Sorry I'm with the Court and not the Father on this.

Opportunities, challanges, solutions and a good result for all is what is missed in this whole affair.

Why is the UK education system still in the stone age and not the modern age, with all the wonderful modern resources.

Where is the headmaster story of how he offered the father the year's outline of teaching set out on the internet for the year. Where is the chance to talk via email. Where is the headmaster pointing out all the back up resources on Youtube. Or dedicated staff to visit the home to help parents with lack in skills and resouces for their children. (Did read of one very successful school that had the truancy officer following up by visiting and dragging difficult pupils to school)

I challenge the education system to take a non combatant approach and use all positive resources to assist parents motivate difficult pupils, and resources to cover attendance gaps via internet resouces and home help etc. Councils and headmasters that understand stretched family budgets and their need to recover as a family from stressful jobs. Even help family home life with whatever. I am sure if all the positive steps available with manpower IT resurces training home assistance (social services actually helping) all helping then this and other court cases would be very rare indeed.

I appreciate the deucation departments problem but they are so combatant and soul destroying no wonder they are not succeeding.

I understand JK why you agree with the court decision but there is a much wider picture here of endless missed opportunities by society in general as per usual.

JK2006 wrote:
Sorry I'm with the Court and not the Father on this.

When I was a kid, we were allowed to go on term-time but when the law changed we couldn't.

It depends on how old the children are. If they are in primary school, what are they going to miss, making paint prints from potatoes cut in half, playing with fuzzy felt.

I noticed, in the BBC reports, that they brushed over the key words "without permission' and made it into a story of parents taking children on holiday during school term, in general. A little touch of fake news syndrome, I think.

robbiex wrote:
It depends on how old the children are. If they are in primary school, what are they going to miss, making paint prints from potatoes cut in half, playing with fuzzy felt.

Gruelling spelling tests also along with basic boring geography and then there is science from text books no practical stuff.

PaulB wrote:
I noticed, in the BBC reports, that they brushed over the key words "without permission' and made it into a story of parents taking children on holiday during school term, in general. A little touch of fake news syndrome, I think.

I think the problem is that permission is at the discretion of the head teacher, and some wont give permission at all, even for family funerals etc.

The bit I dont understand about this case is why,if the father has two children in private schools (who have no restriction) and one in state (who do) why not just go abroad during the state school holidays? He has said it wasn't to save money,so what was the problem?

robbiex wrote:
It depends on how old the children are. If they are in primary school, what are they going to miss, making paint prints from potatoes cut in half, playing with fuzzy felt.

If it's indeed learning about semi colons and question marks and such things, stick 'em in.

Charles Moore had some interesting observations on Mr Platt's case in yesterday's Telegraph:

Most parents sometimes want to take their children out, and some grumble if refused; but few invoke “rights”. Mr Platt blames “the state”, but in fact it is a question of the school.

A school is an institution. It has to think of everyone it teaches, and if it considers that the preferences of one parent damages the interests of all, no law must force it to give in to him. You could not give children a decent education any other way.

A footnote to the case is that the child’s parents are estranged. The child’s mother had already taken the girl out of school for a separate holiday, although the school had refused permission and she had not consulted her husband. Was the case more a marital quarrel than a point of principle?

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/09/life...hardly-quick-yes-no/

I find myself broadly in agreement with him.