I think the truth...

It's not like the excuse would be believed anyway...

Tell the truth and shame the Devil.

I personally find the excuses are more of an insult to the intelligence.

Do you really think - to use your examples - that they will be believed?

fwh

These kind of topics usually end up being locked due to discussions about whether it is correct or not correct to take children on holiday during term time.

I'll leave this open until we reach that stage again, which I trust won't happen.

MarkJ HT Mod

Oh no Mark not this one again.

Definately tell the truth. If not for the small fact that surely you would't want your children to think lying is a good thing. Children get their moral values from their parents.

If you have been allocated this holiday from work tell the truth and say you are not given time off during school holidays(I wasnt)I think they will be fine if it is not a regular occurrence.

oops, sorry, didn't mean this topic to upset anyone, it was meant in a lighthearted way, of course I will tell the truth, as were my previous reasons ( kind of ! )
I realise now it could end up in a heated debate, so I will understand if its locked.
juby

Hi

Can't you just put 'Family Holiday'. At my son's school you only have to put a reason if it's not your 'annual family holiday' or exceeds 2 weeks. I know schools differ but why bother going into details?

I agree with the comment from Mark about not turning the subject into a debate. We talked this to death a long time ago

I would however be interested in knowing how one particular group of people go on with this.

Those who have jobs with "allocated" holiday weeks.

What is the response of the schools in their particular circumstances?

Easy for people to complain that they cannot take advantage of cheaper deals but money is not always the problem.

fwh

Now that is an interesting question to which I would love to read some responses to.

How do schools - indeed - respond to such requests?

Mark

Hi

It really does depend on the school, some are fine, some not.

I have 2 children and 1 stepson that lives away and he has completely different weeks off apart from the May and summer holiday, so how does that work

Most people do not want to go abroad in August as it is too hot, we went to Egypt last year and there was no way we were going in July/August

Think I'm going too put down it is too expensive, so if you want us to go in school hols you pay the extra £1000 plus for a family of 5

Jo

Have to agree just tell them you are taking them on holiday.
Going away to other countries learns them different things as well.

My granddaughter started a grammar school in September and they are not allowed off in term time ,even to go to the dentists.
My daughter works for the NHS but is having a career break.I dont know what will happen when she returns to work.
I never ever was allocated school holidays because my husband could take his holidays anytime.The nurses who got the main holidays were the ones whos husbands were tied to school holidays.I only ever had a comment once,when a teacher asked my son why we couldnt take our holidays in the school holidays like everyone else! I sent a note to him saying we would if he didnt mind the hospitals closing for school holidays!

Much does depend on the school.

My son's school will authorise up to 10 days in any term but they do have a criteria that you are expected to meet in order for the school to authorise leave.

The holiday can not be within 3 weeks of the start of the new term or in the last 3 weeks of the term

The holiday cannot be during the SATS week in May

The child must already have good attendance and won't be authorised if the child has less than 96% attendance.

My daughters school used to operate a similar policy however they have since introduced a zero tolerance policy- problem was , they didnt inform parents of this , so there was a term or so of illness's around the school.

Say you got the dates mixed up and thought that this would be over a school holiday and are now unable to get a refund on the holiday. Sure they will say yes anyway.

glad to hear the replies, some interesting comments,
fwh, just to point out, I did state that I had put 'reasons' not 'excuses' on my holiday forms, and went into detail on them to justify taking my daughter out of school to the headmaster and also because he has a sense of humour !
juby

Tell the truth and the truth will stand ........... dont have to keep remembering what excuse has been given , have to have a good memory to be a fibber.

I'd just tell the truth - we'd booked a holiday to Cyprus and just sent letter in saying we were going away - the head wouldn't give permission as she said she couldn't but noted the kids would be absent on those particular days. As it turned out we couldn't go in the end for other reasons so there was no hassle anyway.

This year the kids will miss 2 days of school and I'll have to go in for a holiday form which I'm dreading - we could have booked Saturday flights which would have meant they wouldn't miss school BUT it was £500 dearer than flights for the Tuesday and for us that's half our holiday spendies and quite frankly it was the difference between us going on holiday and us not going on holiday this year.

If I'm asked I'm going to say it how it is and if they're bothered they can send home homework for the 2 days they'll miss for them to catch up with at home.

Personally for me even if the school said no to me i would still be going on holiday and taken the kids.
Having said that i wouldn't take them of for say a fortnight it would only be a couple of days week maximum.

Some previous discussion of this topic here

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=97032

And here

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=87580

and here

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=97929&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=0

also here

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=81095

And a marathon discussion here!

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=12751

and I get a virtual kicking in the last one. probably deserved as well!