School holidays, fines going up for absence

mosssideblue said:
All Governments have faced this absenteeism challenge and not yet got to grips with it. I agree, maybe missing a couple of days once a year shouldn't harm a childs education, but I would like to see Government chase the root cause which is the holiday industry absolutely taking the piss out of the public.
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Soon mate people just won’t be able to afford holidays, used to be able to do Benidorm for £350 for 3 nights before Covid, it’s at least £500 now if not more, family holidays are even worse, we went to Florida for 2 weeks in 2017 £6k all in had a brilliant time it was February and we didn’t have school time to deal with, however same one now is £11k.
 
My daughter was two days late back to school, the difference in cost would’ve been huge for flights alone had we came back few days earlier. I’m certain she’ll have learnt more from her time and experiences on holiday than she would have at school
 
Blue Maverick said:
Soon mate people just won’t be able to afford holidays, used to be able to do Benidorm for £350 for 3 nights before Covid, it’s at least £500 now if not more, family holidays are even worse, we went to Florida for 2 weeks in 2017 £6k all in had a brilliant time it was February and we didn’t have school time to deal with, however same one now is £11k.
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I know. Took my two out back in the 80s to go to Spain. Had a great week for just a few hundred quid inc flights
 
I understand the headteachers have to abide by ‘the rules’ and have their hands tied a little by that and giving ‘authorised leave’ or signing it off as ‘unauthorised leave’ which leaves a chance of a fine.

we have been lucky and never received a fine but also don’t tend to ever take off more than a few days either side of the school holidays.

We did take 5 days before Covid hit to extend the October half term to 2 weeks to go to America which we couldn’t have afforded in peak holiday time. It was honestly the best thing we ever did and the kids talk about it as their best holiday and are memories we will all keep forever. They were all in Junior school at the time and we ensured it wasn’t a key year for any of them (such as just before 11+ etc.)

I think there should be some tolerance allowed so people can take 5 days out of school without feeling like you are awful parents or the threat of a fine. However this should be conditional on not doing it in GCSE year or 1 month prior to any end of term exams and ensuring overall you will have around 95% attendance.

If you can’t miss a week of school without falling behind then there is something wrong with the education system as all learnings should be regularly checked for understanding throughout the year not just the week they learn that topic. Kids can easily miss a week of school with sickness, especially with the no return within 48 hours of being sick policy they all adopt, so how do those kids catch up?

We are at a point where it is going to get difficult for us all to go away together as my eldest who is now 16 is good at football and moved into adult footy at a decent level. Preseason starts before the summer school holidays start and he can’t really just miss games during the season to go away so I am not sure what we will do to allow us all to go away together now. They need to realise that people have different circumstances and I know there are opportunities to discuss this with the school but you are still made to feel like a criminal for even contemplating it.

I noticed a change to one of the kids school absence policies recently (grammar school) where anyone going away and missing 5 days may have their place taken off them and they would have to reapply. The wording seemed to imply it was to stop people going on extended cultural visits to see family in other countries.
 
We've done it twice, Our school has just recorded unauthorised absence and we've never had a fine - yet.

Doing it again in May. He finishes his SATs on the Thursday and we are away on the Friday going for a week away one week before the schools half-term.

The difference going one week early is over £900 saving for us, so would just pay the fine anyway if we got one.
 
I've taken mine out a couple of times to reduce the costs and haven't been fined. There are a lot of kids regularly missing school and whilst for plenty they're genuinely doing it because they couldn't afford to otherwise, for others they're doing it because they don't take schooling seriously so unfortunately you do need a system that ensures it's not allowing people to regularly take children out of school.

The last few days of a term are never beneficial from an education perspective, so skipping them to take your kids on holiday is definitely a better use of their time. But a couple of days could turn to a week or more with some parents these days so I do understand why the system is in place.

I think most people who ensure their kids attend school regularly get away with it otherwise. And I think it's missing 5 days in a row fines kick in, so there's scope to just miss 4!
 
I took my son out of school for a few days to go to Spain to see the property we had bought for the first time
It was the final week before the school summer holidays so was much cheaper,they do fuck all I lessons in that week also
I ended up getting a fine and so did my sons mother (my ex)
I promised to pay hers but I didn’t pay mine
Eventually they sent me a summons to appear in court
The summons had ‘3 MONTHS IN PRISON’and £2500 FINE written on it,which really stood out!
I ended up having to take a day off work,being fined £355 and having some nomce look down his nose at me like I’m some sort of bad parent
 
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