Taking Kids on Holiday During Term Time — New Rules

At the end of last term we had a letter home to inform us that headteachers have lost their ability to authorise absence for a holiday during term time. For the past two years I have taken my son skiing and this winter was to have been the last trip before he starts his GCSE courses. His attendance and achievement have always been very good and permission granted with no questions asked. I’m very tempted to book and go anyway (wifey agrees) but wondered if any of you lot know any more than I do about possible consequences. I’m really not inclined to go in the half term holiday when the prices are hiked by 50% or more and the resorts will be more crowded.

See if the cheper holiday + the cumlative fines are cheaper than the half term price 🙂

It is a joke IMHO.

Why don’t you contact the school and ask? My limited understanding is that you can be fined for every day of non-attendance.

Manflu? Please prove otherwise?

when the prices are hiked by 50%

Grin and pay it. It’s a luxury item. If you can’t afford it, give it up.

It must be a nuisance for teachers to go over work that has been missed by kids sat all smug and suntanned.

The rules have been clarified to stop folks taking the mick. They are the same for all. Suck it up.

Tell the teacher that you don’t mind if they go out of school holidays too. Great first world problems out there.

They are the same for all

Except its not. Our local schools teach gypsy families and they will come and go as they please, often turning up in the middle of the school day to take their children out. Its a bit of a headache as the school can’t fine one set of parents and not the other.

Grin and pay it. It’s a luxury item. If you can’t afford it, give it up.

Undoubtedly a ski holiday is a luxury item, but we’re not talking a few quid difference between term-time prices and holiday prices. It’s a very very sizeable difference. The cynic in me wonders if this new rule has been created following a few quiet words over a sherry between Call-Me-Dave and the holiday companies.

My issue with this whole thing is the government getting their sticky beaks involved in matters that should be left in the hands of the people paid to run a school.

Manflu? Please prove otherwise?

He’s bound to be overheard talking to his mates.

when the prices are hiked by 50%

AND the resorts are that much busier.

Coordinate with the unions. See if they can arrange strikes that week, or choose a week they might strike.
Doesn’t seem to be an issue withholding kids from a day’s education in that instance.
😉

Chap on Radio 5 the other week saying that he’d saved £1500 on his trip to Florida for a £60 fine.
If you’re going to fine parents to dissuade them from taking holidays in term time why just £60? Make it £300 and people might take notice.

My kids schools don’t allow holidays in term time at all – no exceptions so it’s not worth thinking about.

The cynic in me wonders if this new rule has been created following a few quiet words over a sherry between Call-Me-Dave and the holiday companies.

Alternatively one could learn some basic economics and realise what happens to prices when demand is high and supply is limited, as evidenced by

AND the resorts are that much busier.

While I can see both sides, at the end of the day, each of you have to face up to your responsibilities. They’re teachers, and you’re a master of the universe. Tell the school to do one.

I’m not sure though that the schools are obligated to enforce the fines. What it seems is that the school now is obliged to register the absence as unauthorised. It’ll still be up to them what, if any, fine to charge. Might be best to sound them out.

My kids schools don’t allow holidays in term time at all

How it should be i.e. down the the policies created by the individuals responsible for running the school and NOT the government.

My wife’s school allows holidays in term time.

It’s a special needs school and some children need adapated accommodation which is often no available in school holidays or the children have autism etc and cannot cope with busy periods at resorts and attractions.

The parents of these children often have other children in mainstream schools and will now have to factor the costs of any fines plus attention from school officers into their holiday costs.

I have seen the child catcher’s minions outside Lego world etc outside of school holidays in the past, too.

What’s the rule with Acadamies who are outside of LA control, by the way?

Pass it off as an educational trip where he gets to learn about glaciers and avalanches?

How it should be i.e. down the the policies created by the individuals responsible for running the school and NOT the government.

Why’s that? A lot of other policies are determined at governmental and lea level. There are of course other educational institutions which have some or many of these powers devolved to them, and we’re free to use them to bring up our kids.

Our kids school has the same policy, I spoke to the head who informed me that they have a no holiday policy, but we can request it and they can decline it.
She then said we could still take the kids but it would be marked down as an unathorised absence, so thats what we did.
Avoiding exam periods helps as well.

‘you lot’ already ruin 25% of the year, including a huge chunk of the summer.

i dont want to share my holiday with your spoilt brats.

slightly more seriously, its hardly a new rule, just an old one that is pretty important that some (increasingly more) people have decided they didnt want to follow.

I just got a letter from our headmaster saying that his staff we taking the last week of term of to go skiing too. He said that the deals were amazing and too hard to turn down and hoped we wouldn’t mind.

Time for a bit of home schooling while they are away. Should be fun.

A lot off schools are oversubscribed. Unathorised absences make the attendance stats look crap and can screw up pupil attainment targets.

I know of one instance where a kid went off for two plus weeks on an “unathorised absence”. On returning to the UK he found he had lost his place.

Why’s that?

vinney, it’s an opinion I have based on a strong belief that government do not need to be involved in every detail of everyone’s life. There are many capable people who can decide on and implement appropriate local policy in our schools, the police, the green grocer etc

Months down the line and we’re still awaiting the fine demand for the one time we sought authorisation for term time leave for one of our kids and were denied it!

Press that ‘Book Now’ button!

It’s totally out of the school hands you know.

Book the holiday and pay the fine or don’t. Rules are rules I’m afraid.

A fine? How would this be enforced?

Send the school a bill when it’s closed due to the first snowflake falls and it shuts.

Just go, having seen the numerous spelling and gammer mistooks on recent letters from my sons school I doubt my son would miss much. That reminds me, I’m still awaiting a reply from them when I highlighted all the errors and returned the last letter.

A fine? How would this be enforced?

through the courts, like any other fine.

It’s the LA that apply it if they choose to, not the school.

There is a simple reason for the updating and application of these rules – Ofsted are measuring schools on attendance and it is a fundamental to them getting either ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ ratings.

Also, what seems to be missed but has been brought back into focus withthe update is that the fines are being underestimated at present. They apply @ £60 per parent if paid within 28 days but then doubles to £120 per parent thereafter. The real killer is that each unauthorised absence can be fined – by definition, every day the child is away from school is an ‘unauthorised absence’.

Guidance from our LA is that this interpretation must be adhered to so a 2 week break for two kids & both their parents could soon add up:

£60 x 2 adults x 2 kids x 10 days = £2,400 – Doubled if not paid within 28 days then legal action after 42!

A few local schools have now extended their half-term breaks to two weeks which seems to alleviate the problem to a degree but it’s not the answer. Other than removing the attendance measure, I don’t know what is – it seems neither does anyone in Government.

Edi: The ‘new’ rules are effective 1st September 2013.

A fine? How would this be enforced?

through the courts, like any other fine.

It’s the LA that apply it if they choose to, not the school.

This is obviously an English thing, is it enforceable by law? Genuine question.

This is obviously an English thing, is it enforceable by law? Genuine question.

Well the regs are now known as the Education (Penalty Notices) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2013.

I guess that answers the question.

I don’t think its anything particularly new or English, haven’t parents always been liable for fines for truancy?

We’ve done it, & the heads take on it was that as long as it wasnt sats week he was happy. He even sanctioned the staff taking term time hols if they had kids of their own. He has sent out a letter reiterating the rule, & that a fine can be levied, but its plain from the wording that he’s just following his obligations to enforce the rule.

On a positive note, we got three sensible replies in before a Moral High Ground foot soldier fired one overhead. 🙄

It’s not about truancy, just absence.

In the past Heads have had the ability to authorise absences in circumstances they feel it is warranted – that power is basically removed. The LA will control the issue & deal with fines/legal action as necessary.

The original regs were enacted in 2007 & only applied to England.

It’s not about truancy, just absence

Doesn’t “unathorised absence” = truancy? Or is there a different definition for truancy?

FFS just deal with it. Your kids should be in school, not pissing about going skiing.

Truancy, as far as school is concerned, is without the parent’s consent. Sorry, it’s how the LA categorise these things.

Your kids should be in school, not pissing about going skiing.

Ah, but this is a middle class holiday so it’s ok.

Thanks Nobby, Every day a learning day and all that (even when you are not in school)

Ski holiday savings, pfffff 🙄

Try pricing up 4x return airfares to NZ during peak (holiday) season and then trying to negotiate 3 weeks off work from your employer in one go 😯

For all the people saying we’ve done it and its not been an issue are you talking about since the new rules came in this term or before?

The new rules were brought in over the summer.

we got three sensible replies in before a Moral High Ground foot soldier fired one overhead.

Funny, my view is completely the opposite.

My kids are all at Primary school. I book holidays for in-between school terms, in periods called holidays.

It’s not complicated. If you are bleating at the cost go somewhere cheaper.