Taking children out of school

[Melm00]

I am taking my 7&9 year old children to Glastonbury this year. This will be their third Glastonbury but they weren't at school the last time they went. We're taking them on the Wednesday so they'll be missing three days of school. I don't want them to lie or to feel they can't talk about it with their friends so we're going to be honest with the school. How would you play it? Just ring up on the day & say they're not going to be in or request authorised leave in advance & if it is not granted go anyway (we will be going anyway!). Has anyone experience of this please? They've never had anything other than time off for sickness & even that hardly ever. Will we get fined do you think? Massive thanks. 

[The Red Telephone]

We’ve ummed and aahed about taking our 9-year old for a while now - have left it up to him though and he’s not particularly fussed about going! (So he’s staying with Mum-in-law again 😀)

I would definitely broach the subject with the school beforehand though - more likely to get it through as authorised absence/ not pay a fine. Might be a good idea to write a short letter extolling the cultural opportunities on offer at Glastonbury and how much of a life-experience it would be? We took our son to Bearded Theory a few years ago and wrote chapter and verse about similar and got it through ok.

Suppose it just depends if they would be missing any assessments whilst they’re at the festival? Pretty sure they’re done in May time though.

[Bucketsquad]

We are taking our kids out of school as well, they are 10 and 11 and we just tell the school where we are going and that it's educational as they get to experience loads of different things that they'd not usually see, one year the school gave us permission for them to be off then the following years they never, but so be it. With Covid thought the school attendances are all over so you shouldn't get fined.

 

On a side note, Bearded Theory has Ofsted teachers onsite and you register your kids with their festival school and they are classed as at school.

[Melm00]

13 minutes ago, The Red Telephone said:

We’ve ummed and aahed about taking our 9-year old for a while now - have left it up to him though and he’s not particularly fussed about going! (So he’s staying with Mum-in-law again 😀)

I would definitely broach the subject with the school beforehand though - more likely to get it through as authorised absence/ not pay a fine. Might be a good idea to write a short letter extolling the cultural opportunities on offer at Glastonbury and how much of a life-experience it would be? We took our son to Bearded Theory a few years ago and wrote chapter and verse about similar and got it through ok.

Suppose it just depends if they would be missing any assessments whilst they’re at the festival? Pretty sure they’re done in May time though.

Thank you. Yes, I could write an essay about the cultural benefits of Glastonbury, I'd quite enjoy doing that too! There's no assessments going on then & one of the days will be sports day anyway so no learning. 

[Melm00]

13 minutes ago, Bucketsquad said:

We are taking our kids out of school as well, they are 10 and 11 and we just tell the school where we are going and that it's educational as they get to experience loads of different things that they'd not usually see, one year the school gave us permission for them to be off then the following years they never, but so be it. With Covid thought the school attendances are all over so you shouldn't get fined.

 

On a side note, Bearded Theory has Ofsted teachers onsite and you register your kids with their festival school and they are classed as at school.

Yes, I'm not worried about attendance really, & I doubt the school will be, as you say it's all over the place after this last year. I'm just worried about the possibility of a fine in all honesty. 

[danssol]

I wrote the essay to the school and the head was very candid and privately supportive. The response was something like...the unauthorised absence will be reported and whoever receives the report will make a judgement based on attendance etc etc. I took the kids twice during primary school and received no warning letters. That said I'm taking my daughter this year who is now 14 and expect a slap on the wrist. Or we lie and I'm not comfortable doing that. 

[Stretlow]

I've got the same predicament with my two this year (13 and 9)

For the record. The council's can't fine you unless it's 5 days unauthorised in 12 weeks. The headmistress of the eldests school is a right battle-axe so I'm not even going to attempt to approach her about it.

Were actually traveling Tuesday and not returning until Monday so that's five days.

I'm torn between sending them in Tuesday morning and arguing it's 4.5 days or going covid.

Covid has been a c**t to us all night aswell give it one back!

 

Either way they're going, and it will be wonderful....

[Bucketsquad]

3 minutes ago, Stretlow said:

 

 

Either way they're going, and it will be wonderful....

Never a truer word spoken.

[moogster]

After the past two years I can't see how a teacher wouldn't see the benefit of kids getting accustomed to crowds and such again. Add the green futures area to the pitch, the kids field, the historical relevance of Paul MCcartney etc etc...

[Wanderlei]

3 hours ago, Melm00 said:

I am taking my 7&9 year old children to Glastonbury this year. This will be their third Glastonbury but they weren't at school the last time they went. We're taking them on the Wednesday so they'll be missing three days of school. I don't want them to lie or to feel they can't talk about it with their friends so we're going to be honest with the school. How would you play it? Just ring up on the day & say they're not going to be in or request authorised leave in advance & if it is not granted go anyway (we will be going anyway!). Has anyone experience of this please? They've never had anything other than time off for sickness & even that hardly ever. Will we get fined do you think? Massive thanks. 

Take lots of pictures of the green energy sciencey things in the green fields, the permaculture stuff, and of people playing world music, and call it an educational trip. They'd be real dicks to find you after presenting all that to them. Because a trip to Glasto IS very enriching. Just because it's fun, it shouldn't be considered a bad thing.

[Avalon_Fields]

Speaking as a School Governor, I'd say yes be straight with the school and talk to them, and as you say, if it's not part of a pattern of absences I'd hope the school would be reasonable.

It's really frustrating for schools to have significant absences where parents seemingly don't care and the school's figures are dragged down so please see it from their viewpoint too. 

[tumbles]

3 days isn’t going to harm development and by late June the kids are already knackered from a long term.  After all the crap they’ve had to endure these past two years I think they’re allowed a few days off. But yeah I would just tell the school straight. 

[spg]

Primary school were always fine and notified well in advance, secondary school always allowed time off when told in advance too, but to varying degrees and according to that year's attendance. But was always a yes, they also knew it was their annual holiday and couldn't be booked outside of the school year. 

[Ayrshire Chris]

I was more worried about taking staff out of school! 

[Scrump]

I'd imagine its hard to argue against the educational benefit of attending the festival. The problem,from the schools point if view, is twofold...

1. They are judged against attendance figures so have to try to prevent it dropping even if it goes against common sense (the joy of the system!)

2. Some parents are mental. They would argue that a week in magaluf drinking Stella and sunning their man boobs is also educational for the kids "cos culture and foreign language innit". The headteacher is screwed cos they said yes to a festival. 

the teachers and management of the school are working their arses off for our kids. They'll get some things right and some things wrong. Be straight with the school, have an ace time, you won't get fined (most likely!),you will remember the good bits of the festival for ever and forget all about this worry by 1st July.

[kaytee...]

I'd just tell the school they're going and take them, there's no point lying about it. Three days out of school near the end of term isn't going to make their teacher's lives difficult and it's educational at the end of the day

[StoneCircle]

On 1/2/2009 at 4:27 PM, FunkyChunkyMonkey said:

Well it's time for some of us to get our thinking caps on regarding this delicate subject. For the record, my son's school did not permit leave citing attendance targets for the school falling short of the mark along with a (highlighted) veiled threat of a £100 fine. These were schoolwide targets as my son's attendance was exemplary. We took him anyway and have suffered no consequences. We have decided to get our letter in early this year which should dismiss any target-based rejection. Last years letter was copied from a VF Forum post. I have elaborated a bit with this years by pointing out the benefits my son's attendence at Glastonbury had upon him personally. Feel free to read and by all means use it a template for your own requests. This one is a little personalised as you will be able to tell.

Hope to see you at Cockmills

 

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Dear *******

 

AUTHORISED LEAVE - *********** – 23rd JUNE – 26th JUNE and 29TH JUNE – 30th JUNE

 

We are writing to inform you that **** may be absent from school inclusive of the days mentioned above. We would very much like for you to supply **** with some work to do over this period if you think he will miss anything fundamental.

Once again (ticket allocation permitting) **** is to accompany us to The Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Arts and we understand that this absence can be authorised by the school, as it is a cultural event. If you want more details on what **** will experience during this week you can find details of some of these on The Internet at http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/performance.aspx?id=98

In addition, **** will continue with his scrapbook/photo diary of his time at the festival as he enjoyed doing this for last year’s festival and still enjoys looking back at it to recount his time there.

In the 5-6 months since last year’s festival, we have noticed as parents the profound beneficial effect it had on him. The following points are examples of how **** has benefited as a result of Glastonbury 2008. Points which he can discuss freely in detail himself.

 

• He has since developed and defined his own musical preferences.

• He has a greater understanding and appreciation of certain global environmental/human geography issues esp. Recycling, clean energy, the need the clean water and sanitation.

• While not seemingly interested in being creative himself, **** has developed a greater appreciation and respect for the efforts and creativity of others for the enjoyment of others. In particular he was impressed with Art installations from recycled materials as well as the logistics involved in catering for 200,000 people for a week on a farm in rural Somerset.

• He can have fun with his parents.

 

We would be appreciative if the school could take this on board as sound examples of character development as well as being relevant to the broader National Curriculum.

We will be staying in a nearby hotel on Monday 29th June before embarking on the full return leg back to Darlington as it takes several hours just to leave the site and get back onto major highways.

 

If you could send a reply home with **** that would be great.

 

Yours Sincerely

 

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11 hours ago, Melm00 said:

I am taking my 7&9 year old children to Glastonbury this year. This will be their third Glastonbury but they weren't at school the last time they went. We're taking them on the Wednesday so they'll be missing three days of school. I don't want them to lie or to feel they can't talk about it with their friends so we're going to be honest with the school. How would you play it? Just ring up on the day & say they're not going to be in or request authorised leave in advance & if it is not granted go anyway (we will be going anyway!). Has anyone experience of this please? They've never had anything other than time off for sickness & even that hardly ever. Will we get fined do you think? Massive thanks. 

There is an excellent letter above that was posted some years ago that may be worth you editing and sending to their school! Good luck! 👍

[Neville Street]

Our headmaster said “we can’t authorise it, I hope they have an amazing time and look forward to hearing about it”. Reasons along the lines described further up the thread.

[wilko8]

Last November we took our six year old son out of school for one day. His birthday was in October half term, but we all had Covid so we had to cancel his party and other plans we had. 
 

So post Covid we decided to do something special as a family, so we booked to go to London to see a show, go to the science & natural history museums and see England play football. 
 

I filled in a holiday request form for school detailing the reasons and how the trip would be educational and we’d catch up on anything he missed. 
 

The school rejected our request as it didn’t meet their policy. Which seems just to be reserved for family weddings and religious ceremonies abroad. 
 

We took him out of school and went on the trip anyway. We received a standard letter a couple of weeks later ticking us off and asking if we needed a special meeting to discuss any problems we were having regarding attendance. 
 

Fines and escalation to the council are all at the discretion of the headteacher. If you normally send your kids to school then, even if they reject the holiday request, nothing is likely to happen if you take them to Glastonbury. 
 

I would 100% do it. 
 

Well, actually, I’d 100% get babysitters…but if you can’t, then I’d 100% take them out of school 😂

[waterfalls212434]

23 hours ago, Avalon_Fields said:

Speaking as a School Governor, I'd say yes be straight with the school and talk to them, and as you say, if it's not part of a pattern of absences I'd hope the school would be reasonable.

It's really frustrating for schools to have significant absences where parents seemingly don't care and the school's figures are dragged down so please see it from their viewpoint too. 

This is the problem with those running schools these days....they are more concerned with padding their numbers and figures for ofsted etc then they are the kids wellbeing (hence the pushing of things like Sat tests on stupidly young kids etc but that's a totally different topic) .

 

My kids are going next year, they will experience plenty at glasto that may educate them for life on certain issues and topics, education does not stop at the classroom and trust me the schools 'figures' will be the last thing on my mind when I'm deciding if to take my 2 to their first festival or not. 

 

And if the school say no? Well they will be going anyway.....it shows up a wider issue tbh that being schools having far to much power over families lives....as long as your kids aren't absent from school all the time and they have good attendance usually then what's the problem with them missing a few days? 

[Jay Pee]

On 4/15/2022 at 9:43 AM, Bucketsquad said:

On a side note, Bearded Theory has Ofsted teachers onsite and you register your kids with their festival school and they are classed as at school.

My Wife is one of those teachers.  It is such a good set up there.  The kids love it

[jimmillen]

8 minutes ago, Jay Pee said:

My Wife is one of those teachers.  It is such a good set up there.  The kids love it

Seriously considering this for next year as our first festival with our daughters, will be 4 and 8. The festival school looks amazing for the eldest 🙂 Heard lots of good things about BT and it's fairly close to home in case of any total disasters! 😂

[Jay Pee]

Thanks Jim.  She volunteers.  I am married to some sort of Mary Poppins / Pied Piper meeting of minds.  Even when not in work she is working the magic

[Jay Pee]

1 minute ago, jimmillen said:

Seriously considering this for next year as our first festival with our daughters, will be 4 and 8. The festival school looks amazing for the eldest 🙂 Heard lots of good things about BT and it's fairly close to home in case of any total disasters! 😂

It is a belting festival.  I have said so many times that Glastonbury aside which sits as an outlier of greatness in all honesty, Bearded Theory is the best of the rest.  Line up, proximity to camping, price of beer, price of food, punters, location, ticket cost.  It has it all.  Mega

[Bucketsquad]

You'll love it, it's a cracking festival and it gets quite a big line up considering the size.