School holidays, fines going up for absence

[Two Gun Bob]

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.

Only this. We are on the East coast at the moment and lots of kids are enjoying the sunshine. Just speaking to a couple who have primary school children in tow, and the say they are happy to pay the small fine to give them quality time together at an affordadable price.

Most working class folk cannot afford the high tarrifs that travel company's throw their way during the term time.

Maybe our government could offer hard working families the same leniency and compassion they show to the travelling and religious communities by offering a floating week to one and all.

It's not too difficult for our new government to work around this connundrum if they apply themselves with gusto. But not Right Now, as they're currently busy working on fixes to stop our elderly freezing to death this winter.

 

[Tuearts right boot]

Wonder how people would feel if their child's teacher went on holiday for 2 weeks in September to get a cheaper holiday

or training days perhaps....

 

[Stephen Ireland's pants]

Only this. We are on the East coast at the moment and lots of kids are enjoying the sunshine. Just speaking to a couple who have primary school children in tow, and the say they are happy to pay the small fine to give them some quality time together at affordadable prices.

Most working class folk cannot afford the high tarrifs travel company's throw their way during the term times.

Maybe our government could offer hard working families the same leniency and compassion they apparently show to the travelling and religious community by offering a floating week to everyone.

It's not difficult for our new government to work around this connundrum, if they apply themselves. But not right now as they are currently busy working on a fix to stop our elderly freezing to death this winter. [ fingers crossed]

They could use the money from the fines to fund the winter fuel payments. Fine more parents that's the answer.

 

[Blue Maverick]

Just put yourself and your child down as a Gypsy or Traveller, their kids only need to do 200 educational sessions by law each year.

I was chatting to an Asian taxi driver a few weeks ago about it and he said he’d been fined for taking his kids out to go back to Pakistan he was taking them for a month or 6 weeks a time, I said I’m not surprised tbh! How do they police people who home school?

 

[smevchenko]

I was fortunate enough to be taken on a 3 week holiday in October/November when I was in Year 4, aged 8 (in 1990) so missed 2 weeks of school. We went to Buffalo/Niagara Falls, New York, Washington and Orlando and I still fondly remember parts of that holiday.

Now I don't know if the reason we went was the difference in cost of term time holidays back then, but the point is I have wonderful memories of a family holiday, I can barely remember any classroom education from that far back, so allowing parents to take children away in term time should be fine in my opinion.

Ok, maybe not a complete free for all, but allowing a couple of weeks a year for a parent to ask for time off for their child really should not be an issue. The child can be given some work to do, or asked to feedback some learnings from their time away and up to the age of 14 this really should not impact their education.

It might not just be cost that is the driving factor, you might have family/friends living abroad or the other end of the country and you might be wanting to go and celebrate a particular birthday/event.

As it stands if we take either of our children out for a full week (10 sessions) we will get a fine, which I think is too harsh.

 

[Kinkladze 1]

How can they prove an absence if you just ring them in sick for the week? Lot of worrying about nothing going on in here.

 

[Kinkladze 1]

I was chatting to an Asian taxi driver a few weeks ago about it and he said he’d been fined for taking his kids out to go back to Pakistan he was taking them for a month or 6 weeks a time, I said I’m not surprised tbh! How do they police people who home school?

Surely home schooling doesn’t use up government money so they wouldn’t be arsed if you went away during ‘term’.

 

[mexico1970]

I was chatting to an Asian taxi driver a few weeks ago about it and he said he’d been fined for taking his kids out to go back to Pakistan he was taking them for a month or 6 weeks a time, I said I’m not surprised tbh! How do they police people who home school?

Never thought of this before, do flights to Pakistan go up in the school holibobs like they do to Tenerife?

 

[Kinkladze 1]

I was chatting to an Asian taxi driver a few weeks ago about it and he said he’d been fined for taking his kids out to go back to Pakistan he was taking them for a month or 6 weeks a time, I said I’m not surprised tbh! How do they police people who home school?

The taxi driver is taking the piss isn’t he. Using up a school place and then fucking off for 6 weeks at a time. Taking liberties.

 

[smevchenko]

How can they prove an absence if you just ring them in sick for the week? Lot of worrying about nothing going on in here.

You can get away with that up to a certain age, but if you are taking two children out and they can talk, it will be fairly obvious you can't use sickness as an excuse.