Hi,
If you put a holiday form in now for the dates you require the school should authorise it as you are allowed 10 days per year without any action being taken.
Glen

I took my son out of school for holiday last year, I got permission from school in july but in sept i got letter from education authority to say not to take him out in school term again and enclosed a £50 voucher for co-op travel to book a holiday in school holidays which was of no use lol "have you seen their prices". I wouldnt worry about it as long as you let school know, ours are allowed 10 days authorised leave & thats leeds education. Hope this puts your mind at rest. Happy holiday.

We took our grandson out of school without permision in June.
The fine was £100 and needs to be paid within 42 days.
But if you pay within 28 days you only have to pay £50 so we paid this.
If the fine is not paid after 42 days you could have a £2500 fine plus 3 months imprisonment.

As mentioned you are allowed 10 days but we had done over that amount.

Gene

As far as I know, you are allowed 10 days absence, anything after that is classed as unauthorised - how old is your child? If I would you I would take it up with the school as every school seems to have a different view. I personally wouldnt take my children (13 and 15) out of school as they have far too much to catch up - unless it was near to holiday time say last two weeks of the term. I would like to be able to go away when its cheaper of course, but their education is more important. I used to take them out of school when they were at primary school, but not at comprehensive.

Our fine dates were from 02 June 2008 to 08 June 2008
so that means 5 days were unauthourised but we new we would have a fine to pay so I am not moaning.

Gene

I have a son at primary school where 10 days are allowed for holidays in term time as long as they are not when sats are and at the start of the school year.My eldest son is at a secondary school where no time at all is allowed for holidays in term time(all other secondary schools in the area do) therefore £50 per week fine.You can send a letter to your child's school stating the reason why you are taking them at that time of year and it is down to the headmaster whether it gets reported to the local education department or not.Last year we had a fine the letter that accompanies it says you have 'committed an offence'.However this year a letter from my husbands employer saying his holidays had to be taken at that time of year was sent to school and they replied saying it would be unauthorised still but not reported therfore no fine!!!! Hope this helps and you and your family have a lovely holiday.

oh no now i'm worried!
we took ours out of school last month for 2 weeks, my son is at primary school & missed 10 actual school days, the school had an inset day on the 30 th June luckily or he would have missed 11 school days
i haven't recieved any sort of letter yet, but the school did not authorise it so we probably will hear something.

My daughter is at secondary school & also missed 8 days last year due to a holiday so we'll have to wait & see.

i definately would not worry, go & enjoy your holiday you lucky thing

i am also taking my daughter out of school for a week sept, its unfortunate timing, but i have filled in a letter asking for permission, if this is not granted, i will take her anyway, write to the school with my intentions, and take it from there..

as sept is a new school year, this should hopefully be ok

Hi there thanks everyone for the replies,i did fill in a form at the beginning of the year and received a letter back from the headteacher saying he would not authorise the holiday,so i have sent in a letter today explaining the circumstances,she will be absent from school for 11 days,due to our flight not leaving bodrum until midnight on the monday
I have explained it is differcult for my husband to get time off due to work commitments as well.
She is going into year 10,when we booked the holiday last october,i didnt think about this,because the school have always been so good about her having time off before,and have always authorised it without a problem!
I am just worried about what will happen if i do have to take her out unauthorised?
Again many thanks to you all for your replies and words of kindness,maz,xxx

my daughter is starting high school in september and when there for the parents welcome meeting last week the headmaster read us the riot act over holidays!

"if you want your children to do well in school and you want me as a headteacher to deliver the best i can offer, then you must send your children to school"

i can understand his thinking but then again can also understand that some people are tied as to when they can go. fortunately from a time point of view my husband has factory shut down first week of august so we can always go during the 6 weeks holiday (not fortunate money wise though!) but he did also say that up to 10 days would be granted for "exceptional circumstances" though he didn't define what that actually meant!! again another point he put across was that during the year kids do have 13 weeks off anyway so really we should have no excuse to take them out of school!!!!!!!!!!! i feel a very fun 5 years coming up with him eh!!

they always say the holiday is Unauthorised, but you just go anyway, thats what i did.
my friend wasn't even authorised for missing 1 school day at the end of a holiday

I'm sure you realise this but you know it's still going to be very very hot on the 8th September onwards?

She is going into year 10,when we booked the holiday last october,i didnt think about this,because the school have always been so good about her having time off before,and have always authorised it without a problem!

It doesn't surprise me that the school is taking a different attitude this year. Year 10 is a crucial point in her schooling - she'll be starting the preparation for her GCSEs and from memory (I now live in Scotland) will also be taking the Key Stage 4 SATS tests this year which are crucial to a school's rating in the league tables. Continuous assessment systems for GCSE course work mean that time lost even at the beginning of the year could affect her performance in those assessments that kick in fairly quickly. The days are gone when as long as you were up to speed by the final exams at the end of a two year GCSE course then you were OK. I'm not sure that taking a holiday in September because it will be too hot for another a family member in July and August will wash with them either - the obvious retort from the school is likely to be 'Well choose to holiday somewhere that isn't too hot in August'.

I know that sounds unsympathetic but as an education professional in HE I can assure you that University admissions tutors in the present system will attach much greater weight to her actual GCSE grades already achieved than her predicted A level grades for exams yet to be taken, when it comes to her applying for University in 4 years time. Schools often get it wrong, for all sorts of reasons, and a place offered to a student on condition they achieve certain grades can be a wasted place if they then don't achieve them. But linked to this, all the research points to the idea that it is the GCSE grades which are a much more reliable indicator of a student's capacity to perform well in University than A level grades are. As an admissions tutor for many years I always looked much more closely at and attached much more importance to what a student had already achieved than to what the school predicted they might achieve and know that it is the general practice across the University and College sector when looking at students who are applying before they've taken their A level/Highers exams. The school probably realises this too and quite reasonably in my view, will want to make sure that she stands the best possible chance when the time comes. Hence their change in attitude towards term-time absences for Year 10 and upwards students.

SM

I,ve been lucky and have always had authorisation. Our schools here will authorise up to 10 school days as long as it doesn,t interfere with sats or anything like that. Ive been looking for late deal foe last week of summer holidays and the prices are really high. The week after drops by about £700. Tour operators shouldn,t be allowed to hike up price of holidays for school holidays but I suppose they know that because it is hard to get kids out of school parents will pay it. It,s about high time something was done. Sorry to gripe but it something I feel very strongly about.

went to school meeting on monday as my youngest daughter starts secondary school in september. the head made it quite clear no holidays what so ever can be taken in term time. we will be back from hols on the 26th of august this year so were ok.

Tour operators shouldn,t be allowed to hike up price of holidays for school holidays

But the alternative is that prices for the rest of the year will rise - that's the way supply and demand markets work - causing howls from those who don't see why their off peak holidays should go up in price to subsidise families with school age children. But let's not go there on this thread - all the pros and cons have been rehearsed before on other threads. The OP asked

whats the very worse that can happen to me?

and

My sisters daughter has had her absence authorised which really doesnt make any sense

and has had both these points clarified for her.

SM

I really do think parents are caught between a rock and a hard place, when it comes to holidays. Yes,the school staff are correct that any missed schooling at any age, is important for the child's education. But until somebody, somewhere ( the government, travel companies, whoever???) does something about the terrible hike in holiday prices during school holidays, this problem is never going to go away.....
My children are grown up now, but there was never a problem in those days, with taking them out of school at anytime, for whatever reason. Whereas nowadays parents are threatened with fines and/or court action. Where is it all going to end??
How on earth do we find an answer to this problem??? Are parents just going to take them out of school anyway, and just pay the £50 fine? - it's probably cheaper to do that, than pay the inflated prices the travel firms charge anyway.!
Denny

Last year my Son was given a £20 discount voucher from the school for holidays with dawson and sanderson to be taken in school holidays!

That wouldnt even cover the cost for meals on the flight !!

you are allowed 10 days per year without any action being taken.

Thats not strictly true . Up to 10 days holiday will be granted at the schools discretion. Many now wont grant it at all no matter what the circumstances . A good attendance is also now normally required of around 94%

Our local primary school no longer grant at all but our secondary school will if the circumstances are unavoidable. I have taken mine out for a few days on several occasions but never dared do it at the beginning of a new term and the start of year 10 is likely to be the least popular with the headteacher .

having said that the worst that can happen I would of thought would be a fine from the local authority and possibly a visit from the welfare to give you a lecture.