Disney world in term time- no fine

[mystery]

A one off family wedding or a funeral, I can see how that could be described as compelling I suppose, but a family holiday? I guess it depends on what your priorities are? Thank goodness that the majority of parents are fairly sensible. There would be no outstanding schools, if everyone felt that they had a right to take holidays in term time, since absences are a key area looked at by ofted. It is about so much more that whether or not your child can catch up, or if it will affect the teachers or class or school or your child's work ethic. It is about supporting the school, having respect for others and teaching that to your children.

I once tried to look in depth at how OFSTED take into account absences in their judgements. It isn't as simple as them looking at a headline absence figure and saying "this school can't be outstanding because they gave permission for some term-time holidays with exceptional reasons." Our primary school tells us that they can't get outstanding unless they have over 97% attendance or something ridiculous but I can't see the basis for this. Our primary school also used not to let a child go home feeling ill until they had actually thrown up in school in front of a teacher --- I kid you not. Did it improve my children's attendance? No, they became terrified of leaving the house if they felt slightly under the weather in the morning because they knew no-one would call me if they felt terrible in school until they had thrown up on the carpet in front of everyone.

Respect for others ---- a free education is provided for all children in the UK. There is a requirement that children attend regularly so that every child has the opportunity of a good enough free education and is protected from parents who do not care about their education.

I don't think that this means that families who can't afford a holiday in holiday time or whose parents can't get time off in term-time should not have a holiday. Where's the respect in that? Petty rules for the sake of petty rules. And, it's not what the rules say anyhow. The rules say that heads can use their discretion in exceptional circumstances. If heads choose to not use their discretion and turn down every sensible request that comes their way, where's the respect in that? Jobsworths in my view.

[PurpleDuck]

year six SATS are over and kids have nothing important to do until September so if a family saves some money on a holiday now ,just a few days should we crucify them? specially those parents who's children are highest achievers in class. I am totally against taking kids out in term time when there is something important going on or when they are year 8- 9-10 onwards.

It is a bit of a 'yes and no', the way I see it. Yes, SATs are over (thankfully), but no, that does not mean there is nothing important that children do at school at the moment. At least I sincerely hope that schools don't just stop doing anything worthwhile just because children are not going to be tested anymore. That would mean reducing the purpose of a school to one thing only - teaching how to pass tests (I know this is completely separate debate). There is a lot of pressure on children, in particular in years 2 and 6, but this is also why it is good for them to be at school when fun things happen. I don't mean watching videos which they probably saw a few times already, but there are school plays for everyone to rehearse, various fun projects, leavers' days out and all sorts of other things children can enjoy doing.

All sorts of reasons for and against holidays during term-time have been discussed and I don't think it will be ever possible to agree on what is reasonable in this respect and what isn't; there are just too many variables and permutations and only one set of rules. What I believe, though, is that while deciding to take children out of school on holiday, we should not assume that just because SATs are over, there is no point in being at school. Children might actually enjoy being able to relax and have fun with their friends at school for a change.

I had a job where I had to work 1-1 with children who arrived at secondary school unable to access the curriculum because they didn't have the skills to do so. This appeared to me to be largely the result of an insane focus on SATs in Y6 to the detriment of everything else, so these poor kids had scraped across the boundary and then been left to sink.

Unfortunately, this does happen. DS can't recall any science lessons this year and I am a bit worried about to what extent it may affect his ability to keep up with the pace of science lessons in his next school from September.

I would prefer to see an assessment being done on entry into secondary school rather than on leaving primary (especially a high-stakes one which is used as a stick to beat teachers), with Y7 then spent really getting everyone up to speed with literacy and mathematical skills in a targeted and focused way, as well as lessons in independent learning, revising, and co-operating, with the rest of the time spent on having a lot of fun with some of the less-studied subjects and opportunities for exploring many of the vast untapped wealth of learning experiences not found on the KS3 curriculum. Think cooking, financial management, learning about the outdoors, the political system of our country, social justice, international relations...stuff kids don't even touch on any more. It could be such an exciting time but instead many kids either fall off the edge, or if they had attained highly at primary, they get bored and turn off.

Maybe if I ever get to displace Nicky Morgan...

I so agree with you, Amber. If you ever decide to run for Nicky's job, you'll have my vote.

[quasimodo]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-38393213" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The case from the Isle of Wight heading to the Supreme Court as the Council wins the right to appeal the initial decision.

[salsa]

Am I alone in thinking that this is a bit over the top? How much have they spent in legal fees?

Couldn't the school put it under "educated elsewhere", "homeschooling", "enrichment", "creativity week" or similar?

Salsa

[quasimodo]

Mr Platt loses in the Supreme Court.

https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/ ... dgment.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39504338" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The heading now needs to be changed!

[tiffinboys]

What a shame! Commonsense lost.

Btw, should Supreme Court send High Court Judges for re-training?

[Guest55]

Common sense WON!

He did not need to take a holiday in term time. The only exceptions should be people like the Police in Olympic year who were not allowed to take leave in the summer.

I wonder what the reaction would be If teachers decided to take holidays in term-time ... I had a colleague who played cricket for England [ladies] and she had to go without pay when England went on tour and, if I remember correctly, she also had to contribute towards supply cover!

[tiffinboys]

I had a colleague who played cricket for England [ladies] and she had to go without pay when England went on tour and, if I remember correctly, she also had to contribute towards supply cover!

Here also common sense lost!

[salsa]

So, what happens if you need to go and the school says it is an unauthorised absence? Will someone come along to issue a fine? Would the school let the LA know?

My son's grammar school has sometimes different times for the Easter holiday than the other local schools. This can be a problem for those parents with children at different schools. I hear that the discrepancy in dates is to do with when the children take the IB.
On the years when there is this discrepancy, I have heard of children getting ill for a whole week. The latter, of course, can be a coincidence or it can be a way of avoiding a fine. Parents should not have to resort to lying in these situations.


Salsa

[Hera]

Common sense WON!

He did not need to take a holiday in term time. The only exceptions should be people like the Police in Olympic year who were not allowed to take leave in the summer.

I wonder what the reaction would be If teachers decided to take holidays in term-time ... I had a colleague who played cricket for England [ladies] and she had to go without pay when England went on tour and, if I remember correctly, she also had to contribute towards supply cover!

+1