Unauthorised school absences

Yes absolutely guilty as we had our family holiday at the end of June every year. No problem as we requested permission via a form and it was always agreed by the headteacher.

Fabulous family time together in the sunshine. My DH was always booked at work for the whole school holiday weeks as it was much easier to work in the schools when the children weren't there.

We had family holiday this week and my youngest has missed a few days of the start of school. The house we rented was half the price of the week before (last week). I have no idea if I'll get a fine as it is a new school and they knew about the absence when we enrolled in the summer.

But then again I am the breakfast for lunch thief

Oh and dd had to travel abroad recently for the funeral of a close relative-fortunately the service was on Saturday. She left late Friday night, returned Sunday, couldn't get home until Monday due to shortened train timetable. This resulted in a day off school which she had to take as unpaid leave.

MissAdventure

That was about taking food to eat at lunch time from the morning food, wasn't it?
I expect I did that too, in between being pi**ed as a fart, in imagination land.

😂😂😂😂😂

I too am guilty of “pilfering” food from breakfast buffets AND taking my kids out of school (not every year and mainly at Primary School)

Not for the cheaper prices, but because it was so hard for both my husband and I couldn’t get our annal leave from work easily together.

JaneJudge

We had family holiday this week and my youngest has missed a few days of the start of school. The house we rented was half the price of the week before (last week). I have no idea if I'll get a fine as it is a new school and they knew about the absence when we enrolled in the summer.

But then again I am the breakfast for lunch thief

Join the ever growing crew of “gangsters grannies” pilfering the breakfast buffets

When parents take their children out of school for holidays, they teach them that it's just fine to break rules. Two of my sons did it, I was appalled but kept my mouth firmly shut.

My son and his partner ( now wife) took their kids out of school for last few days before summer holidays. His job and her shifts meant only time free together. They were BOTH fined for same two kids. A double whammy ! Meanwhile my neighbours kids attended same school but were allowed to send theirs to Poland at same time ..no fine. Because it was cultural . I don't approve of kids losing time for holidays but make rules the same for everyone.

I am afraid I am guilty of this. Over 30 years ago my parents organised and paid for a trip to Florida for them and my husband, me and children. It was going to be a holiday of a lifetime and we went last two weeks in May and I did have permission to take them out of school for a week, no fines then.
We enjoyed it so much we saved up and went again 4 years later before eldest started senior school, again one week out of school. Never did it while they were at senior school.

Some parents have no choice but take their children out of school to enjoy a family holiday. We had to as my DH was a police officer with allocated holidays, some which feel out of the school breaks. As he worked shifts barely seeing the kids some weeks a holiday was our time to really connect as a family.

I think it is sad that so many posters don't believe that families deserve to spend any time together during the year.

Or is it a lack of understanding that in some occupations taking holidays in the school holidays is simply not possible and leave can only be taken during term time.
- tourism and hospitality workers
- agricultural workers
- organisations that maintain schools where work is don in the holidays
- healthcare
- other organisations that have strict holiday rotas the means that parents cannot guarantee time off in the school holidays - social care, nurseries + many more

Britain has become so much more authoritarian - back in my day you were allowed up to 10 days if it was approved but now schools will not approve any because of league tables and OFSTED.

I know we used to take an extra school week most years because of my Dads holiday rota.

My current neighbour is a potato farmer and he always took his kids away the first weeks of January because it was the only chance of time off.

I'm a little surprised that so many don't think families deserve a week or two away together.

This is at least something I can blame my parents for as I know we missed every single fortnight before the summer holidays started, may have been earlier. I always remember Wimbledon being on in the caravan
so it's their fault I have behaved in this manner this year

I think something which has changed is that it used to be cheap to go out of school holiday time and ‘normal’ price to go in school holidays. My impression is that it is now really expensive to go in school holidays - i.e. charging luxury or premium prices for the times when families can go away, when it is normal to go away - seems like holiday companies being greedy. Of course, from a sane, climate change point of view I would love to see people taking fewer holidays involving all that flying to hot, sunny places. But I recognise people have come to think that is normal and holidaying at home is also not cheap because of accommodation and food prices. And yes, I think the unspoken contract between school and parents (we get child in to school, you look after them once there) has broken down for many families, partly by Covid, but already for many parents and carers of children with SEN whose needs are not being met. I came to respect my grandchildren’s school less over time because they were simply not doing their job - not ultimately their fault, there is no money - but affects one’s attitude. So lots of things to unpick here - not just about feckless parents and/or spoiled children.

We always took our children on holiday during term time, no fines then. my son is a senior solicitor in London and my daughter is in management. We never took them away from senior school, only primary, it certainly didn’t seem to harm their learning!

LailaAnn, also it may be easier for people whose children have SEN to take holidays in quieter periods anyway, rather than in high season.

What I mean is that I used to believe that it was always best for a child to be in school, but that changed for me when bringing up an autistic grandchild. School kept saying she was fine in school when clearly she wasn’t. I stopped believing them. We didn’t fly off on holiday but I did take her on the train to Skegness when she should have been on an educational trip into London. I knew it would be too much for her and school would not make any adjustments. We had a lovely day on the beach and I have no regrets!

JaneJudge

LailaAnn, also it may be easier for people whose children have SEN to take holidays in quieter periods anyway, rather than in high season.

I thought that too.

I think the education, experience and knowledge gained by going to different cultures outweighs the fact of being in a classroom for those days. Truancy is another matter

My parents took me out of school once as they had won a holiday in America. I still have the school report that states I had been unable to grasp a specific maths concept due to missing school because of this holiday.
Actually I was just really rubbish at maths.

It’s not just holidays abroad that are extortionately priced - caravan holidays, cottages, flats camping sites etc in the UK push their prices right up during the school holidays. Some people including teachers don’t always appreciate that it can be difficult for an employee to get their annual leave approved during the school holidays especially in a company where there are a lot of people who have school age children and everyone wants time off at the same time. It can be a real juggling act and other members of staff without children often get resentful that they can’t take time off during these times.
When I was a child we always went away during the school terms for this reason and no one batted an eye lid.
When I asked the school in the 80s if I could take my son out for a couple of days for a short break at the beginning of a new term (I was worried it would be disruptive for him), the headteacher told us to go ahead - he said disruption is a part of life and he needs to get used to it….. how times have changed.

Btw,it’s my understanding that it’s not the Heads of school dining, but the LA at the instigation of Dept of Education.

Katek

3 DC teach in senior school, 2 heads of department and 1 depute head teacher. They all have children. They have no option other that to take holidays in holiday time and have to budget for any additional costs. My son finished school on the Friday and Saturday morning they drove to Wales for a 2 week holiday. Foreign holidays have sometimes been taken at half term but are usually at a Eurocamp site or similar. I think it's called cutting your cloth to suit.

Some parents are unable to book annual leave during the school holidays, a problem teachers don't face. They also don't have to work Christmas Day, Easter or bank holidays like for example my policeman son amongst many others, so surely it's a bit of a trade off?

In a work environment there will often be many people with school age children. Not everybody can always be accommodated during the 6 weeks of summer holiday. I managed to only have mine out of primary school once, but that did mean not having a holiday together as a family some years. I could never afford to take my four children on a foreign holiday, that was something they had to do as a school trip (hmm one took place during term time) or as independent adults.

I am not blanket condoning nor condemning holidays during school time, but think there should be more understanding of why this sometimes happens, and a more flexible approach taken. Academically how does a week's absence because of illness differ from a week's absence for a holiday?

Schools can be ridiculous about even taking a short time off, coming up to the end of term when all they were doing the last afternoon was watching films etc our school fussed about an afternoon off to do an international event which was much more educational
We never went on package holidays and only ever had extra bits of time off for things like distant family weddings/funerals etc
Sometimes what you do out of school.is even more educational than what is happening inside school and that is so different from going to Benidorm or suchlike

It must make life very difficult for teachers especially if a new topic has been started and they then have to find the time to help pupils catch up on what has been missed. On the other hand if they were ill then the same would have to be done. If I was a parent nowadays I would be seriously tempted to pay a fine and get a much cheaper or longer holiday especially if children were in primary years.

Our school holidays were geared to the holiday industry. We finished later in July and had one or two weeks in September and also a longer half term to allow hoteliers to take children on holiday in what was considered out of season.
The Lancashire Wakes weeks have a rolling programme of school closures to coincide with factory closures as originally a group of men used to go from town to town cleaning the boilers. Bolton won out as it was one of the first and so holiday costs were a lot less then,
My GS has two weeks holiday at either the October or June half term with cheaper holiday rates but still warmer weather in the Mediterranean .
I know exams dictate some holiday times but there should be areas of compromise within school areas