. In reality it's more used as a deterrent than practice. Plus schools don't want children absent putting their test results and Ofsted ratings in jeopardy.