colchar

There was another story recently (cannot remember which newspaper I saw it in) that discussed a student being denied a day off to attend their grandfather's funeral. The parents were threatened with prosecution and fines if they took the student out of school for the day.

Oakvillian

I suspect the key phrase here is "threatened with." This smacks of the Head trying to intimidate parents, rather than any real likelihood that a case such as this would be prosecuted. There are already a huge number of prosecutions (and successful convictions, fines and even terms of imprisonment) for parents of truants. It seems most of these are for habitual offenders, where the parents are not sufficiently engaged to ensure the child gets to school.

A parent who actually bothers to ask the school for a leave of absence is almost by definition sufficiently engaged in their child's education for that absence not to be detrimental to the child. It might upset the school's Ofsted numbers, but that's just another indication that school league tables are pointless at best and counterproductive at worst.

Jo&Alex

The article mentions a father who is currently fighting in court a 2,500 fine for taking his son to his grandfathers memorial without school permission.

I just don't understand how attendance is a measure of anything when it comes to schools. In my view, student performance is the only valid measure of how well a school is doing.

I can't imagine the government imposing something similar here in Canada. But then again, bureaucrats can go wild without warning...

Oakvillian

Headlines can be somewhat misleading, can't they? The child in that case had 22 days of unauthorised absence from school between September 2013 and March this year, according to the news report of the preliminary hearing. It may well be that attendance at the great-grandfather's memorial was the final straw that led the school to refer the case to criminal prosecutors: not all of the time away from school was in connection with that memorial.

If convicted, the parents will likely be fined up to 1000 pounds. If they'd paid up the original fine it would have cost them 120 quid tops - which some might consider a reasonable fee for more than four weeks' unauthorised time away from school. It was their choice not to pay the penalty charge which has landed them in court, and exposed them to the risk of a career-damaging criminal record. Having read a few details of the case, I am less inclined to be sympathetic with those parents than with the parents of the terminally ill child in the Indy article.

I do completely agree with you, though, that measuring a school's performance on the basis of the attendance record of its pupils is plain daft. The school has no direct control (though I suppose some amount of influence) over whether and how much the parents and guardians of its kids care about their attendance. It makes about as much sense as a league table of goalkeepers ranked in order of how many goals their team's central midfielders have scored.

Gozit

I agree. Its ridiculous. Me, I am absent from school for various "unauthorised" reasons during the year, nothing more than a phone call to the house by the secretary, who speaks to my mum/dad, and they confirm that yes I was absent and this is why. Full stop, end of situation. No "permission" needed. We even go on vacation in the middle of April because its more convenient at that time, and all my mum needs to do is phone the school and let them know, they can't say that I am not allowed to go on vacation

Tbh I think the whole thing there in the UK is going too far. Oakvillian you said the £120 fine was 'reasonable' for four weeks absence?

The kid is in the custody of the PARENTS, not the naffing state! It should be their decision on when/why they leave school, and for how long (within reason) and there definitely shouldn't be a 'fine' either.

Sally Redux

Kids miss work and therefore performance is lowered.

Gozit

The school system has really lowered in quality in the last 15-20 yrs. It used to be about the kids and their learning experience. Now its all about the state, the numbers, how "good" the school is, etc, etc. No one gives a shit about the kids anymore

(I know this because grandparents used to work in the system)

Sally Redux

Parents wanted to see league tables to compare schools and quantify every step of their child's learning. But then they want it both ways, term-time holidays + excellent grades. That can only mean extra work for teachers.

Gozit

And we all know the likelihood of that happening

Sally Redux

They have a plan of work for the term, if families want to take their kids out then the teacher should not have to subsidize that.

Oakvillian

Careful... nobody has suggested parents can't take kids out of school. In this case (the banker from Chelmsford with a dead American grandfather), the parents don't appear to have followed the "rules" for permission/notification, and the child was away from school for a total of 22 days of unauthorised absence in half a school year. I don't think anybody would have batted an eyelid if the trip to the States for a family memorial had been the only such absence in the year, and the Head would doubtless have looked rather more favourably on the request. But for a child to be missing over four weeks of schooling is taking the piss out of the system a bit.

Of course, the problem with all of this is that it's the articulate, engaged parents who make a fuss when the system works against them. It's the disengaged, don't-give-a-flying-whatsit-about-truancy parents who the rules are supposed to catch. But no school, or local education authority, would be able to implement one rule for the "nice" people and another for the chavs - much though they might want to

And I fundamentally disagree with your point that the parents have sole responsibility for their child's attendance at school. There is (in the UK at least) a legal obligation to educate your child. I gather there is a formal notification/certification process to go through if you choose to home-school; otherwise, you are obliged to ensure your child's attendance at a recognised school. If parents (persistently) break this legal obligation, it is appropriate that there are sanctions in place to discourage them from doing so again.

colchar

I think the key word there is "unauthorized". Who gives the authorization? If the school, it shouldn't be any of their business as they should not dictate what a child does - the parents should. If the parents approved those absences that is their business, so long as the child makes up the work.





There is a legal obligation to educate your child here in Canada too but we seem to manage to see that that is done without parents having to ask the school's permission.

colchar

I couldn't agree more.

Sally Redux

Why bother going to school at all? They can just 'make up the work'.

colchar

How is the teacher being expected to subsidize that?