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School issue with son, thoughts please.


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The background is thus:

 

I have tickets to a festival at the end of May and in order to get a good spot for the mystery machine I want to go down on the Thursday evening.

 

Now the issue is that the Friday is the last day of term and he is meant to be in school.

 

Hooray, a solution!! The festival runs an OFSTEAD approved Festival School which teaches the core curriculum in the morning and more arty/crafty stuff in the afternoon.

 

Problem solved.......until his headmaster sent a letter saying that he would not authorise the time off for Eli.

 

Now as he will be attending a school, just not his normal one, would I have a case if they tried to fine me?

 

I suspect the real reason is that his school is CofE and the head old school God Squad and he fears for a pupil in the moral cesspit of a festival, not that there will be any detriment to his education :whistling: .

 

Anyone got any thoughts?

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For one day I would just take him out of school. Is his attendance record good? If it is I wouldn't worry about one days absence. I know people who regularly take their kids out of school to go on holiday and always have done, one of them got fined last year for one weeks unauthorized absence, I believe it was £25.

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There has been a precedent set last year where a family were fined for taking the kids out of school for a holiday and they refused to pay the fine and the court ruled in the family's favour. So just take him. If you're really worried keep him off Thursday with a sickness bug, they have to have 48hrs off school then.

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Do a FOI act request and find out what your LA has done with regards to fines for parents.....

 

I'd do it but don't expect to teh school to endorse it as they are NOT allowed to

What is the point of having to ask them then? :/

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I refused to play this game, especially as my kids always had good attendance and very rarely missed a day.

I phoned up from Turkey a couple of years ago on the morning my two were due back in school, to tell the school my two wouldn't be back for the first three days of the new term as we were on holiday. I was told there may be 'consequences' as I hadn't applied for permission to take them from the school during term. I told the lady on the phone that the holiday was booked during the school holidays and I wasn't therefore obliged to ask permission, but was fulfilling my obligation now, by informing the school that they wouldn't be in. I never heard a thing.

We've had one or two differences of opinions over the years , especially when the teachers have gone on strike but insisted pupils attend regardless, and also at Christmas when I told my two to leave school after lunch instead of attending church, if that was what they wanted to do.

If it's just one day I'd throw a sickie and take him anyhow, even though the head now knows the reason for his absence.

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If it's just one day I'd throw a sickie and take him anyhow, even though the head now knows the reason for his absence.

I will be taking him anyway but thought I'd go through official channels.

 

As far as I am concerned, as long as he is in A school it doesn't matter which one :yes:

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The family that successfully won at court last year have just been given another ticket by their local authority. The crux of the matter is the relevant education act only states that a parent must ensure that their child attends school regularly, as there is no definition of regularly the court took the dictionary version. There is a rumour that these tickets issued are on dodgy legal ground because of the Acts wording. As long as your childs attendance is in the 90's fill your boots.

 

I had the same battle with our school, taking our children on the familymoon. After a long slog they agreed that we could go and they wouldn't report us.

 

Education is not only about being in the classroom. Children benefit from being out in the real world exploring as well.

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Our headmaster let us take ours out of school to go to a agricultural show, he reckons they will learn more there than being at school, esp as the youngest girl would pretty much make his and all the other teachers life hell for a week at least if not allowed to go.

I have always thought though if they every made a big deal about it the first thing I would argue is that how many films do they watch in the last couple of days of term, pretty much waste of time being at school in that last week, plus ours is closed for the police elections and the referendum for use as a polling station so they can't then bitch if I take mine out for 1 day.

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Sounds like your child might have to be ill on the last day of school.

It's a crazy situation for parents, yes I can see the schools have a point if a child has lots of absence during the term, but if thier attendance is above 90% I think you should be allowed some leeway. The phrase "detrimental to education" gets used but I can't see how a 6 year old missing 2 days of school is an issue, particularly on last day of term when nothing is done anyway.

 

Not in this case, but holiday firms need investigation into how they are allowed to hammer parents - I took my kids out for two days last year as I saved £460 as apposed to taking a flight within school holidays!

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If the kid is in another often approved school for the day I think any imposition of penalty is going to be laughed at if contested. As long as you informed the school

Kids go for trial days at new schools all the time - are they supposed to do that out of the school term?!

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It really is truely amazing isn't it, the teachers can officially take your kids on holiday in school time on an official school trip/holiday where the delightful teachers get a freeby, but as soon as you want to do the same, slap hands and face time.If your kids are clever,they are clever, if your kids are thick, they are thick and one day is not going to make a scrap of difference.from Auntie.

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To put it in more context, here is the days lessons:

 

Classes will be: Maths, English, History, Brazilian Portuguese, Mindfulness, Sublime Science, Olympic sports including Derby County Community Football, Brazilian sweet making, Carnival costume making and Samba drumming (with special guest).

 

I'd rather he went there all the time :lol:

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Being a teacher, I'm not going to bother replying on all the rubbish spouted above.

 

To the OP, without a doubt take home out of school, if they are officially recognised by ofsted then share this with the head teacher, he should actually get his mark as being off site

educated for the day. Activities like this will help with his education in many ways.

 

Also mention the following-

 

British values, spending time with family on an experience that doesn't just happen at the weekend.

 

He will be mixing with other cultures and will be with diverse (the current 'in word' with schools) sections of the public, which are often seen at festivals.

 

The threat of the fine comes from the government. If you do end up having to pay, so what. I do think the chances are slim, they are more aimed those who have low attendance across the term.

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So it's not as if he has got sats or anything important coming up then !I really can't see that it would hurt to take him out for a day ,sounds like the head is trying to prove a point , are they fairly new to the school?

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Being a teacher, I'm not going to bother replying on all the rubbish spouted above.

 

To the OP, without a doubt take home out of school, if they are officially recognised by ofsted then share this with the head teacher, he should actually get his mark as being off site

educated for the day. Activities like this will help with his education in many ways.

 

Also mention the following-

 

British values, spending time with family on an experience that doesn't just happen at the weekend.

 

He will be mixing with other cultures and will be with diverse (the current 'in word' with schools) sections of the public, which are often seen at festivals.

 

The threat of the fine comes from the government. If you do end up having to pay, so what. I do think the chances are slim, they are more aimed those who have low attendance across the term.

Cheers :good:

So it's not as if he has got sats or anything important coming up then !I really can't see that it would hurt to take him out for a day ,sounds like the head is trying to prove a point , are they fairly new to the school?

No, he's been there two years

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In year 4, last day of term, i don't think he will be missing anything and the festival school sounds like it will give him more than he stands to lose. I wouldn't normally support something like this but it's a no brainer.

 

:good::good:

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I am also a teacher and would endorse what MarkM says. We get a bit uptight if a kid is taken out of school on a regular basis but for something that is a family event once in a while, it isn't any big deal. Given that there is a festival school for him, you may wish to point out that it would be in the best interests of the school to have him marked as being "educated off site" rather than "unauthorised absence" as the latter shows up in the school's performance indicators.

 

The basic problem is that every profession has its share of ******** who cannot apply common sense and discretion where it is needed, added to which, every head teacher I have ever met are somewhere on the scale of barking mad - it seems to be a qualification for the job. Good luck with yours and have a great time together!

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