Child Day Off From School. Am I Wrong?

[FailHere]

"I don't want to go to school today, the teachers all hate me and the children all hate me"

"You've got to go in, you're the headmaster"

[hunton69]

Ken Figenus said:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-36277940

I hope they now give more discretion to the Heads as they lick their wounds, rather than dig in having been beaten by common sense. Maybe 5 consecutive days off pa should be permissible in a school year if the parents are adamant about it and wont/cant do anything else and the kid has over 90% attendance otherwise? Just NO NO NO wont work - add a bit of common rather than chasing fines

We have had 2 trips to Australia with our 6 year old since September on the second trip we met with the deputy head expecting a fine and was told it's not there policy to fine so I guess it was always down to the school.

What was interesting on the second trip we put our boy into a Kip Mcgraph education centre (there in the UK and OZ) teacher told us the OZ's are having the same demands over there on there kids all driven by the Chinese education system. Her advice was 1 hour a day one to one tuition, he produced more work in the seven days with them than he does in a month over here and loved every minute. Down side was the lack of school mates.

[Sheepshanks]

hunton69 said:

We have had 2 trips to Australia with our 6 year old since September on the second trip we met with the deputy head expecting a fine and was told it's not there policy to fine so I guess it was always down to the school.

That's a bit strange because one of the points about the system is the process is taken out of the school's hands. They can only authorise absence in specific circumstances - anything else should produce an automatic penalty.

[Ken Figenus]

That was not the case. You'd get a fine in one county (or even town) and not in another (see http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/can-ta... . The notion that head teachers have no discretion also seems false.

[walm]

Ken Figenus said:

That was not the case. You'd get a fine in one county (or even town) and not in another (see http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/can-ta... . The notion that head teachers have no discretion also seems false.

It depends on the LEA, I believe.
For many, it was compulsory fines with no HT discretion.

[Jaska]

walm said:

They keep harking back to the "evidence" that poor attendance = poor GCSEs.
No st sherlock.
Guess what kind of home support and caring parents you must have if you have sub-90% attendance (that's missing one day every TWO WEEKS!)....

Muppets should learn correlation/causation fallacy.

Problem with looking at that in bare figures is that it's hard to tell at what point the attendance drop causes issues. Is it OK to miss a day a month? two days? three? Would be interesting to know if it's a bell curve as well where people with 100% attendance suffer burnout.

Maybe I'm just trying to make up for the fact my attendance most years was below 80%, so missing one in five lessons in any given subject, but I turned out just fine with a degree!

[Puggit]

Daily Mash hits the nail again...

Six year old taken on term time holiday will never catch up on colouring

[bertie]

walm said:

Ken Figenus said:

That was not the case. You'd get a fine in one county (or even town) and not in another (see http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/can-ta... . The notion that head teachers have no discretion also seems false.

It depends on the LEA, I believe.
For many, it was compulsory fines with no HT discretion.

Correct.

The school has to report all attendance & absences to the LEA, and so in England at least it's the LEA who fine, not sure about Wales where that link was from, maybe different.

[HTP99]

We took our then 12 year old and her friend to Glastonbury festival in 2011; they were out of school from the Wednesday and back in on the following Tuesday, the school were aware of what we were doing, we had no fine or correspondence regarding the absence, neither did her friends parents.

[walm]

HTP99 said:

We took our then 12 year old and her friend to Glastonbury festival in 2011; they were out of school from the Wednesday and back in on the following Tuesday, the school were aware of what we were doing, we had no fine or correspondence regarding the absence, neither did her friends parents.

Ah the heady days of 2011, back when we needed tax discs, swiping left was something Daniel-San did when cleaning Mr Miyagi's car and Ned Stark was still alive.

Sadly time moves on.
The rules changed.

[HTP99]

walm said:

HTP99 said:

We took our then 12 year old and her friend to Glastonbury festival in 2011; they were out of school from the Wednesday and back in on the following Tuesday, the school were aware of what we were doing, we had no fine or correspondence regarding the absence, neither did her friends parents.

Ah the heady days of 2011, back when we needed tax discs, swiping left was something Daniel-San did when cleaning Mr Miyagi's car and Ned Stark was still alive.

Sadly time moves on.
The rules changed.

There were fines back then though and taking your children out of school during term time was still very much frowned upon.

[bertie]

HTP99 said:

There were fines back then though and taking your children out of school during term time was still very much frowned upon.

Notionally yes, but the rules have tightened significantly and the head teachers judgement has been removed.

[walm]

bertie said:

HTP99 said:

There were fines back then though and taking your children out of school during term time was still very much frowned upon.

Notionally yes, but the rules have tightened significantly and the head teachers judgement has been removed.

Exactly.
Back in the day, the governing body of our kids' primary voted not to impose fines. Because they aren't total morons.

Then the LEA over-ruled everyone and just said "we will impose fines no matter what the governing body wants".

[arfursleep]

Puggit said:

Daily Mash hits the nail again...

Six year old taken on term time holiday will never catch up on colouring

6 year old? She'll be doing SATs then. It's a bit more advanced than colouring in the lines.

[boyse7en]

bertie said:

HTP99 said:

There were fines back then though and taking your children out of school during term time was still very much frowned upon.

Notionally yes, but the rules have tightened significantly and the head teachers judgement has been removed.

We've taken my nine and six year old out for a weeks holiday for the last three years during term time. It's been OK'd by the headmistress and we've never been fined/had letters from the LEA.

[Jinx]

walm said:

Exactly.
Back in the day, the governing body of our kids' primary voted not to impose fines. Because they aren't total morons.

Then the LEA over-ruled everyone and just said "we will impose fines no matter what the governing body wants".

Then suggest the schools become Academies

[walm]

boyse7en said:

We've taken my nine and six year old out for a weeks holiday for the last three years during term time. It's been OK'd by the headmistress and we've never been fined/had letters from the LEA.

It's almost as if different LEAs had different rules.

Perhaps someone should have mentioned that earlier... oh wait.

[walm]

Jinx said:

walm said:

Exactly.
Back in the day, the governing body of our kids' primary voted not to impose fines. Because they aren't total morons.

Then the LEA over-ruled everyone and just said "we will impose fines no matter what the governing body wants".

Then suggest the schools become Academies

You think Academies don't fine???
http://www.ilkleygrammarschool.com/parents/attenda...

[Jinx]

walm said:

You think Academies don't fine???
http://www.ilkleygrammarschool.com/parents/attenda...

I suggested the LEA doesn't impose the fine. Those that chose to is under their own discretion.

[walm]

Jinx said:

walm said:

You think Academies don't fine???
http://www.ilkleygrammarschool.com/parents/attenda...

I suggested the LEA doesn't impose the fine. Those that chose to is under their own discretion.

Now I am even more confused.
And frankly, I did go on quite a lot of holidays during term time so it's probably my fault - sorry!