h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I took my son out of school for a holiday. I asked the teacher what they were going to cover and would have made sure we'd covered it at home before we went. Except I didn't because my whole life went into meltdown.

I think most children would find it fairly easy to catch up for a week or two missed. When I was at schol I frequently missed 3 months at a time and it always seemed possible to catch up. I think schools are a fairly inefficient way of imparting knowledge.

My son goes to a Steiner school where they starting formal learning at 7 rather than 5 but I recently had him independently assessed and he is now working above the national curriculum level for his age (9).

>>You are still entitled to take your children out of school during term time.

Our primary school allows it on a discretionary basis, and the secondary school specifically forbids it. Are they not allowed to stipulate such a rule?

As far as I'm aware it's down to the indivdual school, as by law children are required to be educated for 39 weeks of the year.

Today's arrangements involve my husband and son coming into my office to have dinner with me.

@quotes:

Point taken that the socio-economic structures of Capitalism force families to organise their lives according to fixed schedules.

There is currently a huge push in the UK to stop term-time holidays and few schools will now allow it for anything other than exceptional reasons (eg last chance of a family holiday before parent's terminal illness makes this impossible).

If you take your children out of school in term time without consent *each* parent can get a fine for *each* child. Two parents, three children = £300 fine.

Mol

One of my army mates is falling foul of this with the dad having been in Afghanistan for the last two years for several months of each year - he's only home for a few weeks now then he's off somewhere else and the school is kicking up a fuss about him wanting to take his children away for 2 weeks...

I think he won't mind just giving them all one of his flinty smiles and doing it anyway...

Good thing I persuaded B that he can't take my son to Russia for the whole of September then. I was a bit disappointed they wouldn't let son go for three afternoons rather than five this year. Partly because we wanted him to continue his Russian classes, which clashed a bit and partly because my sin being a late June baby I thought five days, even half days was a bit much. The school itself was sympathetic, but we came up against attendance records and their importance for league tables, even though this was pre compulsory. I discovered I can defer his Sept place this year though. It's burried in the small print in the leaflet the council gives out. He could go just in the summer term. That would delay any return to daytime working though, but what the heck.

Anyway. For those betting, son managed to hit the baby bath not his Papa and today I have been mostly parenting horizontally, as I seem to have got the bug too. Joy joy.

Yup. Children are like petri dishes. They incubate bugs and pass them on double strength.

Sho - that one would probably stand up in court. A parent in military service, with no choice about dates, is a good reason for a termtime holiday. Legal would probably advise the council not to issue the PCN.

Sol - taking children abroad to see extended family also sometimes is OK. Have a look on the council's website for its policy on authorised absence. Schools don't issue PCNs, that's the council's job, so education welfare have to be convinced that it's an unreasonable absence.

Ah, the joy of vomit.

Mol