School, siblings and away meets?

[Faith]

Just curious, as I know I'll have to ask the head teacher but just wondering. And doing my research as usual :lol:

DD's new sport is likely to involve more away meets. She has a meet coming up where she really needs the Friday off school as competition training is on the Friday afternoon, competition saturday.

For DD, I don't think this is a problem as an organised sports competition comes under an acceptable reason for permission to miss school. But what about DD2?

Anyone know how a school/LEA would view DD2 taking a day off too? We don't really want for her to not go-she's only 5 and it would mean one of us staying behind, and it's a long drive on your own..

 

[Iwannabemargo]

I'm still waiting for P&F's permission to go to Sapphire !

Depends on the school, but I approached our new head bigging up her part and he was very dismissive (Bureaucrat). He said I would have to wait and see if permission was granted. I said I was informing them of her absence not asking permission !

Mind you at five what is she really missing ? O-level finger painting ? I would explain that she has to come too as there is no-one to look after her, and smile sweetly.

The new regs have been drummed into them I think

 

[Ex member]

This is an interesting topic..

My oldest dd has her first competition on 12/13 October which is over 250 miles away which is a good 4 hour drive, dd should be at school on the 11th (Friday) but we have been given the option to stay in a hotel that British Gymnastics have organised on 11th and 12th October, If I was to travel on the 11th and stay 2 nights then I would need to pick dd up from school at lunch time so we can travel down as dd starts competing at 1pm on the 12th and travelling down on the Saturday morning might be more trouble than its worth due to not getting there on time due to traffic or getting lost lol.

I took a letter into my dd's school asking for time off on the Monday (just half a day) just in case she is tired as we well be travelling on Sunday night and will get back late, the office staff were not that helpful and said that it would be unauthorised but was told to speak to the inclusions officer - which I did, he took a copy of the letter and said it wouldn't be an issue. I am not sure if they will have an additional training days/ evenings leading up to the competition. Dd is supposed to be competing trampolining on the Saturday and Artistic on the Sunday. I don't know if

I do think that they are going was over the top with clamping down on term time holidays etc.. I think that parents should be allowed to take holidays when it suits them as long as its not during exam or SAT's time and I think that they should allow children time off to compete as that is a big part in their education

 

[Iwannabemargo]

do you guys know about this http://www.childrensuniversity.co.uk/learning-destinations/

Sports clubs are included and its listed on my council website as "Out of Hours Learning (OOHL) Study Support"

I thought is I got the gym club to sign up, a) they get a participation diploma and b) the council recognises it as official learning so it may help in case of dispute

 

[Ex member]

Our Gym Club has poster up advertising this but we haven't got our passport from the school yet.

 

[Iwannabemargo]

if your school doesn't issue them you can get them directly

 

[Flossyduck]

It's a tough one. When dd was asked to train on an afternoon, out of school, they didn't have a problem with that. The problem was, that I didn't have time to get her there and then get back again for the end of school to pick up her brother. I had a friend take him home from school, but there were occasions when that fell through and I had to take him with me at lunch time. I took him to a museum or some sort of activity, but still felt guilty.
It's not an issue now, as there's an after school club which runs until my other half can get home. I really don't know what I'd do otherwise!

 

[Faith]

Tiny dancer your dd should be ok- I checked our council website and time off for organised sports competition is an acceptable reason for absence.

I don't agree with term time holidays, there is plenty of time to go sit by a beach in school holidays. Competitions are a bit different though- its one or two days, and they run when they run. And I think competitive sport is an important part of education, it's just a shame schools can't do more themselves and they have to be extra- curricular.

That passport thing is interesting- does that mean you can be authorised to take children out of school to visit approved activities? Although I did read yesterday that children can no longer be marked off as "off site learning", they must simply be listed as absent.

I'm not particularly bothered about dd2 having a day off. Just wondering what the school might make of it and if there's precedent

 

[Iwannabemargo]

Although I did read yesterday that children can no longer be marked off as "off site learning", they must simply be listed as absent.

That is just daft - P&F used to do her gym on wenesday afternoons - she missed IT and Art - she is fine at IT (what 7 year old isn't) and will never be much cop at art. Her old head thought it was great and put it down as off-sit learning, as he said she was growing as a person

 

[Flossyduck]

Personally I think schools should be moving towards more flexibility, not less, especially at primary age.
There's so much they can be doing to expand their minds and widen their horizons at this age and the occasional missed session of painting sunflowers and throwing bean bags around isn't going to impact too heavily on future adult life!!