Hi sisters, does anyone know if there are fines for taking your child out of school for a month?
My child is due to start prep in Jan, we are planning a holiday overseas to see my side of the family.
We go once a year and it's going to be impossible to take my child overseas during Christmas school holidays because of his father (we are separated)
Would the school have any issue as well?
EDIT: I'm planning on taking my child for a month aug/sept so he will miss 2 weeks of each month
10 Replies
The school will definitely have issues.
You want to take your child overseas the month he starts school. He will be very disadvantaged. Unless you'll be doing set daily schoolwork for him to keep up.
Maybe you should look into going at a different time, during other school holidays.
It is going to be very difficult to do yearly month long trips now that your kid is starting school, so expect there to be years where there are no month long trips.
If it were for a week or two, that would be ok, but a whole month? Way too long.
http://theconversation.com/education-department-no-term-time-holidays-fo...
There aren't any fines and as a teacher this is not uncommon however it's usually only a week or two, not a whole month. The massive red flag here is that your son is starting prep. He will be very behind and miss a lot of crucial information and socialization. Maybe don't send him to school next year if he can't actually go? But you will need to make a long term plan here because he can't miss a month of school every year!
Its ok you just do the paperwork. Lots of kids do it. However. Missing the first month of prep is a really big deal. This is where they spend days just practicing how things work in big school. Expectations. Youre really making it hard on your kid to miss that.
your best bet is to have the child go away for 2 weeks of the school holidays and 2 weeks of school, using the end of third term holidays.
Going away for a month every year isn't an option. I'd be doing alternate years etc.
your ex can actually stop you going on the grounds of missing school.
I would see if I could tie it in with first term or second term holidays, it's a big deal to miss the first month of prep, he will be missing out on forming friendship groups while everyone is still 'new' plus the initial learning experience etc. It's daunting enough starting a new experience let alone starting when everyone else has already found where they fit in etc and he would be just starting out.
Not the OP
Where is everyone getting that it's the first month of prep? He starts prep in January and holiday is in August/September!
That information was not on the original post. Hence why it says "edit".
The original post was worded different
Not sure which state you are, but in QLD, and if you use the public system, they may not hold your child's spot open if he is absent for more than 10 school days. The private system is more accommodating.
We use to take a holiday every year, out of school holidays, for 3-4 weeks from the time our son was in Prep and he was never disadvantaged. In the early years we took plenty of readers, sight words etc. He was and still is an above average reader and a B grade student. I am not a teacher, but I don't believe that it disadvantages a child in their primary years. He will learn more from travel then he will ever learn in a classroom full of kids. We have just moved into secondary school this year and have decided that we will only take holidays during school holidays but incorporate the last week of term, as nothing much is learnt/taught in the last week anyway.
I went overseas during school but that was only for a few days. I think a month may cause issues. Maybe just talk to the school about it.
Our whole family is OS and we travel for more then a month every year, an accumulation of a few trips, my son is in grade 2. I always ask the teacher for work for him to do while we are away, most the time she says he doesn't need it (he's not at all struggling intellectually) or sometimes when we go overseas she asks him to write a diary of everyday so he can show the class when he returns.
I've never had a problem with the school, in fact most the time I'm told that travelling is great education for the children. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you.