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Time Off During Term Time

Should we be allowed to take our children out of school during term time?

There have been a number of recent cases of parents being fined for taking their children out of school during term time, but it’s not always for a family holiday. Parents have been fined for allowing pupils to attend family weddings, funerals and even to visit dying relatives, and you may have heard of Jon Platt, the man who won a court case against a 120 pound fine, for taking his daughter out of school for a family holiday to Disneyworld. Gov.uk states children get a ‘full time education that meets their needs’ and that children must ‘get an education between the school term after their 5th birthday and the last Friday in June in the school year they turn 16’, but these regulations alone leave room for debate. What defines an ‘education’ is it always in a classroom or do children sometimes gain more knowledge when experiencing a different environment.

The law states that children must ‘attend school regularly’ when brought to attention this clause of the education act helped Jon Platt to win his case against the 120 pound fine, as before taking his daughter to Disneyworld, her school attendance record was 100 percent. Is it at the discretion of the school whether or not to let children have time off school during term time, and the head teacher of the school may agree that the child should be allowed this time off, however the education authority puts a lot of pressure on schools to ensure their attendance levels stay high, and this is sure to affect the decision of the head teacher of your school and whether time off is granted or not.

While children do have significantly more holidays than we adults, that is not to say that just like working adults, a short break in a new environment provides a refreshing change for children, and of course children are learning about the world all the time. Some would argue that a new environment with new experiences may provide the type of education that a classroom cannot, by allowing children to learn more about the world itself through experience, rather than a textbook, an idea which the classic school trip is based on. However, if you presented this idea to the department for education you would be faced with a very different viewpoint. A DFE spokesperson said “it is a myth that missing school even for a short time is harmless to a child’s education”, they then went on to explain that “our evidence shows missing the equivalent of just one week a year from school can mean a child is significantly less likely to achieve good GCSE grades.”

If you are a parent of a child in school you will probably be aware of the rapid rise in holiday prices during school holidays, and with the expenses of school uniform, school trips and school supplies, it isn’t a surprise many parents see no other option than to take their children out of school, in order to have a well earned family holiday. Families have been fined for taking children to weddings, funerals and other events that many families would regard as very important to family life. Many families simply pay the fine and then quickly forget about this pressing issue, while returning to hectic daily life, but like John Platt some parents will continue to fight the case they feel so strongly about.

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