Leave/holiday during term time in Council/Grammar school

[Guest55]

My family have to take this 'inflexibility' into account - I don't get time off in term time!

[Looking for help]

My son's form tutor was given an extra week of holiday to go on honeymoon - don't think our HT has a leg to stand on tbh.

My family are 450 miles away - I will take my son out of school for any family event that comes up whether the HT lets me or not There has to be some leeway, and the HT has so far been fine with it. We have another wedding coming up next year - again it is going to be in the term time. We will be attending.

However as I've said already - we would only need a day or two either side of a weekend, I think the OP is going slightly further afield and for longer.

[daveg]

we parents and himself are against taking any leave but this an unavoidable function conducted at my home country

It's only unavoidable if you make it unavoidable. There's no such thing as an unavoidable family event; it's just a matter of how many noses you're prepared to put out of joint by not going.

[First-timer]

My DC have missed a couple of days of school to attend family funerals. These were always authorised by the HT. I would only do it for funerals of close family members, though.

We have risked offending family by not attending mid-week weddings, 'important' birthdays and funerals of relatives with whom our only contact was via Christmas cards. I think the school holidays are pretty generous and the dates are known well in advance so any party occasion can be worked around them. If family members are unwilling to take your dates into consideration, perhaps you are not so close as to merit disrupting DC's education to go to a party with them. Our last family wedding was organised with the English school holiday dates in mind. It's a pretty big window of opportunity. It's rarely impossible to avoid having a party mid-week or mid-term.

[Eraldo]

Many Thanks for all your ideas.
sorry may be a silly query -what happens if the headteacher didn't authorised the leave and said it will be counted as unauthorised . But if we still took 10 days leave as planned?

[Amber]

My hunch here is that Eraldo is from a rather different culture and it isn't easy to compare missing family weddings in this country with whatever event this is. When I taught in London several children from my class went abroad for weeks, and in one case months. The only time the school ever tried to get involved was with a girl who it was suspected was to undergo some rather unpalatable surgery abroad. I am not sure what happened in that case as the parents chose to move her to another school. This was infant school and the children came back disorientated, confused in linguistic terms as they had only heard a different language for a long period, and behind in their school work. It was like starting all over again with them.

This is secondary school though, and another set of issues for the child; but I suspect that OP is only really interested in the legal aspects. On that I would endorse what others have said - you have to tell the Head; I can't imagine more than sour faces and disapproval if you go as an unauthorised absence; but I wouldn't push it beyond ten days, not only because you might find yourself in legal hot water, but also for the sake of your child who has to try and catch up work in lots of subjects.

[Ally]

I previously worked in admin role at primary school. A parent had taken an extended summer holiday without authorization. The child in question had a poor punctuality / attendance and behavioral record. The next summer the parent requested an extra 2 weeks holiday. The Head with the support of the E.W.O warned the parent that if the child was not back in school on the first day of term, the school place would be in jeopardy.

I think it very much depends upon the school, the head, and the child, so if you have a good relationship with the school, the school has a low level of attendance issues, the child has a good attendance, punctuality, work and behavioral record then an absence from school may be less of a issue but it's very difficult to generalize.

[mystery]

At the worst if you go for 10 days or less without permission you'll get a fine. Go for more than 10 days and it sounds as though you could risk the school place.

At a school I taught at there were children who rarely attended school and the EWO was toothless it would seem. Some children worked in the market. One boy went out burgling with his Dad because he fitted nicely through small windows. A teacher was off sick with a bad back for at least two terms. The children used to come in and tell us each time they spotted him down the DIY store.

Eraldo, if it really is necessary and you know your child can catch up and it won't be bad for his education, then go for it if you can afford the potential fine which is on a per day basis. Someone might be able to enlighten us what the fine is - otherwise you can find it out from the DfE. I think the fine is per child per parent per day. Some schools do go for fining as a matter of course, others never do.

[Halemum]

I'm trying to imagine what family event could possibly take a whole 10 days or more. I know some weddings go on for 5 or so but not everyone is present on each and every day. Could you not shorten your attendance at this event? Come back early or arrive late? Family should be understanding, shouldn't they?

Is it a family celebration or medical procedure which needs recovery? You need to be very clear to the head teacher what the purpose of this absence is in order to get it approved.

[mystery]

Absolutely - heads need a good letter from you which explains the exceptional need for a term-time absence. They may need to show it to OFSTED to prove that they are not being pathetic and granting everyone 10 days per year for no good reason.