Still not allowed kids out of school

[Vixster]

Had my holiday booked in may but it clashed with my 6 year olds sats and she wouldn't authorise the holiday so we decided to change it for oct and only have 8 days out of school linked into school holidays. We changed our holiday then asked for time off and still not allowed but we are just going to go, anyone else take or taken kids out of there school without problems?

 

[joolz1910]

Some schools have a blanket policy of not authorising any holidays in term-time. My DD's school has this policy but I will still take them out this October. It's my decision and I don't feel the need to justify it. I wouldn't worry too much - if you are happy with your decision, just inform the school of your holiday. I hope you have a fab trip - looks like we'll be going at the same time!

 

[flortlebap]

That's frustrating.

We are going at the end of may for 2 weeks which also clashes with my daughters sats. However, they're being flexible and are allowing her to take them later on. Apparently all schools have this facility, so I think yours is just being awkward for no real reason.

If they'd have denied us the time off, I'd have told them tough and we're going anyway there's absolutely nothing they can do about it. But then again, I never asked for permission, I just told them that was how it was...

 

[Vixster]

Some schools have a blanket policy of not authorising any holidays in term-time. My DD's school has this policy but I will still take them out this October. It's my decision and I don't feel the need to justify it. I wouldn't worry too much - if you are happy with your decision, just inform the school of your holiday. I hope you have a fab trip - looks like we'll be going at the same time!

Thanks for reply notice your going day before us where you staying? We are POR

 

[joolz1910]

Thanks for reply notice your going day before us where you staying? We are POR

We are at OKW. I can't wait. Flying out of Manchester on 29th Oct.

 

[Pootle]

Saw an article last week in the Daily Telegraph about term time authorised absences are going to be banned - no more freedom for Headteachers to decide.

 

[micksn]

A holiday absence will almost always be recorded as an unauthorised absence, but as long as attendance is usually good it would be unlikely to trigger an investigation from an Education Welfare Officer.
There are certain times of year (like SAT's) when holidays out of school are more disruptive to learning and assessment and yes your child can do them later, but this would usually be by themselves with a member of staff supervising and therefore costly to schools.
Family times and holidays are important and class teachers are usually sympathetic; within reason!

 

[Cyrano]

We take the kids out of school and it gets recorded as unauthorised absence ... no biggie.

School can happily take DD out of lessons for a day every week when it suits them for special programmes, peer educator etc and have not informed us or sought our authorisation.

 

[brummymummy]

We always take ours out of school, our last trip their absence was classed as unauthorised as the school has given a blanket ban on any holiday in term. We are still taking them out in May but we go the 18th so the final day of sats (my oldest ds has them too) but he is in year 6 so his are slightly more important.

I have warned his teachers already though as he misses the last day, but thankfully they are normally finished by wed/thur

I don't feel guilty it's our decision as parents not the schools.

Xx

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

I am a responsible parent who takes my children's education very seriously and i can honestly say DD and DS have gained something from our holidays that a school could never duplicate, memorable family time. By no fault of the school or ourselves DH works for a small firm where all the office staff have children, so there lies a logistical problem, so in a grown up way they take it in turns to take the main school holidays off, so every other year we have to take our children out of school to fit in "Family Time", an important part of growing up.

They both have at the moment 99.4% attendance and have just been granted 9 days leave for our holiday.I have spoken to the schools and work will be completed so they won't fall behind.

How can Mr. Gove compare (potentially) 10 authorised days of absence with last years summer riots He is once again targeting the wrong group of people.

So to the OP take your children on holiday,enjoy their childhood and fill their heads full of happy memories

 

[Winnie McPooh]

We take the kids out of school and it gets recorded as unauthorised absence ... no biggie.

School can happily take DD out of lessons for a day every week when it suits them for special programmes, peer educator etc and have not informed us or sought our authorisation.

Completely agree, it only goes down as an unauthorised absence, not the end of the world. I'm taking my girls out of school next year, last time I just sent a letter saying I was taking DD out of school, didn't ask for it to be authorised. Same will be happening again next year. Not worried about it at all. have a nice holdiay!!

 

[madmumof2]

You are 'allowed' to take them out, your school can't say no, it'll just be marked as unauthorised, which isn't a big deal if attendance is good.

It's down to the parent to make sure their child doesn't miss out on any important school work although at 6 there won't be much!

 

[loobzuk]

I sometimes wonder if my children belong to our family or if they are owned by the State!

I have taken them out of school once for a Florida holiday and was given permission (they were in Y3 and YR so not a huge deal) - I haven't done it since although I have been sorely tempted as I watch family after family take their children for some wonderful holidays.

I would love to take my children to Disney for Halloween which will mean some time out of school (probably tagged on to the October half term break) and may well do this for our 2015 break when DD will be in Y9 and DS in Y6 which is obviously a bigger issue than our previous term time holiday.

I only hope that the recent news stories about the banning of authorised absence starts to make things fairer, both cost wise and perhaps crowd wise (if the whole country didn't have school holidays at the same time maybe that would help the situaiton?)

I believe that parents are in the best position to decide if time out of school is justified for their children. I do however have sympathy for teachers and others that work in the education sector and also have to adhere to the rules.

 

[dixonsontour]

Nice to read a non heated thread about this.

Our area used to have different holidays until about 5 yrs ago - a weeks 'wakes week' beginning of July and a week or two in September. Sadly now on the same standard hols as the rest of Lancashire (and the rest of the country).

DD is in a private school so gets slightly longer holidays including 2 weeks in October which is ideal for us. As school set their own policy (not the Local Education Authority) they also are reasonable about authorising time off.

I've not pushed it - just a day tacked on to the half term but I know people have had a week or more authorised.

I personally wouldn't take DD out for a long period in term time as I work and need to use the annual leave I have to cover some of her school hols. Also DD has a disability and misses school for hospital apts so i'm conscious not to add to this.

 

[beautifullily]

That's frustrating.

We are going at the end of may for 2 weeks which also clashes with my daughters sats. :

Same here, although I think we've managed to time it so that she will have completed them before we go. That has meant a 12 day holiday though rather than a preferred 14 days.

I'm still waiting to hear if it will be authorised (unlikely). She's at the infant school and DD1 who is at Juniors and are more likely to authorise - they have completely different policies.

We spent a lot of time deliberating about holiday dates and taking everything into consideration (DHs work, cost, DD1 turning 10 at the end of the year, DD2 starting Juniors in Sept) end of May and June half term was the best for everyone.

 

[madmumof2]

We're very lucky as we have 2 weeks holiday in October instead of the usual 1. Last time my son had 6 days off (he was 6, my daughter wasn't in school yet) and they were perfectly fine with that.

This year they'll both only have 2 days off (travelling to London on the Wednesday after school, flying the Thursday, school finishes Friday) and we'll be back after two weeks the Wednesday before school starts on the following Monday, enough time to get over jet lag.

BUT if we only had 1 week I would still book at the same time and take them out for 6 days again. They never have days off school, always have their homework done on time and are both at the top of their classes so I wouldn't feel the slightest bit guilty with them missing one week of school and would go even if it wasn't authorised, although our head is very reasonable.

I think a ban would be counter-productive. The kids who skip school all the time are usually the ones who don't go on holidays anyway so a ban wouldn't effect them. Children who have a high attendance percentage shouldn't be punished because of those that don't. Rewards for good behaviour and all that jazz!

It would mean even more crowds in the summer months, which would mean even higher prices. They're already high because travel companies know MOST people can only travel during those months. Imagine how expensive it would be if they knew ALL people had to travel in those months!

 

[Kath2003]

It would mean even more crowds in the summer months, which would mean even higher prices. They're already high because travel companies know MOST people can only travel during those months. Imagine how expensive it would be if they knew ALL people had to travel in those months!

It really won't have that much of an impact. There are a lot of people without the restriction of the school holidays. The school holidays in the summer are the most popular time for travel anyway (as the weather in the northern hemisphere is best then) - it's cheaper to go in November rather than June, for example, even though both months have no school holiday time.

As someone without children who has to stick to school holidays, I shall comment no further.

 

[babystar]

My DH cant get any leave during school holidays as it is the busy time at his work so it is never given......we have absolutly no choice - if we want a family holiday it has to be during term time!

This is the first year that our DD is in full time education (YR1) and we are taking her out for 10 school days. I hope that the school dont make a fuss, not that it will make a difference, she works hard at school, we work hard, we all deserve some essential family time together and nobody is standing in my way!!!!!!!

 

[heatherbelle]

We always take ours out of school, our last trip their absence was classed as unauthorised as the school has given a blanket ban on any holiday in term. We are still taking them out in May but we go the 18th so the final day of sats (my oldest ds has them too) but he is in year 6 so his are slightly more important.

I have warned his teachers already though as he misses the last day, but thankfully they are normally finished by wed/thur

I don't feel guilty it's our decision as parents not the schools.

Xx

There are no SATS scheduled for the 18th May. At our school all the kids are out of school on a special trip to celebrate the end of sats.

I deal with attendance issues within a Primary school. Whilst I have to agree taking a child out of school does disrupt their education especially if done mid term, I also appreciate that some parents simply cannot get time off during school holidays. Some schools now have a no authorisation policy as other posters have said and some have authorisation policies and will authorise 10 days. Some will even impose fines! Just talk to your school. At the end of the day whether a school authorises the absence or not, the decision is still with the parents to take when deciding whether to take their child out of school. As a parent, my advise would be if you are going to take them out of school for holidays then try and do it before the end of a term. The summer one would be the best one. When children return from the summer term, they tend to spend the next 6 weeks catching up on what they learnt the previous summer term, after the october holiday, they start learning all the new stuff. You'd be amazed how much they forget in 6 weeks. In the past before I worked in a school I took my DS out for around 10 days before the Oct half term. For the whole of the school year, he was behind the others. There seemed to be a whole gap missing with his long division. He was in Y3 at the time. In hindsight would I do it again. No I wouldn't. But MNSSHP was fun though.

 

[janiebubble]

As someone without children who has to stick to school holidays, I shall comment no further.

it's hard isn't it?!