Help with school note/advice

[DopeyDame]

Four years of GPA submitted to colleges is just brutal! What if you lose a family member, have a bad year, experience a severe personal trauma...?

.

You write a really good personal essay and hope the admissions officers see your potential. Or you start out at a less competitive college and transfer.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

Unfortunately you are pretty late to the game for writing a note.
My parents took my siblings and myself out of school every year to go to WDW.
We usually missed 8 full days of school.
About 2.5 weeks prior they would send us with notes for each teacher and the attendance office.
The note basically just said that we will be out of school from this date to this date and if possible we'd like to get work beforehand for the days we will be missing so that when we come back we are caught up and ready to continue learning what the rest of the class is learning.
Teachers never had a problem with this as long as they were given enough time to gather the work.
We would do the work before we left and on the trip during down time.
You may want to contact the school directly in addition to the note because of the short notice.
But 3 days should not be difficult to make up if you can't get the work ahead of time so don't stress too much about it.

 

[DopeyDame]

Total side note, but what a bizarre schedule being off Monday & Wednesday in the same week.

Next Wednesday is Yum Kipur. But yeah, can't imagine why the school would add Monday to just further complicate the schedule.

 

[anniemae]

Unfortunately you are pretty late to the game for writing a note.
My parents took my siblings and myself out of school every year to go to WDW.
We usually missed 8 full days of school.
About 2.5 weeks prior they would send us with notes for each teacher and the attendance office.
The note basically just said that we will be out of school from this date to this date and if possible we'd like to get work beforehand for the days we will be missing so that when we come back we are caught up and ready to continue learning what the rest of the class is learning.
Teachers never had a problem with this as long as they were given enough time to gather the work.
We would do the work before we left and on the trip during down time.
You may want to contact the school directly in addition to the note because of the short notice.
But 3 days should not be difficult to make up if you can't get the work ahead of time so don't stress too much about it.

This is my thought. It's 3 days, go have fun.

 

[anniemae]

Next Wednesday is Yum Kipur. But yeah, can't imagine why the school would add Monday to just further complicate the schedule.

OH, I just remembered, Monday is Columbus Day.

 

[gotomu212]

Next Wednesday is Yum Kipur. But yeah, can't imagine why the school would add Monday to just further complicate the schedule.

Monday is Columbus Day.

 

[DopeyDame]

OH, I just remembered, Monday is Columbus Day.

D'oh! Of course. Clearly I don't have off

 

[luvsJack]

So, what was the girl supposed to do in order not to be counted absent during her suspension? Come to school in defiance of the suspension? What's "hilarious" is the Catch-22 of being legally prevented from attending school, and then legally punished for not attending school!

Suspension is normally a last ditch effort in discipline. The being counted absent and not being able to make up the work is part of the punishment. Most schools do ISS more than once before a OSS. So its the student's fault if they received suspension, not the school's.

 

[luvsJack]

Do you mean Penn State? Even for Penn State, he must have had some really impressive personal stories.
But UPenn strains credulity. Those scores are so incredibly far out of realm of an ivy league school that it would take a heck of a lot more than community service and some school activities to overcome that.

Actually according to Penn State's website, he is on target. Didn't look at the other one.

 

[DopeyDame]

Actually according to Penn State's website, he is on target. Didn't look at the other one.

Totally OT, but they are two tremendously different schools. Penn State is the flagship state school in Pennsylvania and is a very respectable large state school. University of Pennsylvania is a small private school. It's an ivy league school and only slightly easier to get into than Harvard, Princeton, or Yale.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I hope I have the right subforum.

We are leaving this coming saturday for DW, first time ever for me taking my kids out of school and I am so upset over this that I was contemplating cancelling the trip.
I need some advice please!!!
My kids have off on Monday and Wednesday so they are tech. missing just 3 days of school. My plan was to just call them out on tue/thurs/friday, but my friend told me that when she went to disney last sept. during the holidays she wrote the core teachers a note saying that they will be away for the week and would like to know if there is any work that can be given ahead of time, etc etc. just to show we are being proactive....
my oldest is in her first year of HS
and I have two middle schoolers and a 4th grader......
if someone can please help me calm my nerves so we can actually have a good time and give any advice i would be greatly appreciative .

TIA
Danielle

It is totally teacher and school dependent as far as policy.

 

[AppleDumpling]

OP, the decision has been made, don't worry about what anyone here thinks. Email the teachers today to give them a heads up. I would just say that you are going out of town and the kids will be absent. No need to give details. Tell them the kids expect to make up all missed work and that you appreciate their cooperation.

They're only missing 3 days. Unless the school has a very strict policy, I don't think it will be a big deal. And I think individual teachers may bend the rules, especially if your kids are good students. I'm sure you're not the only family who is taking advantage of the holiday schedule. I suspect lots of kids will be out, especially on Tuesday. Have a great trip!

 

[Barbara76]

I hope I have the right subforum.

We are leaving this coming saturday for DW, first time ever for me taking my kids out of school and I am so upset over this that I was contemplating cancelling the trip.
I need some advice please!!!
My kids have off on Monday and Wednesday so they are tech. missing just 3 days of school. My plan was to just call them out on tue/thurs/friday, but my friend told me that when she went to disney last sept. during the holidays she wrote the core teachers a note saying that they will be away for the week and would like to know if there is any work that can be given ahead of time, etc etc. just to show we are being proactive....
my oldest is in her first year of HS
and I have two middle schoolers and a 4th grader......
if someone can please help me calm my nerves so we can actually have a good time and give any advice i would be greatly appreciative .

TIA
Danielle

I just sent in letters to my kids schools today for our trip in December, I pretty much just gave them out dates and what I thought would be educational about the trip. I figured ifhey say that the kids would be learn and busy that they wouldn't too much work.

 

[Kellydelly]

I don't think you are too late to send notice to the teachers and ask for assignments. Just do it and see what the teachers say. No big deal. Have a fun trip!

 

[princesspiglet]

I apologize, I misunderstood my friend- he got accepted to Penn State Main! Not U of Penn. Two totally different schools, I agree!!

I was shocked when she told me too, because I thought she said U of Penn...and I thought, how could this possibly be! Glad I clarified with her!

 

[Magpie]

Couldn't you say the same thing in just the Junior & Senior years? At least if you tank a Freshman class in the US, you have three more years to bring the GPA up.

I suppose you could. But the flip side is, you've also got four years of "every grade counts" to endure. That's a lot of pressure to put on a 13/14 year old. If you tank in grade 9, you'll never have another chance to bring that GPA up as high as it could have been. If it'd been me (considering my woeful grades in Grade 9), I'd have just given up and decided I wasn't the "academic type". But, I managed to graduate with the top average in my class, because - fortunately! - they only counted my final year.

Whereas, if you have a family tragedy in Grade 11 here, you can just take a thirteenth year and redo a bunch of your credits and it won't hurt your chances of getting into a good school.

 

[mjkacmom]

I suppose you could. But the flip side is, you've also got four years of "every grade counts" to endure. That's a lot of pressure to put on a 13/14 year old. If you tank in grade 9, you'll never have another chance to bring that GPA up as high as it could have been. If it'd been me (considering my woeful grades in Grade 9), I'd have just given up and decided I wasn't the "academic type". But, I managed to graduate with the top average in my class, because - fortunately! - they only counted my final year.

Whereas, if you have a family tragedy in Grade 11 here, you can just take a thirteenth year and redo a bunch of your credits and it won't hurt your chances of getting into a good school.

Well, kids here going into HS knowing it counts, middle school is your last year to mess up. Plus, freshman classes are typically easier than the upper grades.

 

[Nancyg56]

OP...are you really going to look back in ten years and think..." I wish didn't take my kids out of school for three days back in 2016?". Or will you look back and remember what an awesome family trip you had together.

Life is too short to stress over missing a couple days of school.

Unless your kid has block schedules and is missing work that will be difficult to make up. Then life may be short for you , but the child is in for a tough ride.

As I said upthread, my DD and DSIL took our DGD out a few years ago for an extended family trip. It was one of the few my DH was able to join us, and we thought nothing of it. Until we returned. She was in middle school, and up til then had never had an issue catching up. When you coupled the absence with illness, she struggled. She has never again wanted to go on a trip during the school year, and while she may take a day off here and there, it is when she is comfortable with the classes she is missing.

I don't think you are too late to send notice to the teachers and ask for assignments. Just do it and see what the teachers say. No big deal. Have a fun trip!

Seriously? It's no big deal to ask teachers to put assignments together for a trip that takes place next week?

 

[Magpie]

Suspension is normally a last ditch effort in discipline. The being counted absent and not being able to make up the work is part of the punishment. Most schools do ISS more than once before a OSS. So its the student's fault if they received suspension, not the school's.

If it's that bad, they should have saved everyone trouble and expelled the girl on the spot. Then she could have gone to one of those public school classes for kids with behavioural problems. Instead, they tie up the courts, involve lawyers, and punish someone for having been punished.

Punishment needs a purpose, and a goal. It's supposed to teach a lesson of some sort. I can't see what is achieved by both suspending the girl and then piling on some more bureaucratic nonsense based on the fact that she was suspended. It's double jeopardy, and there's no way to win!

Even if she's a horrible person, suspending her and then punishing her for being suspended will not make her a better person.

 

[luvsJack]

Totally OT, but they are two tremendously different schools. Penn State is the flagship state school in Pennsylvania and is a very respectable large state school. University of Pennsylvania is a small private school. It's an ivy league school and only slightly easier to get into than Harvard, Princeton, or Yale.

Oh wait! I see, YOU mentioned Penn State not the pp. She said U of Penn. Sorry. Disregard my post.