I think the whole thing is wrong they work for us we pay their wages via tax etc.
My son is in a special needs school and has a life limiting condition and took our kids to Florida for 2 weeks prior to the October school holidays so where off for a total of 3 weeks but come back to uk day before school holidays started.
Told the secretary in my daughters school no issues no letter even mentioned, my sons special needs school wanted a full letter an reasoning why taken out during school term, never provided any letter and so far not got any letter.
Most schools, I believe, have it as a published policy so wouldn’t need to draw explicit attention to it at any particular time. As far as I know, it’s law and per parent, per child is the norm. Parental responsibility is shared equally so both are fined equally.
It’s not about who pays whose wages with taxes, it’s part of governments attempt to manage education attainment in schools. Whether it’s effective or not…
My school will now reject any of those reasons. I think family funeral that involves a trip is the only one we may authorize. Weddings are not even authorised anymore. It is totally dependent on the headteacher though. An old headteacher would authorise holidays to far off places if you could justify an educational experience and agree for your child to do additional homework whilst on the holiday.
This is what I have hinted in the past to parents when they ask me about holiday during term time. Sickness you don’t tend to have to prove to a school.
The downside is that if you tell your child or other parent friends about your holiday and lie to the school, more than likely, one of your child’s friends in the class will tend to randomly tell the teacher that your child is on holiday and not ill (or your child just before will forget not to tell the teacher and tell them about their incredible trip they are to go on). I had that happen only 2 weeks ago just before half term.
I was given a fixed penalty when my ex wife took our daughter out of school. I successfully challenged it.
However I’m going to be the party pooper here and say that I support the imposition of the penalties but not the penalties themselves. I don’t take my daughter out for holidays during term time. When we go on holiday I get stung financially by travel agents. I have no problem with parents circumventing high costs during school holidays getting a financial penalty from a Local Authority.
However each LA has their own policy on authorising term time holidays. This needs to be reviewed to be more consistent and fair. Kids in my daughters class were permitted term time holidays because one of the parents was a farmer and couldn’t take time off during school summer holidays because his work is seasonal. Another kid was refused time off to travel to a wedding of a close relative abroad. That I disagree with!
Am sorry for your loss. Did you engage with the head prior to explain your family were grieving and needed the break for your mental health? Seems unreasonable if they otherwise have perfect attendance.
I somewhat agree with fines in cases where parents constantly take kids out to those spanish resorts where they just stay in resort & learn nothing. And it’s horrible stressing kids into lying to their friends & teachers.
The fine is per child per parent. 2 children = £240 here in Lancashire. However they say more than 5 days in a term or 7 days in 2 terms.
It’s a bit crap given the time elapsed.
I’m a secondary school teacher and I think the penalties are BS. It’s self-important of the teaching profession to think that a week here or there over the course of a child’s education is going to make any lasting difference.
Yes, if you must, put a cap on it so kids aren’t out of school for more than a pre-defined time over a number of years (so that is averages as a few days per year) and ideally, you wouldn’t want kids in year 10 or 11 going away. But kids catch up from a week off for flu. I don’t see why they shouldn’t be allowed the occasional holiday. Wrong call from the government in my opinion.
But with regards to your particular situation I would call the council, or whoever you are suppose to pay the fine to, and explain that you don’t dispute the (pre-doubled) amount but you need a payment plan as 7 days is not enough notice. Councils have payment plans for people with council tax arrears, they should have a system for this. They’d rather not take you to court too.
As a headteacher we have little say anymore on this. The amount fined etc is consistent across the country and set by the Government. We can only authorise holidays for exceptional circumstances of which there are very few.
Ridiculous comment. At least try and make a reasoned argument.
The difference is that teachers are allowed to strike lawfully. Taking a child out of school during term for the most part is unlawful.
A teacher is not legally required to attend their place of work (they might be contractually required). A parent on the other hand has a legal responsibility to make sure their child attends school.
Yes.
But the question was why? Why is one ok and one not. When the outcome of a teacher’s strike is much worse…
2 kids on holiday for a week… Total 2 weeks lost education.
One school with 300 kids closed for one single day due to teachers on strike… Adds up a whole year of lost education.
