Taking children out of school for holidays

[debih]

We've had notification at school (the head and me so far) that the government are changing the attendance regulations for term time holidays.

At the moment the head can use their discretion to allow up to 10 days holiday during term time (our head takes into account what the child's general attendance is like, if there are SAT's, etc happening around the time the request is for, etc. Generally she says yes to most requests) but the regulations are due to change from September 2013 so a head cannot grant a leave of absence for a family holiday. They can only grant it if there are exceptional circumstances. If a parent does take their child out of school it will be classed as an unauthorised absence and the department of education could fine a parent for taking their child out (I think it is £60 per parent, per child).

I've had a panic as we have booked to go away for a week in March, taking the girls out of school, with my mum and dad and sister and her partner. My mum and dad don't know anything about it - they just think they are going away with my sis and her partner (they do that every year for a week to Norfolk) - we are doing it as a surprise for their Golden wedding anniversary. I had already spoken to S's head of year to make sure it wouldn't clash with options or SAT's and she had said to go ahead and book it. I emailed the school earlier this week when I found out about the changes and yesterday had an email back from the deputy head to say that they would class a golden wedding anniversary as exceptional circumstances. Phew.

I really think it is unfair. I know it is important for a child to be in school but for some families they just can't afford to go away during holiday times because of the extortionate prices. Even a week away in a caravan in Skeggy costs a fortune during the summer holidays and it is just way out of some people's budgets.

We will have to send a letter out at school in the next week or so to let parents know and the poo really will hit the fan for some parents. I don't think we have masses of families that take their children out of school but certain ones do so every year.

I thought we could perhaps send it out on the same day that the uniform letter goes out next week!!! Our school introduced a uniform in 2008 and there are still a number of children who don't wear it (generally down to the parents rather than the children. Two particular parents "don't believe in uniform". However, their children all happily go to Brownies every week in full Brownie regalia.................). Bury bad news with more bad news is my motto!!!!!

[Kaz]

It is terribly unfair Debih.....I can understand it in an exam year but not otherwise. We always, always, went on our family holidays in June when I was young, and it certainly never harmed my education......

Mick and I so wanted to take H to Corfu with us, we only get weekends and some school holidays with him so time together is precious - plus visiting a different culture is so good for children. No way could we afford to take him in August Surrey EA however have a very strict policy so we were refused.................

[Rodo]

You see, I see this from the other point of view. They do miss parts of the curriculum when they are taken out in term time, and these days you can't go back over it again for the sake of those who missed certain things.

I sympathise with the problem of travel companies putting up their prices in term time, but when you have children of school age, then there are certain things you have to sacrifice. You either pay up, or you cause your child to miss something which might be very important to them.

[JoM]

I noticed this on Tom and Joe's school website last night - and I think they need to notify people about it because it's hidden away and people may book without knowing.

I think it's terribly unfair. It doesn't really affect us now because I think big holidays with the boys are in the past (not because they don't want to go but because of the relentless arguments) plus Tom's just going into 6th form and Joe's approaching GCSE years. For holidays abroad though we've always taken some term time days, usually overlapping with half terms or Easter. Going abroad during the Summer holiday isn't a favourite thing for us to do as 3 out of the 4 of us are fair/red heads with pale skin and Tom hates the heat.
The holidays we've taken though, where we have taken them out of school, have had an educational element to them. We don't go abroad and sit around a pool all day. We explore, we go to museums, we sightsee.

It's going to be a pain for people who work somewhere with a number of people with school age children. Just using John's office as an example, in his department five of them have children who are school age so they could potentially all be trying to take holiday around the same weeks now. They aren't really able to have more than one person away at a time and the Summer holiday, particularly the first two weeks, is traditionally one of their busiest times with them having to be off making site visits to factories during the shut down weeks when most installations happen, to make sure the finished articles match their designs, to supervise installations or be in the office tweaking drawings if there are any problems.
That's why we've got into the habit of going to Cornwall for the last week of the holiday, there's less chance of there being any problems cropping up meaning that the boys and I holiday without John.

Rather than target families who may take a term time holiday every couple of years, why not come down more heavily on persistent truants.

[Aggers]

I think it would make more sense if the Government made it illegal for holiday
companies to put up their prices for the school holiday periods.

Or perhaps the Office of Fair Trading should do something about the practise.