Father "wins" high court ruling (taking child out of school during term time)

Well this in my eyes is very good news and for once common sense has come to the forefront.

As I am sure many of you will know, there has been a on going battle between education authorities and parents these last few years with parents being threatened with massive fines and even jail time if they take their child on a holiday during term time.

www.dailymail.co.uk...

What this ruling will do long term will hopefully restore some rational thinking in our education system towards children being able to experience travel with their parents, It was not unheard of where parents had zero chance for a holiday due to two children having different term times due to their age. This meant that neither child could be taken out for a family holiday as they would be committing a offence. It was also common knowledge that many travel service providers where absolutely ringing the neck of customers that had zero choice but to take their children away during half term or summer holidays.

As many parents have argued, a holiday does not have to be sitting on a beech for 8 hours a day, many responsibly parents will indeed take their children on cultural and educational trips that will in rich the childs development, not to mention to ease some stress that we put our current generation through (but that is another thread).....


Link to ruling
www.bbc.co.uk...


RA

a reply to: slider1982

That does sound like good news - the Crown/State/Gov/whatever you want to call it needs to butt out of family affairs like this. If I wanted to take my kid out of school, and she/he is doing well academically and will make up the work that is missed, who the hell are they to say "no". Especially when I help to pay my fair share of taxes aka their funding.


I liked how you put "wins" in quotation marks in the title - very well placed

Thanks for sharing this - good news for the PEOPLE. Shove it, Queen

a reply to: slider1982
I see you are looking at the problem from the point of view of the parent with the absent child. What about all the non absent children who have to have their education halted when the absent child returns so the missed teachings can be re-taught to the absent child. Bet you a billion pounds if the absent child upon return was NOT taught the missing stuff and instead the class continued as normal with 99% non absent kids the parents of that absent child would go mental claiming discrimination.

So the education of the vast majority has to be disrupted for the arrogance of the one.

Maybe making it a criminal offence is a step too far but there is probably more to this. There is no way it would apply to a "first offence". I would not be surprised if this is the final straw with the school and an arrogant "I can do what the f I like" parent who has disrupted the learning of the rest of the class a number of times. I heard him on the radio and he is an arrogant a-hole.

originally posted by: yorkshirelad
a reply to: slider1982
I see you are looking at the problem from the point of view of the parent with the absent child. What about all the non absent children who have to have their education halted when the absent child returns so the missed teachings can be re-taught to the absent child. Bet you a billion pounds if the absent child upon return was NOT taught the missing stuff and instead the class continued as normal with 99% non absent kids the parents of that absent child would go mental claiming discrimination.

So the education of the vast majority has to be disrupted for the arrogance of the one.

Maybe making it a criminal offence is a step too far but there is probably more to this. There is no way it would apply to a "first offence". I would not be surprised if this is the final straw with the school and an arrogant "I can do what the f I like" parent who has disrupted the learning of the rest of the class a number of times. I heard him on the radio and he is an arrogant a-hole.

Granted I understand the point of view you take, However this is not a isolated case and people I think in this country are fed up to the back teeth of having every tiny portion of my their life run by the state.

I am in my mid 30's and on a number of occasions when younger I was taken out of school for educational day trips and longer holidays, the most negative thing I faced going back to school was realizing that I was learning very little compared to time spent in class, mainly due to sub standard teachers (and I was in a so called good school)..

Why is the number of children being home schooled sky rocketing?,

www.bbc.co.uk...

why is it now admitted that children as young as 7 are being diagnosed with depression and stress due to the absurdity of SATS exams for the school league table system?.

www.independent.co.uk...

...

The situation above in the OP I believe is all linked to this current trend where we are constantly told what is best for "our" children. When the system behaves as it does why on earth would you trust them to educate the most precious thing you will ever have??.

The use of fines and threat of jail was put in place to stop children and parents from simply not turning up week after week, we all had one in our school class I am sure. But as per normal it has been used time and again against people that it was never even meant to concern.

Arrogant or not top marks for him winning a case that many parents will no doubt have been looking at knowing they have been treated unfairly as well..

RA

School is for the average student and no students are average in everything.

It took me almost 2 years of work butting heads with the Education Department before they would let my son skip a grade.

By the time they said yes, he was in year 6. So they decided he would do 6 and 7 in one year. Not the years I wanted to merge. They were just so stupid about it, thoroughly dense!

He did well, probably could have skipped another year early on.

Now, if you have a child outside of average, and you live in China, your child's education will be tailored to their abilities.

Of course, we live in the West. When we hear of Chinese 17 year olds that have finished their University degree, we in the West wring our hands and complain about the child missing their childhood. Crap, the child flew through the work because they are capable of doing so.

For a child outside of average, school can be a terrible experience.

P

glad that worked out for him too.

Schools are no more than over glorified Day Care Centres anyways!

For people that have not seen the interview outside the court I suggest you watch, Mr Baker from the department of education stated and I quote "What we needed today was clarity to what the law meant!!!!???...." WHAT They have been fining and criminalizing parents when they had no idea what the letter of the law was?..

These are the people that are in charge of educating our children, alarms bells should be ringing..





RA

a reply to: slider1982

Do you have another Video we could view, this one is giving me an error report.

Thankyou

a reply to: awareness10

Ok try here direct link

www.youtube.com...

a reply to: slider1982

We took our sons away for an entire month last year, to visit my wife's relatives in South America. The trip took two years to save up for, and in the end we just had a heart-to-heart with the headmistress, explained the familial need (the relatives had never met the children, or me), and discussed how it would be a culturally enriching trip, and the headmistress basically gave the green light with no fuss at all. I was surprised, a little, but it goes to show that reasonable efforts in showing the benefits of the proposed trip can be accepted with rationality winning the day, if cool heads prevail. I realise that not everyone has an understanding headteacher to deal with, and maybe our circumstances were exceptional, but it's all up for debate, there's no fixed penalties involved, it's all based in discretion.

a reply to: slider1982

Thanks hon!

voices matter.

a reply to: slider1982

Responsible parents/carers should be allowed to take their kids on holiday during term time. Unless its exams time, there's no great loss to their education if they miss two weeks. Kids can get ill too and nobody's making the case that 2 weeks with glandular fever, mumps or chicken pox will screw them over for life.

Good on the dad for doing it right and being the right man to make the case.

What's the alternative? No holidays? Travel agencies double and triple prices during half-term breaks and major holidays. That might represent more of a societal problem than a small minority of kids having term-time holidays.