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Hi Folks
My wife and I are planning to go on a 2 week holiday to India with our twin children, in late October this year. The two weeks would be made up of the one week half term holiday plus the week after. So in reality, they would only be missing 5 school days. Going to India in late October is very popular and the travel agent advised us to book the holidays asap since it would have been very difficult to book a reservation after the month of May. We booked our tickets in mid May. We do know that it is difficult to get reservations for late October, if you inquire about them in June - so the travel agent wasn't telling us any false information.
Anyway, before booking, we rang the school, and the receptionist said there shouldn't be much of a problem with getting time off school, since it would only be 5 days. She said, when making the decision, the school mostly look at grades achieved so far and the attendance record of the child. Both our kids have satisfactory results in the school work and have almost 100% attendance record. She also stated that we need to give definite dates for our holidays, so both my wife and I decided to book the holidays before giving in the kids school holiday forms.
After booking and paying for the tickets, we gave in the holiday forms for the children to school. However, today we received a letter from the school stating that they would not allow the kids time off school !!
Both my wife and I are very upset about this, since we were hoping that our kids would be allowed time off school, especially after speaking to the receptionist, and it is now very likely we will not get the money back from the travel agent either !
Would this be the end of the matter or can we take things further i.e. appeal again the decision?
Any advice offered would be greatly appreciated.
I think my first port of call would be to ask for an appointment to see the Head Teacher and enquire what his / her receptionist was doing misinforming you.
This happens all too often in all walks of life these days where you get someone imparting information when they don't know but think they do. I think the answer or opinion given was beyond the remit of a receptionist.
Thanks for your advice.
Any further advice greatly appreciated.
Hi There,
Personally I would still go there are a couple of things that may be happening
The receptionist could have missinformed you, or the head is covering thier backs by saying no, as if they said yes to you it opens up the flood gates to others and they want to keep holodays during term time to a minimum.
A few years ago we went through a difficult time, losing a reletive to cancer, then days after my father in law was diagnosed with cancerso tensions were high for both my wife and step son, we needed a break so sent a letter to school asking for time out during term time to go away, the head replied through the receptionist.........
"I am not able to authorise this but ensure you have a good relaxing time away" our view was that he couldn't authorise as it would have given the wrong message but undeerstood.
Even if the head is being straight with his refusal, and passes on the absence to the authorities, the fine you could possibly recieve would be far less than losing the holiday thats already paid for.
So really it's down to you, the schools and the authorities don't like holidays in term time, and I can understand why, but if you feel that the experience of India for your children is worth it then just go, I would inform the school a week before though by letter that you are taking the children out of school for the week as it's a while away and the request could have been forgoten by that time, and by giving a reminder you will hopefully up set the head less than the children just not turning up.
GTTS
Thanks for your advice, GGTS
Any further advice greatly appreciated.
Hi Folks
I was just thinking - if I do take the kids out of school with unauthorized absence and pay the fine, would it have a very bad effect on their academic record when selecting the 6th form or college oruniversity they want to attend?
Thanks
As I understand it, the head teachers are no longer allowed to authorize holidays during term time, so his hands were tied. I would have thought that if this was a one off event, the the exam results would have a far greater bearing on 6th form than a single holiday. It might be worth speaking to the head to say that you are going to take unauthorised holiday because you'd already booked on the basis of what you had been told by the secretary.
Thanks actd.
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